Sean Whyte may have to play only the second snow game of his CFL career and kick a football that’ll feel like a rock on Saturday in Regina, but he couldn’t be happier.
The 32-year-old place-kicker will play his first game in more than three months when the 11-6 Eskimos take on the 10-7 Saskatchewan Roughriders at 5 p.m. MDT at Mosaic Stadium in a pivotal game to sort out the complicated CFL playoff picture.
“It feels pretty good,” Whyte said about his injured kicking leg. “When I had my first kick (at practice last week), it felt like I had never left.
“I’m just happy to be out there (on the field) and having fun again,” he added. “Just to catch for (quarterback Mike) Reilly in warm-up or go run on scout team, that’s just fun for me. That’s a lot better than being in the weight room and just trying to get through the day, which is a different planet.
“I’ve never been hurt in my whole life,” Whyte pointed out. “That’s why this has been so tough. I love this game. I love sports and being on a team and being with the boys is the best part. So when I’m not with the guys travelling or not being out there on the practice field, I’m not having fun. I’m miserable until I’m back.”
Whyte, who has made 93 per cent of his 88 field-goal attempts with the Eskimos since joining the team midway through the 2015 season, partially tore a tendon connecting his quadriceps muscle to his hip while kicking a 19-yard field goal against the B.C. Lions on July 28 at The Brick Field at Commonwealth Stadium.
“It’s my fault,” he said. “It was just from over-use. I had training camp pretty much to myself and just kept kicking and kicking. Then I had a quad strain and tried to play through it. The coaches wanted me to rest, but I said I could keep going.”
He said a combination of the quad strain and “bad technique” on the short field goal resulted in his injury.
“The worst part is it’s a tendon so it takes longer to heal than the muscle,” Whyte said. “They thought it would be a six-week injury, but it’s turned into a 12-week injury.”
He tried to stay positive as long as possible, but started to get really frustrated by Week 8.
“I worked too hard for too long to not play and enjoy the game,” he said. “When you’re not part of it, you feel like crap.”
Even though winter arrived this week with snow and below-zero temperatures – conditions that will likely be duplicated on Saturday at Regina – Whyte is excited to be back on the active roster.
“Everyone wants to play at this time of year,” he said. “To be able to contribute to the team is huge for me. It’ll rejuvenate me a bit and get my spirits up. I just hope the leg can hang in there for four more games and then enjoy that Grey Cup win for the off-season.”
The Eskimos have already told Whyte they want him on the team in the future.
“I’ve just got to be healthy,” he said.
Whyte says his leg won’t be 100 per cent until it has time to rest or be rehabilitated during the off-season, but it is in no danger of re-injury, although he may lose some distance on longer field goal attempts.
“Right now, I’ve just got to swing easy at it, but I can still do the job,” he said. “My accuracy’s there, but if you want something long from 55 yards, it’s not going to happen. But most teams don’t go for those plus-50 kicks anyway, so from 50 and in and a nice, easy swing, I’m fine.
“I’ve just got to get back in the rhythm with a new snapper and all that.”
Since Whyte was sidelined, long-snapper Ryan King was also injured and replaced by CFL journeyman Levi Steinhauer.
SNOW GAMES
Whyte said he had never played in snow until last year’s blizzard during the East Division Final against the RedBlacks at Ottawa.
“I was hoping that day would never come back, but we’re going to get another chance at it,” he said about Saturday’s game at Regina. “It’s going to be an interesting game, but it’s good to get to practice (in the snow and cold on Wednesday and Thursday) and get ready.”
Although “catching and kicking the ball is not fun” when the temperature drops to minus-10 C or lower like it did during Thursday’s practice at The Brick Field, Whyte said he didn’t mind the weather conditions.
Eskimos head coach Jason Maas didn’t mind the weather either; in fact, he had been actually hoping his team would get a chance to play or practice in wintry conditions before the playoffs began.
“To feel it like this and still go out and concentrate and stay focused is really what I wanted our team to deal with,” Maas said. “The teams that adjust best to it and practise in it and feel good about it do well. Part of it is just going out and braving it and dealing with it and being happy about it instead of just dreading it.”
Maas has had a couple of pictures from last year’s East Division Final displayed in the locker room all season to remind the players that cold and snow is common in the CFL come November’s playoff games. But he admitted that few players would have been prepared to deal with the amount of snow that fell in Ottawa that day.
“I’ve been in the league for 18 years and I’ve never seen snow come down like that in a game,” he said. “As much as it is cold in Canada and it is snowing, those kinds of games just don’t happen all the time. It was an adjustment period for our team. (Ottawa) did better than us in the beginning of that game and we felt like we caught back up, but it was too little, too late.”
Offensive lineman Matt O’Donnell said it was “pretty tough” for the players to figure out their footing during the East Final.
“It wasn’t just cold, but the snow kept falling so you kept trying to clear a path to get good footing,” he said. “It’s definitely not something you can simulate without the weather out there.”
That’s why no one was complaining (out loud, anyway) about having to practise outdoors this week, whether it was the handful of players who had never seen snow or played/practised in frigid temperatures before, or veteran players who have experienced winter conditions in the past.
“This helps, absolutely,” O’Donnell stated. “Guys practise in it, they get used to it, get their footing right, get everything right.”
“It’s something that with the more opportunity you get, you understand that it’s really just a mindset that you take into the game,” said Maas. “You have to understand how to play in it first and foremost. The conditions do affect your footing and do affect the ball and how slippery it is and things like that. Being cold is real. You’ve got to adjust to it. But the more you’re put in that position, the better off you are.”
The Eskimos finished their practice week indoors on Friday at the Commonwealth Community Recreation Centre Fieldhouse.
O’DONNELL OUTLASTS COMPETITION
This week’s cold weather ended O’Donnell’s bid to make it through the entire season wearing a T-shirt and shorts during practice. He was dressed that way for Thursday’s walk-through portion of practice, but decided after 45 minutes when the skin on his arms and legs started to turn a purple-ish blue that he should wear sweatpants and a sweater.
“I figured probably after minus-10 or minus-12 that I might start getting frostbite on bare skin,” he admitted.
Still, O’Donnell proudly claimed that he was the “last horse in the race.”
Assistant equipment manager Graeme Scott had been matching O’Donnell all season, but gave up before Thursday’s practice.
ACHILLES INJURY STOPS THOMPSON
Defensive halfback Brandyn Thompson became the fourth Eskimos player to suffer a ruptured Achilles tendon this season during last week’s game against the Calgary Stampeders. He’ll be sidelined for the rest of the season.
Thompson was playing strong-side linebacker in place of Kenny Ladler, who sat out the Calgary game to heal minor injuries. Ladler, who will be back at his normal position on Saturday, called it “heart-breaking” to see Thompson get hurt because “he’s a great player for us.” Personally, Ladler said the two of them have built a lot of chemistry over the past two seasons because they play on the same side of the field.
“B.T.’s one of the smartest football players that I’ve played next to,” Ladler said. “He brings high energy and a lot of swagger to the defence. We will miss him, but we need to pick up where he left off for us.”
Another lineup change has Joel Figueroa at left tackle on the offensive line after missing the last two games. Colin Kelly switches back to right tackle and D’Anthony Batiste comes out of the lineup.
Backup linebacker Alex Hoffman-Ellis also returns to action because the Eskimos had an extra roster spot for an international player with Whyte replacing international Swayze Waters at place-kicker.
Odell Willis is likely to be a healthy scratch as the Eskimos continue to rotate their three international defensive ends. John Chick and Phillip Hunt are listed as the starters this week.
TEAMS CHANGE AFTER 2 MONTHS
The Eskimos were thumped 54-31 by Saskatchewan in Edmonton on Aug. 25, but Maas said his team has had “some drastic changes” since then.
The Esks will have 12 different starters (including Whyte) from the first game with the Riders. Most of those players have recovered from injuries while wide receiver Derel Walker and defensive halfback Aaron Grymes returned to the team after unsuccessful NFL tryouts.
Maas also said the Eskimos, who are on a roll with four straight wins, have grown as a team.
“The whole year has taught us a lot of lessons and we’re playing really good football right now,” he said. “We’re excited about facing them again.”
SHORT YARDAGE: Reilly has passed for 5,536 yards this season. He needs only 127 yards to equal Ricky Ray’s club record for passing yards in a season, 155 yards to tie Warren Moon on the Eskimos all-time passing charts and 464 yards to become only the sixth CFL player to reach the 6,000-yard mark in one season … Second-year slotback Brandon Zylstra, who leads all CFL receivers with 1,615 yards, needs three receptions to become the seventh Eskimos receiver to catch 100 passes in a season. Zylstra has had a club record 10 100-yard games and is averaging 108 yards per game … Veteran slotback Adarius Bowman needs six yards to become the sixth Eskimos receiver to reach the 7,000-yard mark in his CFL career … The Eskimos are playing the Roughriders in the final game of the regular season for the fifth time in the last eight seasons and for a third time in Regina since 2013.