New QB knows the system

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 19/07/2011 (5226 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

For Justin Goltz, any bitter feelings towards the Winnipeg Blue Bombers after not making the grade disappeared quickly.

“Less than a minute,” the rookie quarterback said Monday.

As the Bombers know, that’s how fast things can change. Take the quarterback position, for example: One minute, the club is looking in pretty good stead with a tandem of veteran experience (Buck Pierce) and the future prospect (Joey Elliott). The next minute — or a few minutes later — Pierce is the injury question mark at the end of every other sentence at Canad Inns Stadium and Elliott is out for the year with a ACL tear to his left knee.

Elliott had his surgery Monday, right around the same time Goltz officially entered the Bomb Squad QB equation again.

A 6-foot-5, 215-pound pivot out of little known Occidental College in California, the 23-year-old returns to Winnipeg after failing to come to an agreement on a practice roster stipend after seeing his release out of training camp.

No hard feelings now, not when Goltz needed a job and the Bombers needed someone familiar with the offensive system.

“It’s like second nature to me,” Goltz said of what he’s been able to absorb from the Bombers playbook since signing with the club last October. “I was here for two weeks last year, mini-camp, training camp, and then preseason. I feel like I performed well in the preseason, and I feel very comfortable with the reads. Watched all the games (Sunday), so I feel like I’m caught up.”

Based on his limited time in Winnipeg, Goltz slots in as the No. 3 quarterback on the depth chart now, just ahead of practice roster prospect Brandon Summers and right behind the recently promoted Alex Brink.

While Goltz categorized his return to the Bombers as “a great situation to come back into,” Brink is looking at his move up the depth chart in more serious terms.

When he finds game action — and notice people no longer insert an ‘if he finds action’ hedge when discussing the chances of the Bombers backup QB playing these days — Brink will land an opportunity to erase the bad taste from his only start in 2010 — a 4-of-18 for 61 yards bomb that saw him get the hook at halftime.

Brink also knows things can change in a minute.

“It’s the nature of the position, honestly,” he said. “As a backup quarterback you always have to be ready. (It’s) a similar thing to last year, moving up a spot because on injury but I’m ready. I’m prepared.”

The Bombers are back on the field this morning.

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MOMENT OF CLARITY: Given the mystery surrounding Pierce’s leg injury during and after Thursday’s game — not to mention the optics of him just sitting on the bench while less experienced backups tried to massage a victory over Calgary — there’s a theory out there that he was shouldering some hard feelings.

Some have suggested he was pouting after being sat down.

Pierce called it frustration.

“As an athlete, you don’t like missing time in a game that you feel like you can go out there and help your team win,” he explained. “I wasn’t upset at anybody’s call for them doing their job and sitting me down, but I think the frustration of having to watch the game. That’s hard. It was their decision to rest me at that point.”

adam.wazny@freepress.mb.ca