Rams under Friday Night Lights
By Greg Urbanoski
The University of Regina Rams kicked off their 2008 Spring Camp under the lights at the University of Regina campus with 88 players in camp vying to build on last year’s 6-2 record in Canada West and a spot in the Hardy Cup.
Rams Coach Frank McCrystal has structured the camp to build towards the scrimmage on Sunday by first teaching offensive and defensive plays to the team. Dressed but refraining from contact drills were Ram players Ryan Ackerman, Brendon LaBatte and Andrew Rumbaugh, who are awaiting what the future may hold in the upcoming Canadian Football League draft coming up next week.
"We’ve got real good players here,” said McCrystal. "We’ve been really selective in our players and our recruiting for this camp. This allows us to accomplish a great deal and allows us to give these players that have an opportunity to play the reps to show what they can really do.
"We’re really happy on this first night with what we’ve got on that defensive line. We’ve got Matt Grado, Benton Gieni and Dane Eremenko and those guys are right fresh out of high school. We’ve got Phil Dick who stood out for us, he’s right out high school from Vancouver and Marco Contenti really did a nice job for us and looked like he did some nice things at that linebacker spot.”
McCrystal said the long-term goal is preparing for the scrimmage, teaching skills and schemes and get to a place where they can scrimmage. The game situation is one that provides a more valuable look at the players outside of the one on one drills, be they on the offensive and defensive line or receivers against defensive backs.
McCrystal said the logistics of working in the out of town players is part of the process of pulling off a successful spring camp, in addition to figuring out the abilities of players in six and nine man football against players who have been with the Rams for five years.
"It’s really important to make sure they are matched up properly, you are encouraging guys and you are giving them proper instruction,” said McCrystal. "You have to give them enough practice and reps to make them feel that they are improving.
"I think we’ve got really good players in starting situations. Some of the guys you haven’t heard about for awhile will step up and make contributions and some of these young guys will be ready to go.”
Among those players anxious to go was quarterback Teale Orban who is suiting up for his fifth year of university play.
"It feels good to be back,” said Orban. "It always seems like this weather, you knock the cobwebs out and fresh air and get running.
"It feels good to see the guys back in action. In the winter you don’t see everyone and it’s nice to see everyone here and some new faces. We lost seven guys but for us we have such a good corps coming back, depending on the draft and how they do with their teams. It is comforting to know we have a solid group to work with.”
Orban said the continuity is important because it is tough to lose games at the start of the season while the team is trying to gel. He said the philosophy of McCrystal of cycling players will avoid the situation of the team looking at say, 52 new players starting.
"The only thing that we have lost is our running backs and that is big,” said Orban. "We need a solid couple of running backs in this lead. Graham Mosiondz is getting some surgery done and Derek Belvedere has graduated, but even he was playing with a broken hand at the end of last season.
"It’s not an issue, but is a place where we need people to step forward. The receiving corps is awesome but they are mostly coming up which makes it easy to gel.”
A two-time Hec Creighton award nominee, Orban is not setting any personal goals for this season. He is awaiting the upcoming CFL draft to see if he is chosen.
"The biggest thing I want to do is year is see the team do well, finish in first place and make a run for the Vanier Cup,” said Orban.
"Personally I just want to have fun this year. The last couple of years have been a blast but at the same time I can still get uptight and I want to relax and have fun. This may be my last year of CIS football so I want to have fun, go out and enjoy it and enjoy one last year with the guys.
"It was nice being invited to the combine camp and as a Canadian quarterback you have got to try to take every little thing you can and enjoy it while you can. And if you get a CFL shot, which I am praying for, you’ve got to go out, perform and try to make the team."
