Courtesy Toronto Star:

The Hamilton Tiger-Cats and Toronto Argonauts will be a study in contrasts when they play their final CFL pre-season game at the Rogers Centre tonight.

While many of the Ticats will be auditioning for starting jobs, most of the Argo battles will take place over backup roles. That might have something to do with one team coming off an 11-7 season and the other trying to forget a 3-15 year.

There weren’t many spots up for grabs when the Argos started training camp and one more was officially filled yesterday when non-import Brian Ramsay was awarded the starting right tackle job left vacant by the retirement of Mike Pearson.

Asked yesterday how many of the 64 players left in camp are on the bubble, head coach Rich Stubler replied, “There aren’t many bubbles.”

In fact, there are basically three and those could be in dispute until the Grey Cup game.

The biggest one is at quarterback, where reigning league MVP Kerry Joseph and six-year veteran Michael Bishop are still apparently battling for the starting job.

Joseph will play the first half tonight while Bishop finishes, which Stubler said means nothing.

“Right now I’m comfortable with either guy being on the field,” Stubler said. “That being said, how it unfolds next week, I can’t tell you.”

While it might seem incredible that the league’s top player from 2007 won’t be the starter, Stubler indicated a two-quarterback system was possible, invoking names from two decades ago.

“Both Joe Barnes and Condredge Holloway both wanted to be No.1, but they took arguably one of the worst teams in Argonaut history and won a Grey Cup,” he said, referring to the 1983 season. “I don’t think it matters who is at the helm of the deal as long as everybody understands that we’re rolling in the same direction.”

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