Without question, the 2010 Winnipeg Blue Bombers campaign has been about one prevailing theme: digging holes.

On the field, they've dug them in games, from the first play of the season, when the immortal Hamilton Tiger-Cats returner Marcus Thigpen took the opening kickoff from the dearly departed Alexis Serna and raced 93 yards into the Winnipeg end zone.

Of course, the Bombers would not only rebound to defeat the visiting Tiger-Cats 49-29 that July day, but they would do so with such offensive proficiency that the disappointments of the disastrous 2009 season seemed to melt away.

Buck Pierce had come to save the day, remember?

Yet since that promising beginning, the Bombers have frustratingly and fatally been digging themselves into holes ever since, falling behind in almost every contest only to rally, to various degrees, yet to often come up painfully short.

The overriding problem, it seems, is the Bombers have too many holes in the defensive secondary, in particular, where the exuberance of youth is not masking the shortcomings of inexperience. There are glaring holes offensively on a team that doesn't have a single impact non-import receiver on the current roster -- and please name the last CFL championship team that had the same shortcoming.

They've had noticeable holes due to injury, too, with the prolonged absence of the aforementioned Mr. Pierce, no stranger to the DL (knee), along with the loss of blue-chip rookie receiver Terence Jeffers-Harris (ankle) and understated safety Ian Logan (hamstring), the latter expected to return to the fold on Sunday.

Holes, holes, and more holes.

It's enough to make Gainer the Gopher blush.

Speaking of which, now the local 12 are about to take their precarious 2-6 record down the Trans-Canada this Labour Day to Regina for the first of back-to-back contests against the 5-3 Roughriders. Good luck with that.

Then there's that other hole, the one that took so long for David Asper to begin digging out at the University of Manitoba. All the while -- surprise, surprise -- cost estimates for the new football stadium have not only be rising, but now there's squabbling over who should cover the cost overruns. Even worse, there's loose talk about scaling back the proposed $115 million project.

We say "proposed" because until there's any actual full-fledged construction, that's all the Bombers new stadium remains: a hole.

Not only that, it's a hole that over the next few months -- given the public posturing and politicking among the parties involved -- could become the centre of much consternation until A) the powers that be decide what will be included in the project and B) who will pay?

Here's a hint: Expect the answer to B) to be U.

Regardless, the season doesn't seem brimming with optimism anymore, does it?

Look, there's always hope. I'm not convinced that rookie head coach Paul LaPolice, one of the brightest offensive minds in the CFL, can't succeed with a healthy quarterback who gets a little help from a mediocre (at best) receiving corps. The defence? That will be up to co-ordinator Kavis Reed to make right, and fast.

As for that new football park, sure, it's going to get built. Eventually. But if history has taught us anything, it's not going to be without often heated controversy, some anger, longer than expected delays and more money than originally estimated.

In other words, it's going to unfold like the construction of every other stadium/ballpark/arena project undertaken in this city.

That's the irony: That it took so long for David Asper to beginning digging his hole for the future, and it took his beloved Bombers mere seconds to start digging theirs in the present.

In fact, a smartass cynic might argue that if Asper really wanted his hole to get started, he should have invited the Bombers out to the project site and told them it was the first quarter. Let the excavation begin.

But now time is of the essence for both the both the Bombers-owner-in-waiting (and waiting, and waiting) and the very team he aspires to shepherd some day.

Needless to say, it is imperative that the former keep digging with haste and the latter drop their collective shovels immediately.

Because both are in desperate need of a foundation before either can move forward with any sense of purpose for the future. Both need to start building on... well, something. Anything.

Before this hole business conspires to bury them all.

randy.turner@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition September 3, 2010 C3