Goodness gracious, great ball of fire

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This article was published 06/09/2014 (4047 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Is Troy Stoudermire The Answer?

Well, if the question is this — Will the Winnipeg Blue Bombers ever again find a returner who can make game-breaking plays AND hang on to the ball? — then yeah, Stoudermire just might be the answer to the question that has frustrated Bombers fans for a decade now.

In just three games with the Bombers, the former NCAA record holder for career kickoff return yards has already returned a punt 64 yards for a touchdown and taken down a CFL special teams player of the week award.

And that 64-yard TD return against the Saskatchewan Roughriders last weekend isn’t even Stoudermire’s longest return for the Bombers — he also had a 65-yard punt return against the Montreal Alouettes a week earlier.

Throw in a 61-yard punt return in his CFL debut against the Toronto Argonauts on Aug. 12 and Stoudermire, 24, has yet to play a game in Blue and Gold in which he hasn’t returned a punt at least 60 yards.

That’s insane, of course, and the big returns have added up to an equally mind-blowing punt return average through three games of 21.0 yards on 13 returns. To put that number in context, consider the all-time CFL single-season record for punt return average is 16.8 yards, a record co-owned by Leon Bright (1980) and Larry Highbaugh (1975).

Now, yeah, we’re talking about a small sample size. And yeah, Bomber fans have a right to adopt a wait-and-see attitude towards Stoudermire given the number of returners this team has gone through since 2004, the last time the Bombers had a legitimate game-breaking return man (who, again, could also hold on to the ball) in Keith Stokes.

Consider: The Bombers used a comical 10 different players to return kickoffs and punts in 2013 — and then another six players this season before they signed Stoudermire earlier this summer off the scrap-heap of Saskatchewan.

The Roughriders had offered Stoudermire a practice roster position, hoping he’d stick around, but the former University of Minnesota standout balked at the paltry pay.

“It was a business decision for them and I understand that, but I had to tell them that a practice roster spot wasn’t going to help me take care of myself and my family,” Stoudermire, who’s got a 5-year-old daughter and a 1-year-old son, reflected Friday following the Bombers’ final full practice at Investors Group Field in advance of Sunday’s Banjo Bowl against the Roughriders.

“So I decided to sign with Winnipeg.”

He comes to the Bombers with a long — and regal — pedigree as one of the rare breed that enjoys wilfully climbing into the meat grinder that is returning kicks.

A returner since he was 6-years-old playing Pop Warner football while growing up in Dallas, Stoudermire turned heads during a collegiate career that saw him set the all-time NCAA record for career kickoff return yards while a member of the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers.

I don’t know how this makes sense with our laws of physics, but even at top speed he still seems to have a burst. He still seems to have that little ability to destroy a guy’s angle, a potential tackler’s angle’

— Bombers head coach Mike O’ Shea, on Stoudermire

He went undrafted by the NFL — he played both receiver and defensive back at Minnesota, which probably didn’t help his NFL chances — but signed as a free agent with the Cincinnati Bengals. He got into one pre-season game with the Bengals last summer, but was cut.

So, what makes a good returner?

“You need agility and speed and quickness and you have to have them together,” says Stoudermire. “Then you have to have the vision to see the holes and hit them.

“There’s a lot of guys out there who are really fast but are terrible at returner.”

And a lot of them have played for the Bombers during an interminable drought that dates back to 2004, when Stokes had a big year to become the last Bombers returner to be named a divisional outstanding special teams player.

Since then there have been lots of Bombers returners who have been able to make big plays but proved unable to hang on to the ball — Demond Washington would be the most recent and spectacular example of that ilk. And there have also been lots of Bombers returners who hung on to the ball but couldn’t reliably bust a big return — longtime Bombers returner Jovon Johnson being the best example of that type.

What the club hasn’t had is a guy who could do both, as Stoudermire has shown himself so spectacularly able to do. Which isn’t to say Stoudermire’s been perfect — his decision to catch a punt on Winnipeg’s three-yard line instead of letting it go into the end zone last weekend in Regina cost the Bombers a safety.

But at least he’s a quick learner.

“I never should have done that. It was a mistake,” Stoudermire conceded yesterday. “And I won’t make that mistake again.”

Bombers head coach Mike O’Shea — a proud and lifelong member of the special teams fraternity — played with one of the best returners ever to play in the CFL (hello, Pinball Clemons) and against the best one ever (hello, Gizmo Williams).

Where does Stoudermire rate in that company? “He’s a good returner. He’s got very good bursts, seems tough, seems courageous. Those are attributes you need to be a returner in the CFL,” O’Shea said Friday.

“I don’t know how this makes sense with our laws of physics, but even at top speed he still seems to have a burst. He still seems to have that little ability to destroy a guy’s angle, a potential tackler’s angle.”

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That’s high praise from a head coach who admits his long history with special teams — as a player and an assistant coach — means he devotes an unusual amount of attention to it now he’s a rookie head coach of a team that has so long laboured to find the right combination on special teams.

The irony is O’Shea’s special teams star says he doesn’t think about it at all — and that’s precisely why he’s so good at it.

“Being a returner is just about reacting,” says Stoudermire. “If you’re thinking too much about it, you’re going to be in trouble. Because you’ve got all these guys coming full speed at you and they’re big guys — 6-3, 235.

“You can’t think about it — you’ve just got to hit it.”

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @PaulWiecek