Darrell Davis
Regina Leader-Post
University of Regina Rams coaches Mark McConkey and Jeff Stusek, during the final minutes of their team’s practice Tuesday night, were supervising an only-in-Canada play that — to their chagrin — could soon disappear from the football landscape.
The ol’ game-ending, kick-it-into-and-out-of-the-end-zone play.
A flurry of controversial rule changes announced Monday by CFL Commissioner Stewart Johnston could make that rare, goofy play obsolete next season in pro football.
“The CFL needs to do what the CFL needs to do to increase viewership and popularity,” said McConkey, Regina’s head coach. “The part I’m worried about for us, selfishly, is the physical rule changes: The field size, the goalposts, how does that affect us? We probably can’t play at (city-owned) Mosaic Stadium anymore.
“So looking at Regina, the (CFL’s Saskatchewan) Roughriders could use Mosaic, but the Rams, (junior Regina) Thunder and high school would have to use (city-owned) Leibel Field. And Leibel is not big enough for all of us. Now we’re all competing for the same field and Mosaic only gets used nine times a year.”
Johnston’s proclamation leaves amateur football associations across Canada deciding whether they would also follow the CFL’s new out-of-bounds guidelines for scoring a single-point rouge and — the major changes — shorten the playing field from 110 to 100 yards, reduce end zones from 20 to 15 yards and move the goalposts from the front to the back of The physical changes will be implemented in 2027, Johnston said, so CFL teams can reconfigure their stadiums and amateur associations have enough time to adapt.the end zone.
Stusek, special teams co-ordinator and assistant head coach with the reigning Canada West champions, has also coached with Regina Minor Football, the Thunder, South Sask Selects and Team Saskatchewan during its Canada Cup championships in 2018 and 2019. Stusek was also a director and vice-chair with the Roughriders, representing the community-owned franchise at CFL board meetings with two of Johnston’s predecessors, Mark Cohon and Jeffrey Orridge.
“I went through all the new rules, agree with the intent behind them and I’m fine with moving the posts because kickers are getting better, but there are nuances they still need to figure out,” said Stusek. “The thing that really needs to be worked out is lower-level football because of the impact on us and the (Manitoba) Bisons and (Calgary) Dinos and (Saskatchewan) Huskies, never mind RMF and the junior teams.
“The CFL can do what the CFL wants, but we are in a public facility that was built for multiple tenants. I’m friends with Craig (Reynolds, the Roughriders president/CEO) and they’re not going to turn their back on football. We would have to move our posts, U of S would have to move their posts, UBC, too. It would be hard.
“I honestly don’t believe the lower levels are going to move.”
McConkey believes U Sports will seriously study the impact of the new rules, particularly the economic feasibility of altering stadiums where college squads don’t play home games on the same fields as CFL teams.
“There might be 23 (U Sports) teams that have to move their goalposts,” said McConkey. “That’s why I don’t think we’ll change.”“I already cut him,” said McConkey with a laugh. “He tackled me. He’s out now.”
That’s not likely. Sirleaf is second in Canada West receiving yards with 425 and is tied for the conference lead with three receiving touchdowns as the 3-1 Rams prepare to host 2-2 Manitoba on Saturday, 2 p.m. at Mosaic Stadium.
Anyway, that punting-back-and-forth play ended badly at the university’s practice field when McConkey tried grabbing the bouncing ball and collided with Rams receiver Nicolas Sirleaf, who sent his head coach sprawling to the turf with papers and notes flying everywhere.
