Welcome to the meat grinder, Chris

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 28/09/2011 (5476 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

He wasn’t their first choice. He wasn’t even their second choice.

But after losing two running backs to torn ACLs — starter Fred Reid and backup Carl Volny — in a 25-24 loss to the Toronto Argonauts last Saturday, Chris Garrett is now the only choice the Winnipeg Blue Bombers have as they prepare to face the Montreal Alouettes Friday evening at Canad Inns Stadium in what will be a battle for first place in the East Division.

With starting quarterback Buck Pierce continuing to nurse sore ribs and questionable for Friday’s game, establishing a running game against the Alouettes may never be more critical.

But with Reid, last year’s league-leading rusher, and Volny, his promising backup, both done for the year, the ground game Friday will depend on a man who was cut after training camp and has yet to play a down of football this season.

It’s not perfect, but to paraphrase former American defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld, you don’t go into a football game with the team you want; you go into it with the one you have.

At the moment, that team has a mostly untested 24-year-old as its running back.

“I’m ready,” Garrett told the media Tuesday after his first practice this season with the Bombers’ first-team offence. “I feel like I’m capable and ready to step in and do a job.”

The good news is this is not entirely new to Garrett, who got into five games last season as a kick returner and running back and performed admirably the one other time he came on in relief of an injured Reid, rattling off 82 yards on just 13 carries in the final game of the 2010 season.

Garrett finished the season with 19 carries for 113 yards, a 5.9-yard average that included a 23-yard scamper. He also had a 20-yard catch and returned seven kicks for 139 yards.

That performance generated some buzz and there were more than a few observers who were surprised when the Bombers cut him after training camp this year.

The club brought Garrett back Aug. 21 and put him on the practice roster, where he has remained until now. “We went through the process of evaluating other guys,” Winnipeg head coach Paul LaPolice explained, “but we still felt Chris was the guy we liked the most, so we brought him back.

“It’s a good opportunity for him… Chris Garrett played last year and showed some spark. He’s explosive and he’s quick and we’ll bring him along.”

Officially listed at 5-foot-8 and 185 pounds, Garrett looks a couple inches shorter. But he plays large and had a standout career at Ohio University, where he averaged 4.5 yards per carry over a four-year career while also returning punts and kickoffs.

Defensive back Jovon Johnson was handling the punt-return duties in practice Tuesday and it seems likely Garrett will only be asked to run the ball from scrimmage on Friday.

Garrett was asked if this week provides him an opportunity to prove the Bombers wrong for releasing him.

“I’m not trying to prove anyone wrong,” he insisted. “I’m just going out to do a job.”

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca