DAYTONA HOMES FRIDAY RODSERVATIONS

GET READY FOR SUMMER’S BEST WEEKEND!

FRIDAY NOTES:

– THE LINE: Hopefully you’re as excited about this weekend as the rest of us!  The Saskatchewan Roughriders are home to the B.C. Lions Saturday night at 7:30 and there is nothing better in the world than a home summer night game under the lights at Mosaic Stadium.  It will be one of the hottest days of the summer so far at 26 degrees Celsius or 78 Fahrenheit and the Riders are favoured by six points.  What’s better?

– THE WORLD’S GREATEST COUNTRY MUSIC FESTIVAL: The Craven Country Jamboree kicks off Friday evening with the best three day lineup it’s ever had!  Former Regina Pats and Saskatoon Blades forward Troy Vollhoffer is the man behind it all and confirms this is the greatest country music event on the planet and he owns almost all of them.  These are going to be a great three days!  30,000 people will be there, and another 30,000 will be at Mosaic Stadium on Saturday.  Let’s go !

– PARK ‘N RIDE:  The Press Box Sports Bar has 25 tickets left for their Game Day Package.   $55 gets you a ride on the Press Box Party Bus, a game ticket with a great seat, burger and Molson product.   Ask your server for details.  909 Albert St. N.

WEEK 3 CFL GAME NOTES:

– There’s a doubleheader of Friday Night CFL Football on TSN beginning with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers at the Montreal Alouettes in the east followed by the Ottawa RedBlacks at Edmonton Eskimos in the west.

– How about those Blue Bombers?  Winnipeg is looking to start the season 3-0 for the first time since 2003 and before that it was 1987.  The Alouettes are 1-1 and are favoured by 2.5-points in this one.

– WILLY-Peg indeed!  The Blue Bomber offense – led by former Rider QB Drew Willy – leads the CFL in “big plays” so far this year with three rushes at 20+ yards, five passes at 30+ yards plus two long returns.  Winnipeg also leads the league in Time of Possession (33:00) and first downs (51).  Apparently Bomber offensive coordinator Marcel Bellefeuille has scrapped the Prairie Offence which he popularized during his time in Saskatchewan.

– For now, Winnipeg is still known as the Slurpee capital of the world.  That may change if the Bombers win in Montreal.

– Home teams are 7-1 so far in the 2014 CFL season, or have a winning percentage of .880.  Last year at this time it was 53%.

– Week 1 was the most-penalized week in the CFL since 2007.  Penalties are up 55% from this time last year.  Again, there’s a new sheriff in town in new Director of Officiating Glen Johnson.

– The Edmonton Eskimos are 21-1 all-time against Ottawa-based teams at Commonwealth Stadium, which is the scenario Friday night.

– Chris Jones is one of five first-year Edmonton coaches to start a season 2-0.  The others are Jackie Parker, Ron Lancaster, Kay Stephenson, Danny Maciocca and Kavis Reed.  Kavis had the best start, going 5-0.  Now he’s looking for his next job after receiving a buyout from the Esks.

– The Eskimos lead the CFL by far in the turnover ratio at +7 which includes a whopping 11 takeaways.  They stole the ball from Hamilton on five of their last seven drives last week while coming back from a 24-13 deficit.

– Henry Burris needs 70 more rushing yards to surpass Russ Jackson for 4th all-time by a quarterback in the CFL.  The top three are: Damon Allen, Tracey Ham and Jackie Parker.

– Calgary’s Bo Levi Mitchell is 4-0 as a starting quarterback and he’s embarking on record-setting territory.  Former Stampeder Jeff Garcia owns the best mark, starting 7-0 in 1995 while Darian Durant is second-best in the modern era starting at 6-0.  Oddly enough, Roy Shivers was Calgary’s head scout at the time and said they almost cut Garcia because he was awful in practice.  However he shone in a preseason game and the rest was history.

– It will be interesting to see what the attendance is at Saturday’s Stampeders-Argonauts game in Toronto.  Legendary CFL reporter Marty York was on the SportsCage this week and said, “I was at the Argo-Roughrider game last week and thought ‘Where is everybody?‘  It was a marquee match-up!”

– Incidentally Marty says the Edmonton Eskimos are a more for-real team at this point than the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.  Both teams are 2-0 after combining for seven wins last year.

– Marty and I reflected on the air about 1997 when he predicted in the Globe & Mail that the Roughriders would be in the Grey Cup that season.  The Riders quickly reacted by flying Marty to Regina for a ceremonial kickoff and presented him with a jersey with his name on it.  Saskatchewan went on to appear in the Grey Cup that season.

– Remember the Globe & Mail?  It’s interesting where these newspapers are headed.  On Thursday the Metro newspaper announced it’s ceasing the publication of its print editions in Regina and focusing entirely on their digital platforms.  That means websites, like this one.

– Glad I got my digital real estate back on March 19, 2006.

– Back to football.  Punter Ricky Schmitt has been a worthwhile signing for the BC Lions.  The Lions were #7 in punting and #8 in kickoffs last year.  This season, after signing Ricky away from the Roughriders, they are #1 and #2 in those categories.

– Many CFL fans have asked ‘What’s up with satellite radio broadcasts of your games?”  Well late this week Sirius Satellite Radio announced this year’s broadcast schedule and all games will be available on Sirius Channel 167.

MORE NOTES:

– Either way you slice it, the Quote of the Week is coming out of BC.  Initially it was from Lions coach Mike Benevides who flatly said this week, “We suck”.  But on last night’s SportsCage, Lions colour commentator Guilio Caravatta took the cake.  Caravatta and Toronto mayor Rob Ford grew up together in Etobicoke and in fact were teammates on the high school football team.  Ford was the centre while Guilio was the quarterback so naturally, as Caravatta put it, “I’ve had my hands on Rob Ford’s crack!”

– Things are real bad with the Toronto Blue Jays as they approach the MLB All-Star break.  They’re three games back of the division lead and fading (although I personally feel they’ve got plenty of time to win the pennant).  However now they’re talking about a managerial change and Sportsnet Blue Jays analyst Gregg Zaun said this week he’d be interested in skipping the Blue Jays.  However his stipulation is he’d want to take the team over at the beginning of the year, not mid-season.  I doubt Rogers would let that happen, but anything’s possible.

– Zaun’s name is one of many which came up when the Regina Red Sox asked the SportsCage to collect names for a possible banquet speaker at next spring’s annual fundraising dinner.  We put it to our listeners on Tuesday when broadcasting from Currie Field.  Who would you like to see?  Other names were Pete Rose, Roberto Alomar, Curt Schilling, Paul Molitor, Dave Winfield, Jerry Howarth and Vin Scully.

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THAT’S ALL!  We’ll have Friday’s SportsCage live from the Craven Country Jamboree with co-host Scott Schultz at 4:00 pm.
RP
@sportscage