JohnHenry wrote:
WHYTE, S EDM 93.5%
HAJRULLAHU, L TOR 87.8%
MEDLOCK, J WPG 87.5%
PAREDES, R CGY 87.5%
CRAPIGNA, T SSK 87.5%
MILO, C OTT 81.0%
MAHER, B HAM 80.9%
FERA, A MTL 80.0%
LEONE, R. B.C. 68.5%
Not sure why the Lions weren't interested in Sean Whyte who was working for a cable company in White Rock when the Esks signed him last year?
Me neither John Henry!
Where Wally really dropped the ball was this past off-season where 2 elite kicker/punters were available, one Canadian who would have been available at a discount rate. Alternatively, we could potentially have gotten Fera or another more reliable kicker before the trade deadline, or we could bring in Johnny Mark or another free agent as a desperate measure now.
We knew coming into the season that Leone was terrible. If I recall, he was dropped from the roster in the Lions final game of last season as well. But I don't have much confidence in McCallum being able to hit from beyond 30 with consistency at this stage, which is no better than what Leone brings. Hope I'm wrong. It's a tough situation to be in at this stage of the season, though very easily predicted going back to last year.
When Wally gets something in his head, he has to get hit on the head to change. When gunpowder was invented, Wally would have insisted that his troops forget the 'foolishness' of using guns and just make sure their swords were sharpened (and the would have been very sharpened)
We've seen this script almost exactly from Wally before. We signed O'Mahony for the 2004 season and he wasn't very good at all but Wally stuck with him right through 2005 until near the end of that season. Wally lured Mark McLoughlin out of retirement to relieve O'Mahoney of his placekicking duties at the end of the year and the playoffs.
I'm sure there were lots of fans saying "great idea" about Wally at that time too, forgetting that Wally created the headache in the first place, by being stubborn about O'Mahoney becoming a good field goal kicker.
For a coach of his experience and record I have no idea where some of Wally's ideas come from. Last year, it was Wally deciding that Roh should play tackle and Westerman should play defensive end.
One thing for sure, was that McCallum used to work out hard. Didn't look like it but he did. Not sure if he would have been still hitting the gym as a realtor but hopefully he has.
This McCallum signing reminds me of a real laugh I had in the 2011 season. It looked like our winning streak was going to be over. Down by one point, Lulay hit Arland Bruce with a 17 yard pass to put the football on the Calgary 46 yard line. Wally "When in Doubt Punt" sent out McCallum to punt the football for a single to attempt to tie the game.
McCallum just said "Nope, I got this", yelled for Jarious Jackson to join him, and then ran out onto the field, ignoring Buono, and went out to attempt a field goal. Wally was yelling on the sidelines to punt it, McCallum continued to ignore him, and then put a 53 yarder through the posts to win the game and put our Leos into first place at that time of the season. McCallum fell on the ground and was mobbed by his teammates after the winning kick. We never looked back and went on to win the Grey Cup.
Of course Wally managed to spin it for the press
"I was going to ask him to punt,” said Buono. “He said ‘no coach. Let me kick the field goal.’“I have learned over my time you have to trust your players and I trusted Paul to do what he had to do. God bless him.”
Some things never change!
McCallum, who was not just a field goal kicker but also a punter, in that 2011 season, probably had the greatest season of any kicker in CFL and NFL history. He as the CFL's oldest player back then and he set the CFL's record for field-goal percentage in a single season with a 94.3 per cent mark, hitting an incredible 50 of his 53 attempts, many from long range.
So, if any 46 year old retired field goal kicker could come back, after a season of not kicking, its McCallum.
"When I went to Catholic high school in Philadelphia, we just had one coach for football and basketball. He took all of us who turned out and had us run through a forest. The ones who ran into the trees were on the football team". (George Raveling)