If, as the ancient saying goes, the proof is in the pudding, the Ticats have fired up the kitchen stove and have propped open the recipe book.
Finally, training camp has arrived. Hope springs eternal and CFL training camp is as much a sign of spring as crocuses and wondering why you still haven’t had the winter tires taken off.
Rookies and first-year CFLers will hit the field Wednesday at McMaster. Veterans get their first taste Sunday morning after reporting in and taking physicals Friday and Saturday.
Coming off a strong but ultimately too-little-too-late second half of the 2024 season, the Tiger-Cats enter 2025 with buoyant enthusiasm. They’ve remodeled their defence, doubled down on their strongest offensive assets and have added coaching and playing fuel to special teams which had turned their car in the right direction.
“There’s a lot of optimism,” says head coach Scott Milanovich. “We’re thrilled with what we think we have in the locker room. Obviously, we found a lot of pieces of our puzzle during free agency and found a couple in the draft. Can’t wait to get to those guys on the field and see how they’re going to fit in.”
After a 2-9 start which led to a disappointing 7-11 record and exclusion from the playoffs, no one in the organization was avoiding the reality that the Ticats needed to get better. Primarily on defence, but also in offensive-mistake reduction and in special teams consistency and field position.
So, proven premier receivers Kenny Lawler and Drew Wolitarsky join a deep pass-catching corps and CFL all-star guard Liam Dobson bolsters the strong Canadian middle of the offensive line to counter the loss of centre David Beard to free agency.
Free agency helped restocked a defence which had grown much stingier and aggressive in the second half with quality defensive backs DaShaun Amos from the Argonauts and Reggie Stubblefield from the Alouettes, linebacker Brian Cole from the Blue Bombers, promising young defensive linemen TyJuan Garbutt and Miles Fox from Winnipeg, returning Ticat Julian Howsare from the Stampeders, as well as defensive lineman Marquise Copeland, who’s played 26 NFL games and won the 2021 Super Bowl with Los Angeles.
Last week they also obtained defensive tackle Kyle Samson, a Hamilton native, in a pre-draft trade with Winnipeg then backed him up by investing two draft selections in defensive tackles.
Then, with two picks in the first nine selections of that National Draft, Hamilton added linebacker Devin Veresuk and defensive lineman Isaiah Bagnah, both of whom have a chance to be long-term CFL regulars.
From this perch, with GM Ted Goveia and his football ops staff passing their off-season handiwork over to Milanovich and his staff, the Ticats certainly look deeper—and faster— than they did on the cusp of 2024’s training camp.
“Absolutely,” Milanovich says without hesitation. “I think a year ago, the number of question marks we had on, really, both sides of the ball were many and we still have a few but we have significantly more answers going in.
“We’re better. We had a bunch of rookies who played last year and are a year better and ready to pick up where they left off and do even more. There are fewer question marks.
“Obviously guys have to stay healthy and continue to perform like we think they’re going to, but there’s going to be a battle for a couple of spots and it’s good that there’s not a battle for 12 spots.
“I want to be clear about this: We started (2024) off poorly not because we didn’t have a good defense, but because we didn’t have a good team. It was offence, too. We were turning the ball over and taking penalties on offence.
“There are currently a couple of more holes that we need to fill on defence, but I don’t want to by any means put this on our defence. They played well down the stretch. They started to get turnovers. I’m excited about what we’ve got. There are a few more opportunities (to make the team) on defence than there are on offense, and that’s because of the way we’re built at this point.”
The Ticats had to allow players like Beard, defensive end Dewayne Hendrix and receiver Steven Dunbar Jr. to head to greener free agency pastures but they did retain many of their own Canadian potential free agents, such as receivers Kiondré Smith, Tyler Ternowski and Brendan O’Leary-Orange and crunching safety Stavros Katsantonis.
And of course there’s Bo Levi Mitchell. He came into camp last year with a visibly altered–read: stronger, fitter—body after following a vigorous off-season training and diet regimen prescribed by strength and conditioning coach Marcellus Bowman. After struggling with turnovers early, but still putting up good numbers, he went on to set a Ticat passing-yardage record, led the league in touchdowns and, based upon how far ahead he was of his next-closest rival (Zach Collaros) could easily have been the CFL’s Most Outstanding Player instead of runner-up to Brady Oliveira.
Mitchell continued working out under Bowman’s guidance this off-season but remotely, after moving his family from Ontario to South Carolina after the season. He told Ticats.ca a couple of weeks ago that he’s in good shape, that after another season together he and Milanovich are thinking even more alike and that he likes what he sees in both the new and returning personnel he’ll be working with.
“All the reports I’ve got is he’s doing great,” Milanovich said of his No. 1 quarterback. “The ankle’s feeling great. We had issues at this point last year, remember. He was in a walking boot when we started rookie camp. He’s got to take care of his body and I expect him to be ready. I’ve heard nothing but good things.”
Last year the Ticats were the only team in the league to officially list a formal “tight end” with the CFL’s stats department, and they bolstered Milanovich’s commitment to the “true” (viable line-type blocking combined with strong receiver-route assignments) tight end role by selecting a tight end in the Global draft. They’ve also got Ante Litre who has proven he can handle all those chores at tight end.
Another Milanovich commitment is to a more explosive running game based on acceleration and angles. Greg Bell replaced James Butler partway through the season and Johnny Augustine was brought in from Winnipeg to fortify that aspect. The offence has a lot of variety and depth and, while the defence learns more about it itself, that offence will have to hit the ground running, metaphorically and literally.
“I think we do need to the ground running,” Milanovich says. “Offensively, we need to pick up where we left off towards the end of the season. We were playing much better football. There’s a lot of reasons for that. Part of that was me trying to figure out what we had in terms of personnel, and what plays work best for Bo. Greg Bell came on the scene and was a different kind of back for us, that we could do some different things with.”
There’s also a different approach to special teams, initiated by Milanovich’s off-season coaching staff hirings.
Although a lot of lip service is paid to the importance of special teams few, if any, CFL teams officially designate two assistant coaches to special teams. Often head coaches, or coaches from offence or defence, will help out special teams on a periodic basis but Milanovich has made “special teams assistant” part of the formal titles of new linebacking coach Elijah Sandweiss and running backs coach James Tuck, making the career transition from player to instructor.
They’ll provide support to Dennis McKnight, the ultra-motivator who dramatically improved special teams when he took over as coordinator partway through last season.
With so many new recruits from both sides of the border not getting a lot of special teams reps in college, there’s a need for ‘coaching up’, so anticipate Sandweiss and Tuck both spending significant time with individual players whose initial Ticats’ contribution will be on special teams.
“It’s just a huge part of the game. The biggest opportunity to get an explosive play or have one against you is on special teams,” Milanovich explains. “I just don’t think it’s fair for one guy to have to do all the work. Look at the offensive staffs and the defensive staffs, they’re dealing with half the players. The special teams co-ordinator deals with the entire team and yet they only have one coach.
“So, if we’re going to make it a point of emphasis, we’ve got to give the people, we’ve got to give Dennis the support. Not that he needs it but there are a lot of moving parts on special teams.
“There’s a lot more to it than people realize. We just want to make sure that we’re doing everything we can to be great on special teams.”
Rookie camp—which will include quarterbacks—begins at McMaster’s Ron Joyce on Wednesday with on-field practices open to the public Wednesday and Thursday from 11 a.m. to 12:25 p.m. There are no practices the next two days but the first full-team practice, a conditioning session, is also open to the public on Sunday from 11 a.m. to 12:25 p.m.
