Noeller

Next to a Bombers winning season, it's all I want for Christmas. It'll be GLORIOUS....

So the Bisons kid...I know it says he's from Nigeria, but is he Manitoban via Nigeria?

http://www.cfl.ca/2015/12/11/cfl-scouting-bureau-releases-december-rankings-2/ TORONTO – The Canadian Football League Scouting Bureau has released its second of three rankings of the top-20 eligible prospects for the 2016 CFL Canadian Draft. “Three new faces crack the December list,” said CFL.ca Insider Justin Dunk, “two from the 2015 Vanier Cup champion UBC Thunderbirds program, rangy DB Taylor Loffler and strong-legged kicker/punter Quinn van Gylswyk, who made the game-winning field goal for the T-Birds in the CIS title game.” “With the Canadian university season complete scouts will really dig into film and gather background information on all the draft prospects who played football on home soil. “There are possible instant impact-makers available at every traditional Canadian CFL position.” Here is the full ranking: December Scouting Bureau Rankings Rank Name Position School Hometown 1 (1) Tevaun Smith WR Iowa Toronto 2 (2) David Onyemata DL Manitoba Lagos, Nigeria 3 (6) Josiah St. John OL Oklahoma Toronto 4 (9) Mehdi Abdesmad DL Boston College Montreal 5 (3) Arjen Colquhoun DB Michigan St. Windsor, Ont. 6 (10) Charles Vaillancourt OL Laval Coaticook, Que. 7 (5) Mercer Timmis RB Calgary Burlington, Ont. 8 (17) Trent Corney DL Virginia Brockville, Ont. 9 (-) Taylor Loffler DB UBC Kelowna, B.C. 10 (8) Mitchell Winters DL Miami (Ohio) Mississauga, Ont. 11 (7) Dillon Guy OL Buffalo Hamilton, Ont. 12 (11) Juwan Brescacin WR Northern Illinois Mississauga, Ont. 13 (15) Philippe Gagnon OL Laval L’Ancienne-Lorette, Que. 14 (19) Jason Lauzon-Seguin OL Laval Pointe-Claire, Que. 15 (13) Anthony Thompson DB Southern Illinois Montreal 16 (4) Elie Bouka DB Calgary Laval, Que. 17 (12) Llevi Noel WR Toronto Toronto 18 (-) Brian Jones WR Acadia Enfield, N.S. 19 (16) Doug Corby WR Queens Burlington, Ont. 20 (-) Quinn Van Gylswyk K/P UBC Victoria, B.C. Please note: The number in parentheses is the player’s ranking from the last CFL Scouting Bureau published in September 2015. Top 5 Prospects Once again, Tevaun Smith is the number one ranked prospect. This season with the Iowa Hawkeyes, Smith registered 30 receptions (second highest on the team) 546 receiving yards (second highest on the team) and three touchdowns. Smith, a Toronto native, will be playing with in the Rose Bowl on Jan. 1 against the Stanford Cardinal. In his career with Iowa, Smith has recorded 1,483 receiving yards on 100 receptions and scored seven touchdowns. Manitoba Bisons first-team All-Canadian defensive lineman David Onyemata is the highest ranked CIS and defensive player on the Scouting Bureau list. During his 2015 campaign, the second ranked Onyemata notched 38.5 tackles (31 solo), five sacks and 7.5 tackles for a loss. The 6-foot-4, 300-pound lineman was also selected as 2015 J. P. Metras Trophy award winner for the Outstanding Down Lineman of the Year in the CIS. Credit: University of Manitoba Oklahoma Sooners offensive tackle Josiah St. John shuffled up to the third slot on the list. The Toronto native has played two seasons in Norman, Okla. playing in 15 games and starting in four (all in 2015). The 6-foot-6, 308-pound tackle will be a part of an Oklahoma team that will play in the College Football Playoffs against the Clemson Tigers. In the fourth slot is Montreal native Mehdi Abdesmad. During his 2015 season with the Boston College Eagles, Abdesmad helped anchor a defence that led FBS (I-A) in yards allowed (3,053). Abdesmad tallied 49 total tackles (35 solo), 15 tackles for a loss and 5.5 sacks in 12 games this season. Abdesmad appeared in 39 games during his time at Boston College finishing with 98 total tackles (58 solo), 21.5 tackles for a loss and 7.5 sacks. Rounding out the top 5 is Michigan State Spartans cornerback Arjen Colquhoun. Colquhoun played in 13 games in 2015 and started in 10 of those games. The Windsor, Ont. native accumulated 35 total tackles (24 solo), 1.5 tackles for a loss, one sack and two interceptions for the Spartans. Like St. John, Colquhoun will also be a part of the College Football Playoffs when Michigan State takes on Alabama Crimson Tide. Rounding out the top 10 are Laval offensive lineman Charles Vaillancourt, University of Calgary running back Mercer Timmis, University of Virginia defensive lineman Trent Corney, University of British Columbia defensive back Taylor Loffler and Miami (Ohio) defensive lineman Mitchell Winters. By the Numbers The December rankings include five receivers, five offensive linemen, four defensive backs, four defensive linemen, one running back and one kicker. There are 16 universities represented on the list with three schools featuring multiple selections: Laval (3), Calgary (2) and UBC (2). Nine NCAA schools and seven CIS schools are represented on the list. Three new prospects joined the Scouting Bureau rankings; Taylor Loffler (No. 9), Brian Jones (No. 18) and Quinn Van Gylswyk (No. 20). Alex Mateas, the 2015 CFL Draft first overall selection, was ranked second in the 2014 December rankings. 19 of 20 players from last season’s December’s CFL Scouting Bureau rankings were selected in the 2015 CFL Draft including all nine first round selections. Credit: Rich Lam About the Central Scouting Bureau The CFL Scouting Bureau releases its rankings three times each year: in September, December and April. The top prospects will meet in Toronto for the 2016 CFL Combine from March 11-13. The CFL’s Scouting Bureau is comprised of CFL scouts, player personnel directors and general managers from the league’s nine teams.

it's a good thing you posted that 3 times......just to make sure we got it......

Wiecek is solid when it's something he cares about....but unless it's curling or horse racing, he's got no interest, and it shows. The dropoff from Tait (a legitimate CFL fan) to Wiecek is sadly noticeable...

I really hope Wade Miller ban this two to interview any of the Bombers. Friesen *WAS*....I was curious if he's still banned from the room....

I can't this douchebag .. I've never seen anything positive come from him. It's one thing to be critical when it's deserved .. but finding negativity in EVERY little thing the organization does it just too much. It's like someone in the organization kicked his dog, slept with his wife .. pissed in his cornflakes all in the same day. I was going to say the same thing. Even the tiniest bit of positive news that comes from the Bombers he finds a way to make it seem like a terrible thing. You don't need to be like Rod Pedersen and pump the tires of the team for everything but simply tweet the signing and shut up. The way Bauming did it was fine. He is making light of the fact he may have been suspended soon for PEDs but doesn't take the personal attack route. And yeah I get it. It gets ppl riled up and reading his papers but for me the only time I ever see anything from him is when it's copy and pasted here. Guy is simply a terrible reporter. Which is why he's a Columnist...

Friesen is an *******, and I can't stand reading him either. That said, it's a semi-relevant tweet if this guy did test positive at one point. As for the idiotic "Why?" post....for Christ's sake....people ***** about not enough talent, and the only way you improve that is by bringing in more and more and more bodies to constantly upgrade. What if this guy is better than what we have already? What if he's better than Wild??

It's obviously an honest mistake and the fact that so many people are losing their minds is absurd. Let's all move on now.

I believe that was specifically in regards to the QBs brought in. Where last time he was told which QBs would be brought in, this time he wanted to at least be part of the discussion. And the one thing we know about "The Trinity" is that they like to do things by committee. MOS certainly has final say on most things, but they encourage everyone to participate in discussions....

According to Twitter, word is that if Maas gets the Esks HC gig, he's taking Barron Miles from the Bombers to be his DC...

and people talk like his time in Sask was so unbelievable, but other than 2009, when they were 2nd in Offense, he was 7th and 6th in Offense while in Sask....

Check the stats in the above article....

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/sports/football/bombers/Blue-doomed-to-repeat-themselves-361169161.html Every life lesson worth learning can be learned at a racetrack. And topping the list is that the most reliable indicator of future performance is past performance. So why would the Winnipeg Blue Bombers this week hire a man to lead their offence who they’ve already fired — twice — previously? And why would the Bombers think hiring Paul LaPolice this time around is going to end any differently than it did the last two times? It was a trip down memory lane for Bombers fans Tuesday as the club trotted out LaPolice as their new offensive co-ordinator and the man they think can finally help lead this team out of a championship drought that is now being measured in quarter-centuries. It all seemed so familiar because it all was so familiar. LaPolice was Winnipeg’s head coach from 2010 to the midway point of the 2012 season and the club’s offensive co-ordinator in 2002 and 2003. Both those episodes ended with LaPolice getting run out of town because — wait for it — the offences he designed weren’t getting the job done. And yet, there was Bombers head coach Mike O’Shea sitting before the media saying how he’d been trying to hire LaPolice as his offensive co-ordinator ever since 2014 and extolling the virtues of a man he thinks is the solution to all that ails the offence. So, I wondered to myself, did I just mis-remember? Was LaPo an offensive genius all along? Was he fired for some other reason? Winnipeg Blue Bombers Head Coach Mike O�Shea announced that the club has named former head coach Paul LaPolice the team�s Offensive Coordinator at a press conference at IGF. 151208 December 08, 2015 Mike Deal / Winnipeg Free Press So I checked. And what I found — in black and white — was my memory is just fine. Here are the first two paragraphs of a column I wrote the day LaPolice was fired the last time, in August 2012: "Paul LaPolice was hired in 2010 for one good reason — the Winnipeg Blue Bombers offence sucked. "And LaPolice was fired on Saturday for one good reason — the Winnipeg Blue Bombers offence still sucked." So, um, yeah, meet your new offensive co-ordinator. You don’t have to take my word for it — the numbers speak for themselves. And what they say about LaPolice-led CFL offences is they are mostly mediocre. Consider: With LaPolice as head coach, the Winnipeg offence was ranked fifth in total yards in both 2010 and 2011. Yes, the Bombers went to the Grey Cup game in 2011, but it was because Tim Burke’s Swaggerville defence dragged them there. And that 2012 team? They were 2-6 when LaPo got canned. With LaPolice as Winnipeg’s offensive co-ordinator in 2002, the offence broke records, although it bears reminding that a lot of success had carried over from the 2001 season, when the Bombers went 14-4 and played in the Grey Cup game. By 2003, the offence was a mess again and LaPolice was gone by the end of the year. With LaPolice as offensive co-ordinator in Saskatchewan in 2008 and 2009, the Riders were seventh and sixth in net offence, respectively, although the 2009 team was second in points and played in the Grey Cup game. Now, sixth isn’t terrible. It’s certainly better than dead last — which is where the Winnipeg offence ranked in each of the last two seasons. So LaPolice has that going for him — just about anything his offence does in 2016 will be an improvement on what Marcel Bellefeuille accomplished. But sixth isn’t exactly excellence now, is it? In a week in which the Saskatchewan Roughriders opened the vault to hire Chris Jones to do for them what he just finished doing for the Edmonton Eskimos — turn around the franchise in short order and win a championship — the Bombers went with more of the same old, same old. It’s a familiar tune for a franchise that, let’s remember, could have hired Jones when he was available in 2014, but elected to go with O’Shea. And go with O’Shea again in 2015. And go with O’Shea yet again in 2016 in a season in which every team in the West Division will have a new head coach except the Bombers, who have won 12 games in the last two years combined. As for Jones, he has now won four Grey Cups with four teams in the CFL. Coincidence? The Riders sure don’t think so. They examined a racing form the last couple weeks and came to the conclusion the quickest way to start winning again was to bet on a horse who has done it year after year. And the Bombers? They’ve been tearing up tickets for years. paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca

Fwiw, re: coaches... Twitter says Ottawa quickly re-upping both Campbell and Desjardins to new contracts in the coming days.

The Woodsman, on top of a fabulous taste/flavour, has a ******* guy with a fishing rod in a canoe on the box.....A FISHING ROD IN A CANOE!!!

o.k...who is the best choice and why? Someone who hasn't failed here twice already for obvious reasons. Lapo has been stuck on TSN for the last few years, that says something to me about how in demand the guy is. Yeah he's the most experienced candidate out there... but that isn't exactly much to hang your hat on. Actually if you watch the interview you will hear that he said there are reasons why he stayed with TSN and turned down potential offers. Not to mention it's been reported/confirmed Oshea talked to him about the OC job when he first started but lapo said he wasn't interested at that time. Probably the payout from his last stint outweighed that of an OC Actually, I just read about this, this morning: MOS says he called Lapo when he first got the job, but never offered him a job...just called to "talk about football"....

that Village Woodsman has overtaken the Grizzly Paw Rutting Elk Red as my favourite beer right now. Had been a close contest between Grizzly Paw Grumpy Bear and Rutting Elk Red, but I love everything about the Woodsman, from the packaging to the actual flavour of the beer. It's like chewing on tree needles, and I love it.....

Lapo deserved to fall, but not till the end of the season. The concern was over how in-demand Burke was at the time (seen as the next Sure Thing HC candidate, at that time) and that we might lose him if we didn't promote him quickly. Lapo had dug his own grave, tho...

o.k...who is the best choice and why?Someone who hasn't failed here twice already for obvious reasons. Lapo has been stuck on TSN for the last few years, that says something to me about how in demand the guy is. Yeah he's the most experienced candidate out there... but that isn't exactly much to hang your hat on. Grow some balls and throw out a name, you contemptible harpy LOL! Oh my stars...

And it'd look GREAT on 'em....wipe that smug ******* smirk off Burris's face. I'm sure he figures he can be a Playing OC and run everything just fine.

o.k...who is the best choice and why? I've never claimed to be smart enough to know that....but I am concerned about Lapo, based on precedent, and I think that's justified.

Interview or confirmed hire? Twitter said RBs expect him to be gone to Edmonton. Also, Dinwiddie going to Calgary to work under DD...

If Walters pulled that off, I'd go down to IGF and take him out for some beers. Saw him at the Grey Cup gala and let me tell you - he doesn't need "some" - one or two is probably enough. Love that guy though. He's awesome. We talked a bit with MOS at TD MB and that guy can smack 'em back. Hell of a nice guy...but I wouldn't want to be responsible for his bar tab

This is going to be the most fun off season in awhile. Where's my popcorn eating emoticon........?