Stamps familiar with Rainey’s big-play ability
CALGARY — Hotly recruited out of Niceville, Fla., Roy Finch toured a few campuses. One of his stops was the University of Florida, where he had been thrilled to shake hands with Gators stars such as Tim Tebow and Joe Haden. And Chris Rainey. “He was a player I watched when I was in high school,” Finch says. “We’ve met, we’ve talked.”
Looking back, he fondly remembers the occasion.
The Calgary Stampeders own introduction to Mr. Rainey was not nearly as pleasant. A year ago — marking the B.C. Lions return ace’s first visit to McMahon Stadium — he badly scorched the locals.
For 103-yard returns. For touchdowns. Twice. On a third-quarter kickoff. On a fourth-quarter punt. Rainey, it appears, won’t stop scampering into the Stamps end zone. This season, twice more — 72-yard punt return (June 25), 95-yard kickoff return (July 29). In his 32 games in the CFL he has recorded four return touchdowns — all against Calgary.
Which makes reining in Rainey a clear-cut priority Sunday in the West Division final. Containing the speedster would go a long way toward vaulting the Stamps to victory and the Grey Cup Nov. 27 in Toronto.
But allowing the 28-year-old to run wild? Well, Rainey has already shown the depth of the damage he can inflict.
“He’s a great player,” says Glenn Love, who, with 21 special-teams tackles for Calgary, was third in the league. “He’s a fast guy. There’s a lot of returners out there just like him. He’s got something to prove and so do we.
“Returners, they can make or break a team.”
To ensure success, there are coverage basics, according to special teams co-ordinator Mark Kilam — “maintaining leverage at the point of attack, working off of your teammates, where and how you kick the football.”
Even with shutdown intentions, the Stamps can bank on seeing more than ever of No. 2 because the Lions restricted his workload.
“Chris Rainey is a great athlete. I don’t want him to get hurt,” Lions boss Wally Buono explained after Week 1. “Whether you are a big running back or a small running back, you can only take so many hits. If you use him 15 times (per game), by mid-season he’s going to be dead.”
Very much alive, Rainey was turned loose last weekend.
With 17 touches — seven rushes, four catches, six returns — he totalled more than 180 yards in the 32-31 win over the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in the West semifinal.
The Lakeland, Fla., native did pace the CFL’s regular season with nearly 3,000 combined yards — a franchise record — making him an all-star in the West Division, a hero in Vancouver and an all-purpose pain in the posterior to everyone else.
Coincidentally, the Stamps return dude also figures to be busy. With Tory Harrison drydocked by an Achilles tear, it will be on Finch to give occasional breathers to ball-lugging behemoth Jerome Messam.
Which, given their recent upgrades in prominence, makes Finch-vs.-Rainey one of Sunday’s pullout battles. Players generally don’t like to view things that way. But, in this case, the comparison is unavoidable. And Finch plays along. “It’s a duel. Who has the most yards? Who has more of an impact for their team? He’s going to make his plays, I’m going to make my plays. It’s the player who doesn’t cost the team when it’s crunch time, who doesn’t make that mistake.”
With Florida roots and similar dimensions — Rainey, at 180, is five pounds heavier and a sliver of an inch taller (“He’s a solid five-eight,” Finch says) — they are a match. Statistically, too, they are bundled. Finch’s punt-return average, 14 yards, shades Rainey’s 13.9. On kickoffs, too, the Calgarian owns the edge — 24.7 to 23.4. Scant difference.