By Rita Mingo
Calgary Herald

The 2013 Canadian Football League season was the one in which Marquay McDaniel truly came into his own as a bona fide go-to receiver. And it was thanks, in part, to an unfortunate injury to one of his mates.

“With everything that happened, how the year went, with Nik (Lewis) going down, I had to step up,” insisted the Calgary Stampeder, who was named a CFL all-star for the first time in his career. “I had a good regular season, I would have liked to have had a playoff game, but you have to look at the positives.”

A total of seven Stamps were named to the squad, the most since 2000 and 2010 when eight team members were so honoured. Also on the roster this year are league Most Outstanding Player and Most Outstanding Canadian Jon Cornish, defensive end Charleston Hughes, kicker Rene Paredes, punter Rob Maver, kick returner Larry Taylor and offensive lineman Stanley Bryant, who, like McDaniel is a first-time honouree.

McDaniel — who will be 30 when next season rolls around — is a prime example of getting better with age. After four productive seasons in Hamilton and in Calgary, he matched a career high 76 catches for a total of 1,047 yards, the most ever for him, placing him fourth in the league.

He also led the Stamps with eight touchdown receptions.

“My main thing was I could have had a good year like this back in 2010 in Hamilton, but I let myself down a little bit,” McDaniel explained. “I had a lot of drops that year, could have been a big year for me. I really just wanted to redeem myself. I’m not the kind of guy that drops a lot of balls, so getting the opportunity and showing that I can be that go-to receiver was the main thing I wanted to do.”

This season, he became that prime target for his former Ticat cohort Kevin Glenn once Lewis suffered a broken leg, and diligently kept up the pace.

“Nik is the guy who’s going to give you close to 80 or 90 receptions a year,” he pointed out, “and with him going down, me playing with Kevin, I know he feels comfortable with me and I’m comfortable with him as far as being on the same page. I think that’s why we connected on a lot of balls and why I had 76 receptions. With Nik being out, I got a lot more balls my way.”

McDaniel played in all 18 regular season games, but suffered an ankle sprain in the 18th against B.C., which kept him out of the Western Final.

“I was one week away,” he said wistfully. “If we would have made it to the Grey Cup I probably could have played. I just needed a few weeks to get it right, but I’m 100 per cent, running on it, and I’ll be going into next season.”

The loss to Saskatchewan in the West showdown will resonate with all of his teammates, McDaniel concluded.

“I think it plays a big part, especially this year,” he said. “We didn’t even make it back to the Grey Cup. You get there you have to win because you never know when you’ll be back. In this league, you have to cherish every moment because year to year, things could be so different. We had some crazy injuries in that last game that hurt us; the only good thing about it is that it makes you want to come back better than you were last year.”