There were no pads and no helmets, but there was no shortage of news from Friday morning’s Eskimos practice.
After sitting out most of this week, Fred Stamps was an active part of the walkthrough-paced workout (Eskimos head coach Kavis Reed has said all week that Stamps would play) but receiver Shamawd Chambers had a very limited role today. That should make him a question mark for Sunday’s game in Guelph against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.
With his family in nearby Markham, Ont., Chambers said that he told them not to make the trip to Guelph unless they just wanted to say hello. Reed had a much different take on the situation, though.
“It’s a walkthrough kind of a day so we wanted to make certain that (Chambers) got the mental reps in and had no setbacks,” he said. “Shamawd will be on this trip.”
He said that Stamps’ involvement was part of the team’s plan for him through the week.
“Yesterday we could have pushed Fred through but that wasn’t what we wanted to do. We wanted to make certian that we followed what we thought was the best course for Fred to be ready.”
Reed has stressed that he won’t make any changes on his offensive line this week, but starting centre Gord Hinse and his backup, veteran Brian Ramsay, were splitting reps on first-team through practice this week and again on Friday. To be fair, Hinse probably had the edge in a 60-40 split of the first-team work.
“It’s a possibility (that both would play) and it’s based on the fact that we’re only traveling with six O-linemen,” Reed said. “So we have to make certain that those two guys are prepared to play in the short-yardage package. One of them will be the centre, one will be the short-yardage player.”
Meanwhile, over in Guelph, the Tiger-Cats also have some interesting developments at receiver. The Spectator’s Drew Edwards figures that Andy Fantuz won’t play this week, thanks to a lower body injury suffered in Thursday’s practice. Simon Charbonneau-Campeau is expected to fill in for him. Ed Gant, a wide receiver that the Eskimos took a good, long look at in training camp this past month, will start for Hamilton on Sunday in place of Onrea Jones.
The Eskimos fly out to Guelph tomorrow morning. Game time is Sunday 3 p.m. MT.
