Uncharted territory for Bisons O-line

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This article was published 21/09/2021 (937 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Brian Dobie is an eternal optimist but even he sounds worried.

It wasn’t enough that his University of Manitoba football team had to replace all five starters from the offensive line that helped the 2019 Bisons reach the Canada West semifinals.

Now, another headache.

With at least four projected O-line starters expected to miss Saturday’s 2021 home opener against the Regina Rams with an assortment of injuries, Dobie and his staff are feverishly trying to assemble an effective O-line comprised entirely of first-year players.

“Our offensive line is just kind of ravaged,” said Dobie Wednesday morning. “We have several players that are either out or questionable that we were absolutely counting on. We’ll see at this point even who’s available for Saturday, that’s how crazy it is right now.”

The Bisons were going to be young up front from the outset but with rookie hogs Joel Cardinal, Ethan Croome, Sam Olainiran and Cam Boudewyn forced to the sidelines, there will likely be a rotation of linemen on the field.

Matteo Vaccaro, a 20-year-old St. Paul’s High School grad, is the probable starter at centre. A rotation of Mark Rauhaus, Ryder Klisowski and Tyshon Rosas will get work in the guard slots with Halem Hrizai, Matt Stokman and perhaps Dolapo Egunjobi filling in at tackle.

Vaccaro, a redshirt in 2019 after suffering an MCL injury in a pre-season game, sounds unfazed by the weighty task ahead. He relied on a versatile home gym to remain extremely fit throughout the pandemic shutdown.

“I feel quite prepared actually,” said Vaccaro, a 5-10, 290-pounder. “Obviously our group is quite new but it didn’t take long for us to gel well as a unit.”

The complete turnover on the O-line is uncharted territory

“I coached high school ball for 21 years and I never saw anything like that… I’ve never seen that in university and I’ve never seen it in pro where you lose an entire unit,” he said. “It’s going to be trial by fire for sure, and there’s going to be all brand new players, all on fast-track learning on the offensive line. But that’s the nature of the beast.”

One interesting test case is the 6-6, 300-pound Egunjobi, who joined the team for workouts a year ago with no previous football experience. His combination of size and athletic ability is very intriguing, yet he remains very raw.

Vaccaro said Egunjobi is very committed to getting better, often staying after practice to do additional work.

“He gets in extra reps, extra kick steps, focusing on his pass sets and run sets so he’s fully there – he’s in,” said Vaccaro. “He’s in the film room with us watching film. I think it’ll be a good opportunity for him.”

Elsewhere on offence, the Bisons are deep and explosive.

Quarterback Des Catellier is back for his fifth and final year and the squad boasts an impressive array of pass catchers, with returnees A.K. Gassama and Macho Bockru bolstered by Simon Fraser transfer Gavin Cobb, and veteran running backs Victor St. Pierre-Laviolette and Michael Ritchott.

“We’re in great shape throughout the entire offence and if we can have krazy glue holding together our offensive line and come through and not break, those other three groups – it quarterbacks, running backs, receivers – have got a chance to do some damage,” said Dobie.

“As sad as I’m making this sound, there’s always a silver linings to everything and the silver lining to this is that group (of O-linemen) in the long run it’s going to be better off for all of this. Young guys that might not play are getting that chance as older guys get healthier we just become a stronger unit overall.”

Vaccaro believes the Bisons should be well prepared for the Rams.

“They have the same defensive co-ordinator (Sheldon Gray) as 2019 so we kind of expect to see what we’ve seen on film from 2019, which is their 3-4 defence,” said Vaccaro. “But they like to play a lot of games and throw various blitzes, so it’s going to be more of a challenge to our rules and most of our plays just to know who… we should be accounting for in blocking.”

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @sawa14