Chattanooga: Local connections take stage as Canadian football begins
What's better than Christmas in July? How about football in June.
Those of us whose world is oblong instead of round look for ways to get through the summer snooze-fest of NBA playoffs and baseball until our weekends are again dominated by football. And because there are only so many SEC re-runs on cable television - yes, I watch them - let me give you a few reasons to check out football north of the border.
If the fast paced, video-game scoring that comes with a field that is 12-yards wider, 10-yards longer from goal line to goal line, plus 10-yard deeper end zones doesn't hook you, there is also the local flavor. Three Chattanoogans will play key roles as the Canadian Football League kicks off its season this weekend.
Former Central High and Auburn University kicker/punter Damon Duval is entering his fourth season with the Montreal Alouettes, former Notre Dame High and Oklahoma State receiver Adarius Bowman will be a starter for the Saskatchewan Roughriders. Chris Jones, who played at South Pittsburg and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, is entering his seventh season as a coach in the CFL and his first as Calgary Stampeders' defensive coordinator.
Duval was a CFL all-star last season and led the league in scoring, including a team record 51 field goals two years ago. He has made 121 of 156 attempts through his first three pro seasons with the Alouettes, including one to force overtime in the 2005 Grey Cup.
Bowman, who was projected as a first-day NFL draft pick before a poor Senior Bowl performance and some off-the-field issues, earned a starting spot with defending Grey Cup champion Saskatchewan for Saturday's game against Edmonton.
"That's the thing about the CFL," Jones said. "This is the last shot for some of these guys to prove themselves. We have a lot of guys who could play in the NFL but have to prove they have matured past any personal problems or are willing to work for it."
The opportunistic Jones built on a reputation as a top-notch recruiter and technical coach in the college ranks to one of the top defensive coaches in the CFL.
He changed his major five times while at UTC before finally deciding that coaching football was all he was interested in doing as a career. After helping North Jackson High win a state championship in 1993, he sat in the football office at Tennessee Tech for more than eight hours before finally talking his way into an interview.
He was hired as a graduate assistant and was soon singled out as the staff's top talent evaluator, becoming the Eagles' recruiting coordinator. In four years with the program, Jones led Tennessee Tech to a No. 3 national ranking in total defense and sent an unheard of 10 players that he recruited into the program on to the NFL.
After stops as an assistant at Alabama and Tennessee-Martin, he was hired as a defensive line coach at Montreal, helping them win the 2002 Grey Cup. He was promoted to defensive coordinator the following year and his units ranked among the CFL's top four ever since, earning three more trips to the championship game. All of which led Calgary to lure him away in hopes of doing the same with their defense beginning with tonight's season opener against British Columbia.
The teams Jones has coached have a history of morphing into an SEC North roster, and this year is no different with former Alabama linebackers Saleem Rasheed and Juwan Simpson as well as former Tennessee defensive back Julian Battle, receivers Jermaine Copeland and James Banks now playing for the Stampeders.
"There's a lot of space on these wide fields," Jones said. "So the guys with speed rise to the top pretty quick. I didn't know the level of players would be this good when I first came to the CFL. We've had guys who were household names, All-SEC, that couldn't make our roster.
"I like the pro game, but there are also aspects of the college game that I miss. I like the personal connection you get from recruiting a kid and getting to know them. My goal obviously is to become a head coach. Whether that's at the college level or here, my time is going to come."
E-mail Stephen Hargis at shargis@timesfreepress.com

