Jun
Ticat Notes/Kenton Keith update
Courtesy Hamilton Spectator:
The Hamilton Tiger-Cats looked a little smaller yesterday morning, though it wasn’t the result of a team-wide crash diet.
Head coach Marcel Bellefeuille elected to give his players a day-off from practicing in shoulder pads, as they have done during the first seven days of camp. As a result, the amount of hitting was down, too.
“At the beginning of camp, we chose certain days that we’d take the pads off so the players can get away from the banging,” Bellefeuille said after the team’s seventh day of training camp at Ron Joyce Stadium on the campus of McMaster University.
“They are still getting their work in full speed but we don’t have as much physical contact.”
Players were happy with the move.
“Physically it does help, definitely, but the preparation and the mental part is the same,” said offensive lineman Marwan Hage. “At this point in camp it was definitely needed and it felt good to have the pads off, lay off the hitting a little bit and concentrate on assignments and technique.”
The move was in stark contrast to Toronto Argonauts, where reports from their training camp have players in full gear and participating in contact tackling drills under new coach Bart Andrus. Even with pads, the Ticat defenders rarely bring receivers and ball carriers to the ground during drills.
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While the list of walking wounded grew a little longer yesterday, the team received some good news on the injury front. An MRI on running back Kenton Keith’s injured knee showed no structural damage.
Keith was at camp yesterday and did some light footwork drills on his own.
“Kenton’s prognosis is a good. It ended up being nothing serious and he’s day-to-day,” Bellefeuille said.
The same goes for the rest of the banged up Ticats, a list that includes offensive linemen Alex Gauthier and Todd Londot, receivers Chris Bauman and Eddie Cohen, linebacker Augie Barrenechea and safety Sandy Beveridge.
All are expected to resume workouts within the next few days.
