Ten Ticats Earn East Division All-Star Honours

Ten Ticats Earn East Division All-Star Honours

[b]Ten Hamilton Tiger-Cats have been named to the East Division All-Star team: running back Nic Grigsby, receiver Luke Tasker, right guard Brian Simmons, defensive lineman Ted Laurent and Eric Norwood, linebacker Simoni Lawrence, defensive backs Delvin Breaux, Craig Butler and Rico Murray, as well as elusive return man Brandon Banks.

Grigsby, who spent time in Winnipeg prior to arriving in Hamilton in October, led the CFL with 10 touchdowns, while also ranking second in the league in yards from scrimmage (1,362) and third in rushing (890) as a rookie.

Second-year Tiger-Cat Luke Tasker had a career year, hauling in 72 passes for 937 yards and five touchdowns to lead the Ticats receiving corps.

Simmons, the team’s Most Outstanding Lineman, started all 18 regular season games after making the transition from left tackle to right guard early in the season.

Ticats Most Outstanding Canadian, Ted Laurent helped anchor the league’s best run defence. The Montreal-native posted a career-high nine quarterback sacks, while registering 24 defensive tackles, two tackles for a loss and one forced fumble in his first season in Hamilton.

Norwood led the East Division in quarterback sacks with 13. He also notched 48 defensive tackles, three tackles for a loss and two forced fumbles in 15 games.

Lawrence played an integral part of Ticats stingy defence as he led the team in defensive tackles (78), tackles for a loss (8), forced fumbles (3) and fumble recoveries (2). He was named the team’s Most Outstanding Defensive Player last week.

Often matched against opponents’ best receiver, Delvin Breaux finished the regular season with 33 defensive tackles, five pass knockdowns, three forced fumbles, one fumble recovery and his first career interception, returned 27 yards for a touchdown.

Butler registered 40 defensive tackles, seven special teams tackles, one interception and one forced fumble after signing with the Tiger-Cats as a free agent in February. He has now earned All-Star nods in both the East and West Divisions.

Rico Murray finished the season tied for second in the CFL in interceptions (5) after converting from linebacker to defensive back partway through the season. In 15 games, he posted 68 defensive tackles, three forced fumbles and two fumble recoveries.

Banks capped off his sophomore campaign with a total of 1,342 return yards and two touchdowns. The CFL-leader in combined (1,968) and punt return yards (618), was the only return man to return a kickoff and a punt for a touchdown this season.

The Division All-Stars were selected by 71 voters, including members of the Football Reporters of Canada (FRC) and CFL head coaches.

The East Division All-Stars were selected by the voting members of the FRC from the East Division markets, the National Chapter and the East Division head coaches. The West Division All-Stars were selected by the voting members of the FRC from the West Division markets, the National Chapter and the West Division head coaches.

The CFL All-Stars will be announced in early December.[/b]

[url=http://ticats.ca/article/ten-ticats-earn-east-division-all-star-honours]http://ticats.ca/article/ten-ticats-ear ... ar-honours[/url]

Drew Edwards ?@scratchingpost 4m4 minutes ago
#CFL East all-star breakdown
@MTLAlouettes: 11
@Ticats: 10
@TorontoArgos: 6
@REDBLACKS: 0
Exactly how the standing finished… oh, wait...

Drew Edwards ?@scratchingpost 8m8 minutes ago
#Ticats #CFL East all-stars defence:
DT @tedlaurent
DE @ENorwood40
LB @Simoni_Lawrence
DBs @BreauxShow24
@Mr513RicoMurray
@CButler28

Drew Edwards ?@scratchingpost 10m10 minutes ago
#Ticats #CFL East all-stars on offence: RB @Nic_Grigsby5, WR Luke Tasker, OL @Almostadraftpic

Drew Edwards ?@scratchingpost 8m8 minutes ago
#Ticats kick returner @speedybanks87 gets #CFL East all-star on special teams.

Interesting that none of the 10 TiCats were Divisional All-Stars last year and that none of the 5 TiCat 2013 Divisional All-Stars (Gable, Grant, Wojt, Beswick, Boudreaux) are on this year's list.

Sorry. I don't get it. I KNOW that it would seem unfair to be left out because of a move from one division to another, but how in the world can Grigsby be an EAST all-star. Oh well.... as Garney26 would say, "As long as he keeps scoring at the Donut Box for the 'Cats, who cares what division he's an all-star in. :smiley:

They are giving him credit for his entire year, even though the majority was out west. Since it would also be unfair if they named him a western all star because he now plays in the east, it is the best compromise, imho.

I am so pleased that we had 10 players recognized for their talent, a 100% increase over last year. Like I said on the Scratching Post I believe they each would give up their award if it meant a 2 game extension their current winning streak.

:cowboy:

For those scoring at home ....excluding Grigsby - 8 of the 10 all stars are Austin/Tillman aquisitions. Thank you.

Any guesses on who makes it to the CFL all-star level?

I'll go with two: Breaux and Banks. I think the west will dominate, and eastern nods will go mainly to Montreal.

Here is the entire list East and West,looking at it I tend to agree,the West will probably dominant the final CFL All-Star balloting…http://www.cfl.ca/article/shooting-star … -announced

Breaux and Banks should both make it for sure,but out of the other 8 Cats nominated my guess is that Laurent,Murray and maybe Simmons might also have a shot at being voted in. The two surprise omissions league wise in the East was Van Zeyl from Toronto being voted in over Jeff Perrett of Mtl and in the West that Bo Levi was omitted at QB although I have to admit that Reilly was also deserving as both had very good seasons and it must have been a very close vote in the balloting between the two.

Actually, to me the surprise is that Josh Bourke got the nod at OT over team-mate Jeff Perrett. Perrett was selected as the Als as their Top OLineman & Top Canadian by their coaches & local media. But when the rest of the media covering The East weighed in … They picked Bourke over Perrett??? The only explanation to me is that the voters were specific & true to RT & LT distinctions. Bourke being a LT & Perrett/Van Zeal being RT’s. (They’ve never been that specific before for the record)

A few other interesting things … In no particular order.

Only one player was a unanimous selection in either division. Adarius Bowman. That’s fine & deserving. But how is it that Elimimian wasn’t a unanimous selection? I understand “homerooms” by certain writers & members of the FRC … but really?

How does Swayze Waters not get a unanimous selection as Punter for The East? What bonehead writer/coach didn’t select him? That’s almost as critical as the Elimimian error! George & Sewell should’ve been

Going to the next level, it’ll be interesting if the voters stay true to specific positioning. Ie; LT vs. RT. MLB & WILL @ SAM LB’s. Boundary vs. Field Corner.

It appears the voters have distinguished between Boundary/Short Side CB & Field/Wide Side CB with their divisional picks. If that holds true, then I think Breaux will be in tough to win the overall selection @ Boundary Corner against Patrick Watkins. Not saying either is significantly better or worse than the other, just saying Watkins has more name recognition Nationally, but Delvin’s rep is definitely growing!

As far as LB’s go, the Western Writers have not stayed true to proper positioning. They have selected a MLB & 2 WILL LB’s. Not a real SAM LB. (Btw … this really peeves me off!) The East has stayed truer to proper field positioning with a MLB in Woods, Lawrence @ WILL & Cox @ SAM. With that being said I think it’ll be hard for Lawrence to get the national nod.

Overall, it’ll be a challenge for any Eastern player to get selected to the League All-Star Team. Simple math … 5 teams in the West vs. 4 in the East. More FRC members from the Western markets.

Banks is a shoe-in at ST’s over Deon Lacey.

Mikefrmthhammer wrote: They are giving him credit for his entire year, even though the majority was out west. Since it would also be unfair if they named him a western all star because he now plays in the east, it is the best compromise, imho
Makes sense to me.

Nice that we are getting some recognition, finally.
Seems unfair that Grigsby gets shut out of the Top Rookie award because he was traded?

3 of the 10 were selected for the overall, league-wide All-Star Team. http://www.cfl.ca/article/stars-shine-c ... m-unveiled

Breaux, Laurent & Banks made it.

Butler lost out to Brackenridge at Safety. Understandable.

Grigsby lost out to Cornish & White. Again understandable.

Lawrence lost out to Elimimian, Woods & McCoil. #1 & #2 in tackles for Solly & Bear. Think McCoil's 6 INT's & 2 for TD's got him the nod over Simoni.

Norwood lost out to Chick & Willis. Again, somewhat understandable. I'd say it was a toss up between Norwood & Chick. John started off great & finished slow. Eric started off slow & finished great.

Tasker lost out to Owens, Carter, Denmark & Bowman. The voters simply went 1 to 4 in receiving yardage. Luke was #5.

The one that bugs my is Rottier over Simmons. Although if you're a Non-Import, Farm-Boy, from the West ... you'll always get the nod as an Oline All-Star! Brutal!

Agree strongly from everything I saw.

Also somehow they omitted (National) Jeff Perrett from the Eastern All-Star team before nominating him as outstanding lineman from the East. You could make a case that he was better than Oliafoye and Bryant: I didn’t see enough games to be sure one way or the other.

Personally, I feel it is a testament to how the football ops side of the franchise has been strengthened under their watch. The contributions of Danny McManus in that mix should not be overlooked either as it was a factor in the Bombers hiring him as assistant GM in 2014.

Oski Wee Wee,

Russ