Courtesy Vancouver Province:

There will be no protest from Joe Smith nor anyone else on the B.C. Lions. The only time you’ll see the CFL team’s feature tailback ever get agitated is when a teammate throws a pop can someplace where he can’t retrieve it for financial gain.

Yet there is a telltale strain of caution when Smith talks about the first two games of the season, to say nothing of the fact he has yet to even practice so far this week for Friday’s road game against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

When Smith speaks about the running game, there are no absolutes anymore. It is about what the Lions may do in the future, not the style of play that made the ground game the focal point of the attack and Smith the league’s leading rusher last year.

“We have to find out what we’re going to do this year,” he said. “For the past two years, we’ve been the team that is going to beat you up at the line of scrimmage. But things change. Maybe we’re going to be a finesse team. We have to find out who we’re going to be. When we do, I have no doubt we’re going to win games.”

The concern grows even louder when the microphones are put away, and it is enough for even the headmaster to hear.

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