Courtesy Regina Leader Post:

http://www.leaderpost.com/sports/Saskatchewan+Roughriders+still+searching+someone+return+pun

ts+kickoffs/1652398/story.html

The Saskatchewan Roughriders don’t have a bona-fide returning returner as training camp

looms.

As a result, one of the battles that will begin when camp opens Sunday will be on special

teams, where the CFL’s Roughriders are looking for a frontline punt and kickoff returner.

“There are a number of guys who we are going to audition for the position,” says Kavis Reed,

the Roughriders’ special-teams coach. “We have to see who’s going to come out of the pack.

“We have a pretty good idea of who can do what, but there will be about four or five guys.

That’s one of the positions we can say is wide open at this particular time. Eric (Tillman,

the Roughriders’ general manager) and (director of player personnel) Joe Womack have done an

outstanding job of signing guys who are return specialists.”

Weston Dressler led the Roughriders in both punt (39 for 411 yards) and kickoff (29 for 603)

returns last season, but Saskatchewan head coach Ken Miller already has said this offseason

that the team wants Dressler to concentrate solely on receiving in 2009.

“It’s very seldom that guys can do both exceptionally well,” Reed says. “Sometimes teams

undervalue returners. Those are guys that really set the table for the offence and defence

in terms of field position. If you can find a very good returner, it can alter the game

dramatically in terms of how you game-plan and how you try to play the game.”

In 2008, the Roughriders finished seventh in the league in kickoff return yards (1,375) and

were fifth in punt return yards (787). They didn’t score a touchdown on any kind of kick

return.

With Dressler out of the mix, Saskatchewan’s leading kickoff returner among the players who

are back this season is receiver Carl Berman — and he had just seven for 133 yards in 2008.

Berman also was second to Dressler among this season’s returnees with 15 punt returns for 89

yards in ’08.

Veterans James Patrick (six), Tad Kornegay (five), Denetay Heard (five), Gerran Walker

(three), Hugh Charles (two) and Neal Hughes (one) also returned kickoffs for Saskatchewan

last season. Heard (12) and Kornegay (one) also had punt returns last season.

So during the offseason, the Roughriders went looking for a returner. One of the newcomers

is Casey McGahee, who returned 10 punts for 122 yards and a touchdown in spot duty with the

Winnipeg Blue Bombers last season. He also had three kickoff returns for 61 yards.

Another of the newcomers is Jeremy Gilchrist, who had six TDs among his 48 career punt

returns in college.

Among the other candidates for the return jobs are CFL rookies Brandon (Bam) Childress,

Johnny Quinn, Byron Ross and Eric Morris, whose signing — while not yet officially announced

by the Roughriders — was reported in the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal last week.

The Roughriders haven’t brought in any competition for kicker Luca Congi (who in 2008 led

the CFL with an 86.4 success rate on field goals and was second in average length of

successful field goal at 31.7 yards) or punter Jamie Boreham (who had a league-low 41.6-yard

average last season). Veteran long-snapper Jocelyn Frenette could be pushed by rookie Kevin

Scott during camp.

Returnee Renauld Williams led the Roughriders with 18 special-teams tackles last season, but

the team has lost some quality cover men in the likes of Yannick Carter (second on the team

with 16 stops), Kitwana Jones (third, 11) and Maurice Lloyd (tied for fourth, nine). Those

losses don’t concern Reed.

“One of the things I saw watching film here is that these guys have an attitude about

covering kicks,” he says. “There is a plethora of talent here that will be able to pick up

the slack.”