ROCKIN’ THE R&B
Tommy Condell brings no bitterness with him back to The Hammer this afternoon ... Well-travelled Laborn hopes he's finally found a home ... Wide receivers return
If Redblacks offensive coordinator Tommy Condell felt a need for vindication, Saturday's visit to Hamilton sets up as the perfect time and place.
Ottawa is coming off its highest scoring game of the season and has a chance to clinch a playoff spot with a win against the the last-place team that “parted ways” in a “mutual decision” with Condell, its offensive coordinator and assistant coach, 13 months ago.
The split occurred after Hamilton fell to 3-5, with the wins coming against Ottawa (two) and Edmonton, a pair of teams that finished with 4-14 records.
Condell's offence averaged 15 points in his last three games at the switch.
But the 53-year-old native of Utica, N.Y., doesn't consider his first regular season game back in The Hammer as a opportunity for revenge, or a chance to do a victory dance in front of the fans in Oskee Wee Wee land who might have cursed his name.
Publicly, at least, Condell speaks like he's more proud of the four division championships than any bitterness he has over the way it ended.
“We had so many great years there,” said Condell. “Being offensive co-ordinator in the CFL, you're not going to make everyone happy. You win all the games and someone says you got to run more or pass more. It's like my family, I've got four boys. We go to a good steakhouse, I'm telling you, someone's gonna say: `Do you got chicken fingers here?' Someone is going to be disappointed. That's just the way it is, right?
“So great people there and that kind of thing, but in saying all that we want to go in there and perform and do what we need to do. We always want to come out with a victory. I could care less who it's against.
“Right now it needs to be Hamilton. And then whoever we play next week it's going to be that. It becomes such a laser-like focus. So I'm going to be really satisfied this game if we come out and play very well and have a victory, and it'll be the same next week, and it was the same last week. yeah? And then I live it for what, maybe 10 hours. We get 10 hours and we move on.”
That's what the Redblacks offence did so well the last two weeks, when they went from their lowest point production of the season in Victoria, B.C. to lighting up the board seven days later.
“We had to correct some things and we moved on,” said Condell. “It's a process, and it's the season. The proverbial mountain is not always a straight ascent. That's just the way the season goes. You're gonna have adversity.
“I think the best season I've ever been around was 15-3. You're still going to face the so called adversity and how you're going to react to it is going to be important. And so far, in any of those moments, I thought, as a total group, and then just offensively, just talking to them, is to be able to be resilient into the response. And they were able to do that, and they've done that throughout the year.”
A BIG HIT
Headline writers are just waiting for the opportunity to pounce when the Redblacks new running back has his breakout game, whether it be with `A Star is Laborn' or `Laborn to Run.'
Khalan Laborn was solid in his Ottawa debut last Saturday against the Argos, catching five passes for 30 yards and carrying the ball 10 times for 47 yards and a touchdown, but the scoring run was a 33-yarder so there was room for improvement in his other nine rushes.
The 25-year old Virginia Beach product, who two years ago had 1,513 yards in 13 games for NCAA Division I Marshall, has been an immediate hit with everyone around the organization because of his his big smile and pleasant personality, but going into the game he was focused on impressing his teammate.
“I wanted to make sure my teammates feel like they can trust me,” said Laborn. “The quarterback feels like he can trust me, like he don't gotta second guess me. The O-line, they make their calls, and I can say `I got y'all boys let's go to work.' Just doing my job, being where I'm supposed to be it and running hard, protecting the rock, protecting the quarterback. Stayed locked in and bring positive energy.”
All that, he did. Laborn will have a second chance to cement himself as the Redblacks running back of the present and future on Saturday in Hamilton, and after spending the last 16 months trying to land a permanent role with the San Francisco 49ers, Edmonton Elks and Toronto Argos, he's going to do what he can to make Ottawa his home.
“I thank God every day (for the chance with the Redblacks),” he said. “I'm more grateful than anything because it's hard for a running back to find a job. It's hard for a running back to be looked at as someone like `oh, we can keep that guy, we don't need to trade another piece in for another piece when we already got one.'
“I'm very blessed, very grateful, very thankful in the O-line and the quarterback and the receivers that we have, just the whole overall team, the overall locker room, coaches that we have, from the owner to the GM. I'm thankful, very grateful.”
That's not hyperbole. Laborn loves his current job and for a while he thought he might have to move on to something else.
“I wasn't sure, but I talked to my family, my friends, my girl and her family, and we just said, just keep pushing, something's gonna give, God didn't lead you here for no reason,” he said. “So I trusted it. Lot of long nights, a lot of lot of tears, lot of anger, a lot of frustration, a lot of wondering why, just wishing God would come down and I could have a man-to-man conversation with him, or more a man-to-god conversation, so to say, just ask what can I do? But I trusted it. I trusted him every day. Just let him lead the way through the tunnel. Now we keep the thing rolling and keep Him first.”
GOING DEEP
Changes for the Redblacks this week include the activation of WRS Jaelon Acklin and Keaton Bruggeling as well as O-lineman Frank Centers, who starts at right tackle. OL Zack Pelehos (ankle) and RB Jamal Morrrow (hamstring) move to the injured list while DB Bennett Williams goes to the practice roster .... WR Eli Stove replaces Brandon Dandridge as the returner.