Saturday, January 07, 2017

CFL Arrivals 2017




A look at some of the off season signing by CFL clubs as they look to fill holes, upgrade at positions or bring in some untapped talent for the 2017 season.


Montreal

December 22 -- Alouettes sign Maïko Zepeda, rusher Jean-Samuel Blanc


Ottawa



Toronto



Hamilton




Winnipeg




Saskatchewan

January 4 -- Riders sign former Dolphins running back Daniel Thomas


Calgary




Edmonton



Vancouver





CFL Departures 2017



With the New Year, some of the stars of 2016 will be testing the waters of the NFL, with auditions and roster signings making for a good portion of the early news for the CFL in 2017.

Below we will track the departures to the NFL from all nine CFL squads.


Montreal



Ottawa

January 6 -- Richards determined to make NFL dream come true with Panthers

Toronto




Hamilton

December 13 -- Another Ticat gets tryout with Saints



Winnipeg




Saskatchewan




Calgary





Edmonton


January 5 -- Eskimos release Walker to sign futures contract with Tampa Bay
January 3 -- Release and catch: Eskimos cut Lacey free to sign futures contract with Dolphins



Vancouver

January 4 -- B.C. Lions' Adam Bighill marches to the New Orleans Saints
January 3 -- With NFL looming, Lions set Richie Leone loose
December 9 -- Adam Bighill chasing NFL work, but has to sign by Jan. 27 or returns to B.C. Lions
December 8 --  B.C. Lions release LB Adam Bighill so he can pursue NFL opportunities





Monday, January 02, 2017

Bowling for prospects -- US Bowl Season keeps CFL Scouts hopping




While fans of the CFL settle in for the long winter, counting down the days until the first of the training camps and then the launch of the 2017 season, CFL GM's, coaches and scouts have been facing a hectic few weeks as the US college Bowl season gets underway.

With the Christmas and New Year's period now a long running festival of football, the traditional Bowl Games of the past have at times tended to get lost in the shuffle and more importantly the growing list of bowl games makes for a lengthy list of potential prospects for CFL teams to explore.

As well as keeping an eye on talent for future CFL rosters, fans can also follow the path of a number of Canadians playing in NCAA football this year.

Those playing in the Bowl games are listed below, you can find their biographies under the Game Summary.

Below we'll track the results of the Bowl Madness of the last few weeks and should we stumble across any CFL related notes that are tied into the games we'll share those as well.

College Play Off Related Games

January 9

College Football National Championship Presented by AT & T

Alabama vs Clemson
8PM ET/5 PM PT  ESPN/TSN


December 31

Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl (College Playoff Semi-Final)
Alabama 24 vs Washington 7
Game Summary

Brayden Lenius, WR, (Washington) North Vancouver, BC

PlayStation Fiesta Bowl (College Playoff Semi-Final)
Clemson 31 vs Ohio State 0
Game Summary



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Non Playoff Related Bowl Games

January 2

Outback Bowl
Florida 30 vs Iowa 3
Game Summary

Faith Ekakitie, DT, (Iowa) Brampton, Ontario
Alaric Jackson, OL, (Iowa) Windsor, Ontario


Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic
Western Michigan 24 vs Wisconsin 16
Game Summary



Rose Bowl Game Presented by Northwestern Mutual
USC 52 vs Penn State 49
Game Summary

Daniel Joseph, DE, (Penn State) Brampton, Ontario


All State Sugar Bowl
Oklahoma 35 vs Auburn 19 
Game Summary

Neville Gallimore, DL, (Oklahoma) St. Catherine's, Ontario



December 31 

Buffalo Wild Wings Citrus Bowl
LSU 29 vs Louisville 9
Game Summary



TaxSlayer Bowl
Georgia Tech 33 vs Kentucky 18
Game Summary



December 30

AutoZone Liberty Bowl
Georgia 31 vs TCU 23
Game Summary



Hyundai Sun Bowl
Stanford 25 vs North Carolina 23
Game Summary

Wesley Annan, DT, (Stanford) Whitby, Ontario


Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl
Tennessee 38 vs Nebraska 24
Game Summary

Jonathan Kongbo, DL, (Tennessee) Surrey, BC.
David Knevel, OL, (Nebraska) Brantford, Ontario



Nova Home Loans Arizona Bowl
Air Force 45 vs South Alabama 21
Game Summary



Capital One Orange Bowl
Florida State 33 vs Michigan 32
Game Summary



December 29

Birmingham Bowl
South Florida 46 vs South Carolina 39 (OT)
Game Summary



Belk Bowl
Virginia Tech 35 vs Arkansas 24
Game Summary



Valero Alamo Bowl
Oklahoma State 38 vs Colorado 6
Game Summary

Amen Ogbonbbemiga, LB, (Oklahoma State) Calgary, Alberta
Shane Richards, OL, (Oklahoma State) Calgary, Alberta

December 28 

Russell Athletic Bowl
Miami 31 vs West Virginia 14
Game Summary



Foster Farms Bowl
Utah 26 vs Indiana 24
Game Summary



New Era Pinstripe Bowl 
Northwestern 31 vs Pittsburgh 24
Game Summary



AdvoCare V100 Texas Bowl
Kansas State 33 vs Texas A & M 28
Game Summary



December 27

Military Bowl Presented by Northrop Grumman
Wake Forest 34 vs Temple 26
Game Summary



Zaxby's Heart of Dallas Bowl
Army 38 vs North Texas 31 (OT)
Game Summary



National Funding Holiday Bowl
Minnesota 17 vs Washington State 12
Game Summary

Jonathan Femi-Cole, RB, (Minnesota) Vaughn, Ontario
Julien Kafo, DL, (Minnesota) Mont-Tremblant, Quebec


Motel 6 Cactus Bowl
Baylor 31 vs Boise State 12
Game Summary



December 26

St. Petersburg Bowl
Mississippi State 17 vs Miami of Ohio 16
Game Summary

Justin Senior, OL, (Mississippi State) Montreal, Quebec


Quick Lane Bowl
Boston College 36 vs Maryland 30
Game Summary



Camping World Independence Bowl
North Carolina State 41 vs Vanderbilt 17
Game Summary



December 24

Hawai'i Bowl
Hawai'a 52 vs Middle Tennessee 35
Game Summary



December 23

Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl
Louisiana Tech 48 vs Navy 45
Game Summary



Popeyes Bahamas Bowl
Old Dominion 24 vs Eastern Michigan 20
Game Summary



Dollar General Bowl
Troy 28 vs Ohio 23
Game Summary

Maleek Irons, RB,  (Ohio) Chilliwack, BC
Matt Seymour, WR, (Ohio) New Westminster, BC


December 22

Famous Idaho Potato Bowl
Idaho 64 vs Colorado State 50
Game Summary

Mason Woods, OL, (Idaho) Port Coquitlam, BC



December 21

San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl
Brigham Young University 24 vs Wyoming 21
Game Summary



December 20

Boca Raton Bowl
Western Kentucky 51 vs Memphis 31
Game Summary



December 19

Miami Beach Bowl
Tulsa 55 vs Central Michigan 10
Game Summary

Keegan Markgraf, LS, (Central Michigan) Hamilton, Ontario


December 17

Air Force Reserve Celebration Bowl
Grambling 10 vs North Carolina Central 9
Game Summary



Gildan New Mexico Bowl
New Mexico 23 vs USTA 20
Game Summary

Las Vegas Bowl Presented by Geico
San Diego State 34 vs Houston 10
Game Summary

Alex Fontana, OL, (Houston) Toronto, Ontario


Raycom Media Camellia Bowl
Appalachian State 31 vs Toledo 28
Game Summary

AutoNation Cure Bowl
Arkansas State 31 vs UCF 13
Game Summary

R and L Carriers New Orleans Bowl
Southern Mississippi 28 vs Louisiana-Lafayette 21
Game Summary

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Notes from Bowl Season of interest to CFL fans

December 31 -- Rose Bowl Safety inherited CFL standout grandfather's skills, but lessons learned offer a different future
December 26 -- CFL guide to post-Christmas NCAA Bowl games
December 20 -- College Football Players Sit out Bowl Games in Anticipation of NFL Draft
December 20 -- Surprised NCAA players are skipping bowl games? It was bound to happen in a system that exploits athletes for profit
December 20 -- Are the lesser Bowl Games getting Flushed Away?
December 16 -- The real reason there are so many bowl games in college football - ESPN












Is this thing working ... is this thing on?




Having stumbled across the soundtrack above to relaunch our efforts to track the CFL, we offer up some cautious optimism that as we dust off our blue print and turn our attention back to our favourite league of pigskin, we can hold to a regular schedule of updates for the 2017 CFL season.

And while we'll admit that owing to any number of reasons, some of our past attempts ended up sidelined by the Labour Day break, we look to building a site that will maintain itself to a fashion on those days where our blogging plans go astray.

Hope as they say springs eternal, and the reality is that only time will tell if our ambition can put some pace into our delivery ... but considering we still have folks checking our archives on a daily basis, there still appears to be some interest in how we chronicled our observations of the past on the CFL.

We launch the site this first week of a brand new year,  and with it being the season of resolutions, we'll put one aside to seek to make a steady diet of CFL information a part of our blue print for 2017.

Over the holiday period we've been tossing around a few ideas on how best to relaunch our blog and as they come on stream, we think that they'll make for a helpful guide to the off season work in the CFL and provide some enthusiasm for the 2017 campaign.

With the US Bowl season in the final stages of the US season, we are putting the finishing touches on a recap of the results of the last two weeks and any notes related to the CFL that may come out of the month long festival of football in the USA.

We also have noticed a surge of video offerings on Canadian University players over the last few months, so one of our plans is an archive of sorts of some of those contributions with an eye on the CFL college draft for 2017.

As well, our early plans include the creation of dedicated pages for each CFL team with links to media items and other sources of information in the lead up to the 2017 season. You can wander through some of those past segments from our right hand column area to get an indication as to where we hope to take the blog as we get back into the swing of it all.

With a range of other blog properties to maintain, we don't guarantee a daily contribution to the themes of the CFL, though as we get closer to kick off we do anticipate that our pace will pick up and the blog will begin to expand on some of its offerings heading to the start of the year.

One thing that won't change will be the volume of work that will make use of our right hand column features where we will once again keep the file pages updated on a regular basis, while looking for new items to add to that roll call of CFL information.

We invite you to check back from time to time to see how it's all coming together.