ARGONAUTS.CA STAFF
MISSISSAUGA–It was back to early morning practices on day 9 of camp with a 7:30 AM start. With two practices on the schedule, and given coach Milanovich’s comments from yesterday, the offence was assured a hard day’s work.
There were some welcomed sights early on. After missing yesterday’s practice, Chad Owens strapped on the pads this morning and was his usual charismatic self; looks like he only missed practice for precautionary reasons.
Jason Barnes still was without pads, but he had his helmet on and was participating in drills. He spent most of yesterday’s practice working out on the sideline doing ladder drills. You can tell he is just itching to get back out there.
On defence the oven mitts made yet another appearance. Today the cooks were Raymond Brown and Javes Lewis. We tried to ask Lewis the reason for them but all he had to say was “I’m just cooking out here”. Nice.
To get a slightly more detailed answer we spoke with one of the coaches. As we speculated earlier, it’s simply to prevent defensive backs from holding on to receivers when in coverage. Finally got to the bottom of that one.
The offence was very intense in the first round of 12-on-12’s, surely responding to the coach’s displeasure from yesterday. They were running back to every huddle and being very vocal with one another.
Ricky Ray threw a bomb to Samie Parker early on, and from that point on the offence started to roll.
Parker also caught the first pass of the second 12-on-12. Ray seems to click with a different receiver each day, and today # 85 was his favourite choice.
As 12-on-12’s carried out, newly acquired receiver Chandler Williams made an impressive one-handed grab off a Jarious Jackson pass.
Dontrelle Inman and Ahmad Carroll were back at it during the skelly. Inman caught a couple of beautiful sideline passes with Carroll all over him; there is a definite healthy rivalry brewing here between these two.
Chad Owens found himself in a picture perfect moment. As he ran a route, he slipped, but got back up and made a great diving catch from his knees. The picture at the top of this article is that play.
On defence, Pacino Horne, who has had two outstanding days consecutively, looked like he dislocated his finger during the one-on-one drills. Not to worry, he popped it back in and made a great interception a little while later.
After a quick fifteen minute break between practices, the players left the pads on the sideline to work on special teams. The energy remained high while they worked on field goal, kickoff and punt coverages.
After practice a few players stuck around to work on individual drills. Chad Owens decided to try his hand at punting, and we suggest he maintains his position at catching the punts.
Rookie Quarterback Trevor Harris, who is battling for the third spot at QB, lined up at the 35 yard-line and hit the ball off the crossbar on his first attempt with a laser from his right arm. Chad Kackert tried right after, unsuccessfully.
Only a walkthrough on the schedule tomorrow as the team prepares for Wednesdays game. The players will take the upper field of UTM at 11:00 AM. The Diaries will take a break for the next few days; we’ll be back Friday with your double blue updates. Make sure to catch your Argos on TSN at 7:00 PM on Wednesday as they take on the rival Ti-Cats. It’s finally time for some football!