The Manitoba Bisons turned the page on a storied chapter of the football program on the sidelines last season. This year, another new era dawns on the field.
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The Manitoba Bisons turned the page on a storied chapter of the football program on the sidelines last season. This year, another new era dawns on the field.
The Manitoba Bisons turned the page on a storied chapter of the football program on the sidelines last season. This year, another new era dawns on the field.
With quarterback Jackson Tachinski graduated, third-year pivot Cole Anseeuw will take the reins of a younger Bisons offence as it figures out who its core group of playmakers are for the foreseeable future.
“It’s not just (Tachinski),” said head coach Stan Pierre, who enters his second year at the program’s helm. “I think he’s probably the face of this era, but we’re also losing essentially all our offensive backfield production from last year. So that’s really where the challenge lies for us.”
After a few starts last season, Bisons quarterback Cole Anseeuw continues to work on slowing the game down and reading opposition defences.
Besides the quarterback, the Bisons also graduated their centre, top two running backs and three of their top receivers. There’s fewer turnovers on defence, but young players will need to step up in the first and third level, as two starting linemen and three defensive backs have left the program.
“It’s a challenge for sure, but it’s not something that you’re not used to doing,” added Pierre. “This is the nature of the beast, and it means a new opportunity for a new guy, and we’ll see what happens. We’re optimistic, for sure, but it changes everything. Jackson was so unique; it changed a lot about our team, about our offence, everything.”
Tachinski, a former Canada West conference Player of the Year, tantalized with his arm and his legs as one of the most prolific dual-threats in the country the last three seasons as the Bisons’ starter.
Anseeuw, a former hockey player who developed his game on the gridiron at St. Paul’s, is a more traditional pocket passer.
The 6-4, 205-pounder isn’t completely green heading into this season. He started three games last fall while Tachinski was injured, completing 60.3 per cent of his passes for 483 yards, three touchdowns and two interceptions.
Now with a full off-season to prepare as the starter, things are starting to slow down for the young pivot.
“Obviously, there’s nerves going into the games last year a little bit, but I think everything’s kind of just slowed down a lot,” Anseeuw said. “Like this off-season, we put in a lot of work (with the) quarterbacks and (the) coaching staff helped us with understanding defences and coverages so that we can understand defences more and then manipulate defences to work in our favour.”
Source: Read the original article on www.winnipegfreepress.com
