The heat is on in Cowtown

They are saying it is one of the hottest first week of summer ever in Calgary history and for the Calgary Stampeders heat is something they are feeling in abundance not only from Mother nature but from the frustrated Stampeder football fans and carnivorous media as well.

The fans of the Red and White just cannot accept the two collapses in semi final playoff activity the Cowboys have handed them in the last two seasons.in which they finished a solid second in the West regular season looking like legitimate Grey Cup contenders only to lose to the despised Eskimos at home in 2005 and the equally despised Roughriders last year. at McMahon Stadium.

The blame for the two losses has been distributed almost equally onto the shoulders of Head Coach Tom Higgins and quarterback Henry Burris who could not motivate the team to "Do it when it counts" according to some of the more critical Stampeder fans.

Higgins has been personified as a bit of " milktoast too nice a guy " to be coaching football and as a guy who does not know how to go for the jugular and if the Red Raiders do not make it to The big dance in Toronto this year he will almost certainly be without a job at the end of the season.This was the same knock on him in Edmonton even though the Eskimos won the Grey Cup at Taylor Field in 2003.Lets not forget he was fired one year later after the Green and Gold lost the Western Semi-final to the Roughriders.

Then there is the ongoing Henry Burris saga and whether you love him or hate him he always gives the media something to talk about.As a person he is consistently a classy, articulate , engaging individual however on the football field his inconsistency has been his most frustrating characteristic. He has a canon for an arm and can put the ball right on the numbers of his receivers and thread the football thru double coverage to his intended receiver and can throw the ball so accurately that his receivers often don't have to break stride to catch the ball. He also has a very quick release and very often with a flick of the wrist can throw a forty yard laser to an open receiver.

However at times in critical situations he relies to much on his arm strength and tries to force the football into obvious double coverage situations resulting in drive killing interceptions which have destroyed the morale of his teammates in crucial situations in the last two years particularly in the semi-final contests.There are other times when he appears to lose concentration completely and throws the ball away almost aimlessly and it ends up in the arms of a surprised defender. If he continues to do this early into this season you can expect him to be yanked in favour of former Oregon All -American Akili Smith who in the 2000 NFL draft was the third player taken on the first round by the Cincinatti Bengals. Smith has had his problems in the NFL bouncing from team to team for four years before finally retiring for two years before being talked into giving it another shot in the CFL this year. .Smith who stands six foot three and weighs two hundred and ten pounds has looked right at home in the Exhibition season and with more time at the controls should get even better.

George Cortez is back in Calgary as the offensive co-ordinator after spending last season here and it is acknowledged throughout the football world that he is one of the best at helping young signal callers reach their ultimate potential as for example he has been credited with helping,Doug Flutie, Jeff Garcia and Dave Dickenson become outstanding signal callers and the betting is he will do the same with Burris .Cortez is a genius at recognizing and creating mismatch situations.in the opposition secondary and with the receiving corps he has at his disposal this year there should be numerous times when these kind of situations will occur.



The Stampeder receiving corps which had to be acknowledged as one of the leagues best at year end last year got stronger in the off season with the return of former standout Marc Boerigter from the NFL. Boerigter at six foot five and two hundred and twenty five pounds is a load and has great hands and excellent speed as well and will make the rest of the Calgary receiving corps of Nick Lewis, Kenyon Rambo, Jermanine Copeland, Ryan Thelwell and Marcus Howell even more effective. It will be impossible for defenses to double cover any one of these receivers as there are just not enough defensive bodies to go around. because the Stampeders like the Roughriders will go to a five receiver set on numerous occasions.

The Riders looked good in beating the Calgary crew in the exhibition game here on June 22nd but any similarity between that Stampeder team and the one they will face Sunday at Mosaic Stadium is purely coincidental as the Stampeders are a confident cocky crew after easily man handling Hamilton last week in their season opener.