TORONTO — For the second straight year, Winnipeg Blue Bombers running back Brady Oliveira is the West Division finalist for the George Reed Most Outstanding Player Award, while Hamilton Tiger-Cats quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell attempts to become the fourth player to capture the Canadian Football League’s top individual honour on three occasions.
Glad to see Bo nominated, due to his numbers this year. He should not be penalized for the Çats record, given they had a lousy defence until Jones came on board.
For COY in the West it should’ve been without a doubt Mike O’Shea and not Corey Mace to garner the nomination as the finalist . The BB’s started out an horrendous 2-6 before going on a sizzling 9-1 run to finish out at 11-7 and once again capture 1rst place for a 4th consecutive season . Mace on the other hand had his team playing inconsistent ball throughout the season and made some very questionable calls along the way . Mace started out at 5-1 thru his first 6 games before stumbling to a rather pedestrian 4-7-1 mark to finish off the season . I’m sorry but there is simply no way that he should’ve warranted the nomination as a finalist for this award .
Another surprise was Justin McInnis not being rewarded for his outstanding season where he led the league in receiving with just a shade under 1,500 yds (1,469) and also 7 TD’s . He honestly warranted the MOC nomination in my books but alas being up against a Brady Olivera in that category is a tough ticket for anybody .
I couldn’t figure out the Mace nomination either for the reasons you said. This was easily the best coaching job by O’Shea ever. The injuries he had to overcome were astronomical, early on losing Lawler, Schoen, Collaros and Oliveira as well as half of his starting defence. One game had 13 starters out. How he overcame this to guide the Bombers to a 9-1 finish was the best coaching job in the league this year in my opinion. This one shouldn’t have been close.
As to McInnis vs Brady, that is a tougher one. McInnis was easily the consensus selection some 6 weeks or so into the season. He struggled at times after that. Maybe the fact that Rourke was throwing him the ball rather than Adams had something to do with that. I’m guessing the fact that Brady had a much better second half of the season influenced voters. I am one of those of the view that a player who has a significant impact on a team winning is both more valuable and outstanding than a player who plays well statistically on a losing team.
Concerning the league’s MOP, should we base the selection based on “on field” performance only? Yes Bo-Levi had a great year on the field. But take in consideration his comments to the media after his team was knocked out of the playoffs last year. Those comments were biting and do not contribute to team cohesion. I expect this attitude of his remained prevalent this year as the Ti-Cats struggled to find wins. Compare that to the team mindset of Brady. Most outstanding players should also be about the contributions to the team. Brady elevates every team player’s game. I don’t think we can say that about Bo-Levi. My vote for MOP is Brady. The award was stolen from him last year. Hopefully the league doesn’t miss the mark again this year
It’s impressive that a 7-11 team like the Ticats have two players up for awards. If Hamilton had recovered from the slow start as fast as Winnipeg it would have been a very different season for the east division standings.
Why is it ridiculous ? Please do explain . You want ridiculous , I will give you ridiculous and that is the fact that your over rated HC was somehow nominated for the best coach in the West division this season and is a finalist for the award . Now that is absolutely ridiculous no matter how you look at it .
Don’t forget that he also had the least disciplined team by far, a stat that is usually linked to coaching. Green kool-aid must have been involved in this selection.
The silly thing about Mace getting the nomination is the fact that many Rider fans are saying he deserves it because he took a 6-12 non play-off team the past 2 seasons and turned it into a 9-8-1 play-off team this season . Well if you go by that logic then shouldn’t Bob Dyce be the nominee from the East ? Dyce took an even worse 4-14 team that had missed the play-offs the past four seasons and turned them into a play-off team with the exact same 9-8-1 record that the Riders had .
Also to your point about discipline or rather lack of it in the case of the Riders , Mace’s team led the league by a wide margin in fines and disciplinary actions against them all season long . Hey I will give him credit for having a decent first year record as a HC but COY decent ? Hardly , not by a longshot .
The award is Most Outstanding Player, recognizing their play and statistics as a player. If it was Most Valuable Player, that would reflect the player’s value to the team overall.