Kristen Odland
Calgary Herald

With final roster cuts and the Canadian Football League season opener looming ahead, John Hufnagel already had enough on his plate this weekend.

But, like everyone else in the city and southern Alberta, the Calgary Stampeders head coach and general manager and his players and staff now find themselves reacting to the ongoing floods and problem-solving to continue running the football club as smooth as possible.

Although McMahon Stadium is not submerged in water like the flooded Scotiabank Saddledome, it’s the surrounding roadways, general transportation, and players’ safety that must be considered heading into the team’s first regular season game and home opener next Friday against the B.C. Lions.

“Like I told the players, when you’re in a crisis or state of emergency that the city is in, it’s going to be a burden getting to and from practice,” Hufnagel said on Friday. “Us, finding them housing when the final roster is made. It’s going to affect everything. We can’t allow that to disrupt our focus and our concentration for the game next Friday. We need that concentration and focus to give us a chance for us to win the game.”

Because of the special circumstance, Hufnagel cancelled Friday’s rundown and held meetings to go over the evidence of Thursday’s 24-23 pre-season victory over the Saskatchewan Roughriders.

For him, the work doesn’t stop as he and the rest of the coaching staff are faced with the daunting task of whittling their roster from 74 to 46 players (not including those on the one-and nine-game injured list) before 8 p.m. MT on Saturday.

And while Thursday’s effort was “far from perfect” it gave them some final evaluation material to work with.

“Though winning is important, that’s not the main importance of playing those games,” he said. “It’s getting the evaluation we need so hopefully we’re making smart – I’m not going to call them right – decisions, hopefully they are the smart decisions.”

Hufnagel was complimentary of his defensive line which pressured Riders quarterback Darian Durant but, understandably, wasn’t happy about two third-quarter penalties (an offside to Micah Johnson and an offside to Kevin Dixon) which, on both drives, both led to touchdowns.

He was also pleased at the effort, in general, given everything that was going on in Calgary while they were on the road and the various roadblocks the team faced just to get to Mosaic Stadium safely.

“We heard reports,” Hufnagel said of the ongoing flooding news at home. “So we knew it was bad. I don’t think anyone thought it would be this bad. I have to commend the players. They handled (Thursday’s) situation because there was a possibility we weren’t going to be able to land in Regina. And the traffic was so bad that we were late for our pre-game meal; some players didn’t get to the stadium until two hours before game time which disrupted their routine.

“They handled it as well as they could and played football.”

Hufnagel, who normally runs a tight ship and a strict schedule, said he expects his players to plan accordingly and monitor the news/ Internet in the week ahead which could be disrupted by evacuation and transportation issues.

“That’s really all I can do,” he said. “There were some guys that didn’t show up today because they were caught by surprise. They need to deal with that and the only way to really deal with it is to have a plan. It’s a live and learn thing but we have to have each other’s back and help each other out as much as we can.”

Notes:

The CFL announced a deal with the NBC Sports Network which will feature 14 regular season games, the Eastern and Western Final, and the Grey Cup championship game, starting with the season opener with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers hosting the Montreal Alouettes at the brand new Investors Group Field. Calgary’s games will be aired on Sept. 2 (vs. Edmonton), Sept. 6 (at Edmonton), and Oct. 18 (at Edmonton).