Something To "Mitch" About

--What a gutsy effort by the University of Regina Rams on Saturday afternoon at Mosaic Stadium in what was Frank McCrystal's last home game. It looked for a while like it might be his last game period as the Alberta Golden Bears were making life difficult for the Horns, but they rebounded and responded to win the game 35-31 and thanks to some help from Manitoba and the Huskies they get the unenviable task of walking into MacMahon Stadium and taking on the Dinos in a game where Regina may have to play the perfect game to knock off the Dinos. Hey it's been done before, so why not again.

As I sat in the broadcast booth with my colour man Gary "Chop" Bresch, there were a lot of thoughts that came running through my mind

     ---How good is this Rams team going to be for whoever succeeds Frank McCrystal?  Noah Picton is lighting Canwest up in his first year, he has a running back in first year tailback Atlee Simon, Mitch Thompson, Mitch Picton and Riley Wilson will be catching passes from him and Addison Richards could be back if he doesn't stick in the CFL which would be shocking.

    --Addison Richards football career needs to continue at Mosaic. The Riders should be able to grab him in the first round. He would look nice with Darian and crew. Real nice!

    --Atlee Simon fumbled at the end of the 3rd quarter with the Rams driving and yet didn't pout about it and actually came over to get interviewed by Access moments later, A lot of kids would have said no to that. It says something about the kid.

   --Rob Vanstone had a superb column on McCrystal in Saturdays LP. The thing that caught my attention the most was the amount of head coaches the Riders and Pats have had compared to the Rams over the last 30 years.  Stability is a great thing.

  --I'm hearing a lot of names about who will be the team's next head coach. My personal thoughts is you can't bring someone into this organization who has no ties to it whatsoever. You also can't bring in someone who may just be thinking they can use this job as a stepping stone to the CFL. The relationship between the Rams and its players--past and present--is a special one that can't be cast aside. I'm not saying you have to hire someone who will be with this program for years and years and years like Frank and Gord Currie, but you need someone who realizes what the Rams tradition is all about and to build on it.

  Other thoughts from what I've seen around the sporting world...

  --The Jays trading Adam Lind didn't surprise me. I actually thought it might happen last year. With the team getting Justin Smoak off of waivers from Seattle, it made me think Adam's days done were in Toronto. The Jays think they have stolen Smoak. They may be right.

  --It also doesn't surprise me to see the team rid themselves of Brandon Morrow. His track record of injuries made him too much of a gamble.

  --Should the Stampeders be worried after Jon Cornish suffered his 2nd concussion of the year against Winnipeg and should they be worried because they aren't playing good football down the stretch?

 --Is it just me or is the thought process there that the Riders beat Edmonton in what will be a nothing game for the Eskimos and BC loses to a Calgary team looking to make a statement in the last game meaning Saskatchewan would stay in the West.

--How much MOP consideration should Mike Reilly get?

--As well as Edmonton has played, one has to think Montreal is the best team in the league at this moment having won six straight. Can I make a Edmonton-Montreal GC prediction right now or do I wait a week for that.

--The Arizona Cardinals have the best record in the NFL?

--Ben Roethlisberger has thrown 12 TD passes in the last two weeks. That's more than Matt Stafford, Carson Palmer and Ryan Fitzpatrick have on the season.

--The Florida Panthers have scored 14 goals total this season......Corey Perry leads the NHL with 11 goals

--The next month won't be fun for the Oilers without Taylor Hall. They are lucky he's not gone for more.

--The fact NFL games are starting at noon and NHL games will be coming on at 6 and not 5 works for me. I would much rather be one hour behind Ontario and two ahead of BC.