Give the man his due: Neate Sager
For those of you unfamiliar with the prophetic insights of Neate Sager - one time editor of The CIS Blog, currently of Yahoo! Sports - where have you been, exactly?
I'll stop the public shaming (seriously, though) for now, but here's the occasion for the praise:
Mac's four straight Yates Cups (2000-03) was the last throes of what worked for the OUA's power programs in the '80s and '90s. The better teams, such as Western and Laurier, typically kept offensive and defensive schemes relatively simple and trusted in having superior athletes. The rise of Laval and Quebec football, the scrapping of the OAC (Grade 13) year in Ontario high schools and Western Canada teams' use of more experienced junior players has put an end to that approach working on a national level.
Laurier had a breakthrough, winning the Vanier Cup in 2005, because it thought more seriously about how to trick its talent into being better. Ptaszek, who was part of that shift in thinking, will probably try to do this over time at McMaster. Considering the school's size, support of sports, its facilities, and the talent and fan support, it should lead to the Marauders delivering a long-sought Vanier Cup appearance inside of five years.
(Via Out of Left Field)
Hmmph. Well then, looks like someone saw this coming all along.
I guess now we can stop with the senseless and baseless Ptaszek bashing, hmm?
Everyone ought to hop on twitter and give Neate a high five. (@neatebuzzthenet)
1 comments:
Na, we can still bash Ptaszek . . .
. . . Vanier Cup or not, he still coaches at Big Mac High.
Sager always has great insights. I know I can't be the only one that misses his perspectives and takes on the university game. However, one could argue that if Donnie hadn't been injured against York, his planned runs from the pistol would have taken Mac out of the Stop-Varga-at-all-cost mentality.
We shouldn't lump the Mac success in with the Queen's 09 win. Mac was successful because Quinlan's athleticism allowed his team to move the chains; by no means was he the lights out precision passer that Danny Brannagan was. If anything, Quinlan's performance was reminiscent of Brad Sinopoli's 2010 efforts; a great arm but the intangibles that allowed him to extend drives were primarily authored by his legs.
People often rush to label the run game as being unimaginative. Reality, teams rarely achieve championships without the run game playing an integral aspect of the equation (see Laval's Sab Lesveque). For Quinlan and his fellow 'Mac' Nuggets (please refrain from the pooping jokes, as funny as they may be) it was the dual threat of the QB's runs (a vailed pooping joke?) that kept the Rouge et Or off kilter.
The old, "oh, you can't run on Laval" saying was rendered for the scrap bin, for Friday night at least.
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