Courtesy Toronto Sun:

A legendary California high school coach named Dave Hoskins has a clear message for fans of Canadian football.

Don’t underestimate Ryan Dinwiddie.

“I don’t care if he’s played or hasn’t played. Believe me, this guy’s a winner,” said Hoskins, who has been kicking around football for the past 40 years or so.

“I can tell you this. When I coached him I got rattled, he didn’t. The kid is calm as can be. This is a kid who did everything for us. We won two section championships with him. You know how hard that is?

“This is what you can tell all of Canada. You’re going to see a quarterback who doesn’t shy away from anything. You’re going to see a quarterback who is ultra competitive. You’re going to see a kid who doesn’t mind taking a hit, who’s oblivious to any kind of pain, and who’ll do whatever, I mean whatever, it takes to win. I just love this kid.”

Ryan Dinwiddie begins the week as just about the most curious story in Grey Cup history. Maybe the most curious story in championship football history of any kind.

This just doesn’t happen. Never before has a quarterback made his professional debut as a starter in the biggest game of the year Never before and maybe never again.

Dinwiddie gets his first start due to the fact that starting QB Kevin Glenn broke his arm in last week’s final.

“Oh yeah, it’s surreal,” said Dinwiddie, 26, who has carried clipboards in Winnipeg and Montreal, threw footballs for Hamburg of the defunct World League, and took three snaps in practice for the Chicago Bears.

“It’s definitely surreal … But I’m excited for the challenge.”

Dinwiddie may be a complete unknown around the Canadian Football League but long after his high school days were over he remains something of a legend at Elk Grove High School, just outside Sacramento.

“We’re talking about one of the great ones,” said Mike Furtado, the athletic director at Elk Grove High.

“He didn’t just win football games when he was here. The scores were like 65-7 and 70-13. The games were blowouts. One year we were 14-0. The other year we were 13-1. We were in a lot of pressure games. We had a championship game with two 12-0 teams playing against each other and a huge crowd of 28,000 for the game. Ryan just came out for that game and dominated. (Elk Grove won 41-7) This is a special kid.”

This is a special kid almost no one has believed in. Since quarterbacking Boise State to the Fort Worth Bowl in 2003, Dinwiddie has been a career afterthought. He was always too something — too short, too slow, too weak of arm.

“I’m very confident in my abilities,” Dinwiddie said. “But I’ve never really had a chance (to play) before. No one has got behind me and said ‘Ryan, we believe in you.’ You hear ‘You’re undersized. We’re not going to give you a chance.’ ”

Coach Hoskins thought all the major U.S. schools would come calling after Dinwiddie’s brilliant senior season at Elk Grove but it didn’t happen.

“I know Sacramento State and some other schools wanted to bring him in for a look and he didn’t want to go until our playoffs were over,” Hoskins said. “I think that said a lot about him. The team was everything to him. He wasn’t about individual things.

“And when Boise State came to recruit him, they were looking at five different quarterbacks at the time. They took him into a room, drew up a defence on a chalk board, and said, ‘Okay, tear it apart.’

“Well, he stood up there and blew them away with his offensive knowledge. He tore the defence apart. There was no doubt he was going to Boise State.”

At Boise State, Dinwiddie left such an impression on head coach Chris Peterson that when Peterson was contacted Tuesday — even after his PR man said he couldn’t possibly be available — he returned a telephone message three times, leaving word he would be delighted to talk about Dinwiddie.

Talk is about all we can do at this point. Saskatchewan quarterback Kerry Joseph is about to win the Most Outstanding Player award in Canada. His credentials have been established as a Grey Cup quarterback.

Winnipeg’s Dinwiddie is playing the part of Broadway fill in: Only we don’t know what kind of show we’re about to see.

“I honestly think the Bears blew it when they didn’t stick with him as their quarterback,” Furtado said. “I’m not kidding, either. You can’t convince me he’s not better than what they have now (Rex Grossman and Brian Griese).

“If he’s 6-foot-3 instead of 6 feet tall, I believe he’d be the Bears starting quarterback right now.”

For the record, Dinwiddie believes that also.

“I might have won the Super Bowl,” he said, not at all kidding. Others have given up on him: He’s never stopped believing.

“You know, I’m getting older. I need to make some money,” Dinwiddie said. “I haven’t made any money playing this football thing but I’ve enjoyed the life and haven’t regretted any of it.

“This is Game 1 for me. I haven’t played. What better showcase (Grey Cup) to do it in.”