Danny Brannagan's Experience Should Mean CIS Coaching Reform

Danny Brannagan, arguably the CIS's best quarterback last year, made the Toronto Argonauts football team—on their practice roster.

The fact that Brannagan even made the team and is considered a rare commodity because he is a graduating CIS quarterback speaks loudly about how poor quarterback coaching in Canada is.

Don't blame coach Jim Barker and the Toronto Argonauts.  The fact that they signed Brannagan, gave him a tryout, and now want keep him on their practice roster to develop him is probably the maximum generosity the CFL extends currently to Canadian quarterbacks.

If Brannagan is supposed to be Canada's best quarterback and can only make the practice roster, as opposed to American quarterbacks, the fault is not his, but how he was developed at the Canadian college level.

The last great Canadian quarterbacks were Russ Jackson and Ron Lancaster, products of the 1960s.

With a few exceptions that can be counted on two hands, no top Canadian quarterbacks have been developed in half a century.  The same situation exists for running backs.

Canadians are considered good enough to play all the other positions, but at the two most glamorous positions, they are perpetually below par.

There is a huge difference between hockey and football in Canada.  The top hockey players who graduate from the CHL are ready for the world stage and can play any position.

If it were merely a matter of money, then the problem could be solved by better financing, but hockey is just as costly a sport to play as football, so that is not the problem.

Where the money should be spent is on quarterback and running back coaches in the CIS.

Brannagan is only 23, so he has time to develop.  Barker and the Argonauts must have seen something in him that they liked if they are willing to take the time to develop him.

And Canadians are not the only ones who struggle at the key position when they graduate.  Ask Oakland about JaMarcus Russell.

The other question to be asked is if the CFL is doing enough to develop Canadians at the top two positions, and from this vantage point, the answer is no.

Fifty years of relying on America to produce their quarterbacks says it all.

What is the standard of CFL quarterbacking?  What must the CIS do in order to reach it?

Half a century has passed, and there has been no effort to close the gap between the two levels.

How much liaison occurs between the CFL and the CIS?

Granted there is limited funding for both sports bodies, but this shouldn't be an expensive issue.

The issue is coaching, not expensive stadiums, million dollar contracts, and other luxuries.  Or do the CFL and CIS consider this not be an issue and don't care.

Everybody's happy, including the CFL's fans, to let the United States supply the CFL with quarterbacks and running backs.

How much does this hurt Canadian football and the CFL?

If everybody's happy with the status quo, then not much.

But for Canadian boys who want to be star quarterbacks or running backs in the CFL, going to a CIS university is a waste of time.  They would be better to apply to an American university and try their luck there.

And if they do get well developed in America, they would do better to try the NFL, not the CFL.

The other way it could hurt the league is in interest and sales.

Look at the difference between football and hockey in Canada.

Hockey players go through the development ranks from early childhood.  Interest in hockey starts at the local level, in small villages and towns, and grows upward.

By the time a junior reaches the NHL, there has been a groundswell of interest from many locations and ranks.  People from those sources will follow that junior with interest when he gets to the NHL.

The CFL doesn't have those deep roots and it shows.

For example, Quebec wants the Nordiques back and wants to spend $400 million on a new arena.

Nobody talks about getting a CFL team and building a stadium, despite the success of Laval University football and the successful staging of the Vanier Cup last year.

Better communication on issues of development between the CFL and the CIS would be one way of putting down roots in Canada for the CFL and football.

And deeper roots means more interest and support for a league that lives precariously at times.