The University of Regina Rams fall camp wrapped up two a day practices on Monday as the team prepares for its Green and Gold Game Friday at 7 p.m. at Mosaic Stadium at Taylor Field.
“The practices have gone very well,” said Rams Head Coach Frank McCrystal. “On your third day of two-a-days you have a little blip here and there and Sunday we were five plays short. So we told the guys they have to be on task, focused and hustling and they can’t be dragging around. For the most part they have been doing good.”
The Rams have made some interesting additions on the defensive line with Akiem Hicks, Jas Dhillon and Stefan Charles in an effort to bolster both their run defense and put pressure on opposing offenses. McCrystal said he is pretty pleased with what he has seen from the defensive line and all around the defense.
“The defensive line has some big, athletic guys and we think we are much improved there,” said McCrystal. “When you are much improved there that means you are improved on the other side of the ball because those guys have to block them in practice. I think there has been a marked improvement not only from last year to this year but from practice one to now.”
On the offensive line, the return of John Hashem from the Winnipeg Blue Bombers combined with Chris Mercer has solidified the tackle positions. McCrystal said the Rams are seeing quite a battle for the two guard and centre positions going in camp.”
“We’ve got four or five guys who we think can play there,” said McCrystal. “We’ve got two young recruits with Aaron Picton from LeBoldus and Kyle Patterson from Weyburn so we feel pretty good about where we are at now and a good progression for the next two or three years.”
The Rams picked up Dylan Hart from Marion M. Graham Collegiate in Saskatoon to help back up Marc Mueller at quarterback.
“He was the top kid out of Saskatoon and we just didn’t have anyone interested in coming in and willing to play behind Marc and Matt Lang,” said McCrystal. “We feel good about him and we have three quarterbacks getting a lot of reps. When we had Teale Orban here, we only had two. We’ve got guys who can be disaster guys like Chris Bodnar or John Kanaroski is always available to us.”
McCrystal said special teams for the Rams under the tutelage of Larry Mueller have shown a lot of energy in camp to date. The graduation of kicker Perri Scarcelli has made the acquisition of Chris Bodnar from Saskatoon an important one for the Rams and the addition of long snapper Jorgen Hus should form an effective combination.
“Those are two you don’t talk about much but it’s unbelievable how good they are and the contribution they will make to the kicking game,” said McCrystal.
On the Rams return game, the Rams are still sorting out their options. Kris King is in the mix, but McCrystal said the Rams are sorting out what combinations they will use.
Matt Yausie has moved to the safety position where McCrystal feels he can better contribute with his experience and leadership and moved Kirby Kezama from safety to halfback. McCrystal said the mix of young and older players bodes well for the defensive backfield.
At running back, Adrian Charles has shown some tremendous speed and toughness over the weekend practices while Cale Inglis has shown experience and maturity. Dillon Dawson in his second year has a chance to contribute on special teams and McCrystal said Derek Bell from Saskatoon has also shown well in camp.
“We’re going to try to do as much as we can in that game,” said McCrystal. “We tried to get an exhibition game but it just didn’t work out for us. When we go into this Green and Gold we will try to make it as much of a game as we can and as intense as we can make it.”
By Greg Urbanoski
August 27, 2010
Advocating for football prospects one story at a time.
