No matter how the West Final goes, Henry Burris and Sandro DeAngelis are heading to Montreal for Grey Cup week.

The two Stampeders are up for CFL Player Awards and will be part of Grey Cup week at the awards presentation on Thursday, Nov. 20. Based on objective stats and information, there’s a good chance both will be returning home with trophies.

Here’s why both players should win their awards:

Burris (Most Outstanding Player)
• The Stamps led the CFL with a 13-5 record this season and this is the bottom line.

• Burris was at his best when games mattered most. He had an 8-3 record against teams with a winning record. By contrast, Montreal’s Anthony Calvillo (the East nominee) had a 3-4 mark against teams with a winning record.

• The Stamps beat Montreal in both meetings this season. While Burris and Calvillo don’t physically play against each other at the same time, Burris led his team to wins.

• Many felt Burris should have won the Most Outstanding Player award last year, instead of Kerry Joseph. But Burris’ 2008 dwarves last year’s season, as he established career highs in the following:

• Burris accomplished these things despite playing most of the season behind three or four offensive linemen who had never before started a CFL game. The youngsters were outstanding but Burris helped make them better.

• He also led all CFL quarterbacks with 595 rushing yards (career high is 623, in 2007), to go with a career-high 8.6 yard per carry and three touchdowns.

• Burris moved into second place in all major Stamps passing records.

• He threw five touchdowns twice in 2008 and had 10 300-yard passing games.

DeAngelis (Top Special Teams Player)
• Entered the season as the most accurate kicker in CFL history and actually improved his accuracy mark in 2008 by making 86.2 per cent of his kicks. His career percentage now stands at 83.8.

• He kicked a league-high 50 field goals on 58 attempts.

• He led the CFL with a career-high 217 points and converted all 61 converts he attempted.

• Ranked eighth on the Stamps with seven special-teams tackles.

• He was essentially automatic from inside the 40-yard line, where he made 37 of 38 field goals.

• His 60.1-yard average on kickoffs was among the league leaders even though the special-teams strategy often called for him to sacrifice distance for the sake of accuracy.

• He is matched against Toronto’s Dominique Dorsey in the awards category. To win the West nominee, he defeated returners Tristan Jackson and Ian Smart who both had superior numbers to Dorsey.