Ealy was undefeated in HS AND College.

Chip Cox is still with Montreal I think. Ohio and Beechcroft grad.

hamilton is canada's steel town. reputation as being very tough. i think the steel mills would have employed alot european immigrants........ so probably like pittsburgh

of the 8 or 9 historial cfl teams (depending on definition), probably won fewer games and grey cups than other teams. a bit off and on recently..... basically though, western canadian teams have been better than eastern canadian teams for what seems like forever. sort of like the NBA.

angelo mosca was probably the most famous ti-cat of all-time. played there a long time... june jones, ex-hawaii/smu coach, is the coach (i think). manziel was there at first in CFL.

looked at depth chart and looks like hamilton played american TB last year similar to almost every CFL team. but i personally think canadian TB makes sense in the right situation. as mentioned earlier, canadian league requires 7 canadian starters. and usually that is 3 internal OL, 2 WR, 1 deep safety. so that leaves one more canadian starter.

Billy the Cat, thx for the Chuck Ealey correction..

i should have added on hamilton that it is just north of buffalo/niagara falls and just west of toronto. in fact, hamilton abuts the distant toronto suburbs. sort of like tacoma to seattle, fort lauderdale to miami or riverside to downtown LA

Smaller than Pittsburgh ... has a Youngstown vibe to it ... but with a little more life to it.

Very, very cool place to see a game (I've been to a few there) ... nice new stadium plopped right down in the middle of a neighborhood (Buffalo-esque)

Small town ... about an hour outside of Toronto .... but they LOVE their Ti-Cats. Canadian Football Hall of Fame is in town. Worth the short visit (it's not very big) ... but the CFL has been around for a long time ... definitely a few names any American NFL fan would recognize (Moon, Flutie, etc)

They've been a playoff team pretty regularly recently ... really took a hit when former UC Bearcat Zach Collaros got hurt at QB a few years ago ... he was pretty good and I think the highest paid CFL QB of all-time at one point. Since he got hurt they turned to Jeremiah Masoli (Oregon/Ole Miss fame) and they haven't really been the same.

I'd recommend a trip up to see a game ... it's a lot of fun. Whacky rules and a lot of rabid fans. Good tailgate scene ... and cool bars in the Tim Hortons Field concourses.

Really looking forward to see where Rourke lands in the league next year ... he is destined to be a CFL star, Ricky Ray style.

Nathan has a better chance as a wide receive AKA Julian Edelman.




GO BOBCATS

CFL games are underway. In the opener, on June 1, Hamilton beat the Ottawa Redblacks, 25-21. Irons does not show up in the Box Score:
https://www.footballdb.com/games/boxscore.html?gid=201906...

On June 6, Hamilton lost to the Toronto Argonauts 30-23. Irons had his first carry of the year, and it was for a 2 yard loss:
https://www.cfl.ca/games/2557/#boxscore

They play again on the 13th, in their home opener, against Saskatchewan. Here is their schedule:
https://fbschedules.com/hamilton-tiger-cats-schedule /

 

Maleek Irons finds the end zone during his first series with the @Ticats, and Hamilton now leads 20-3 (Two-Point convert was no good).#CFLGameDay pic.twitter.com/VlDOqEPzXl

— TSN (@TSN_Sports) June 22, 2019

The play before was better than the TD run:
https://www.tsn.ca/cfl/video/irons-adds-to-ticats-lead-wi...

While Hamilton crushed Toronto 64-13, this was not a garbage time TD. The score was 14-3 at the time:
http://theprovince.stats.com/cfl/boxscore.asp?gamecode=20...

Irons had 32 yards on 8 carries, second best for Hamilton.

Huzzah! Huzzah!

[In modern English, Hurrah! Hurrah!]

https://www.cfl.ca/2019/07/10/weekly-say-ticats-fill-rb-void /

Against Calgary, Irons had 14 carries for 61 yards and 3 receptions for 20 yards. While his 4.4 ypc average may not seem like much, it's worth pointing out that Calgary has the best defense against the run in the league, having given up only 3.8 ypc on the season. League leader Winnipeg is second best, at 4.0, while most CFL teams are in the 5.5 range. Unfortunately, Winnipeg is next up for Hamilton, on July 26. In fact, Irons will likely start the next 4 games, and during his 5 games, Hamilton will play the 5 best run defenses in the league. It will be a good opportunity for him to grow into the job, and to show improvement.

For the year, Hamilton running backs:
Thomas-Erlington 33 carries, 224 yards, no TDs, 6.8/carry
Irons 26 carries, 111 yards, 1 TD, 4.3/carry
Coombs 6 carries, 51 yards, no TDs, 8.5/carry
Bennet 3 carries, -6 yards, no TDs, -2.0/carry

Thomas-Erlington 11 receptions, 193 yards, 1 TD, 17.5 ypc
Irons 3 catches, 20 yards, no TD, 6.7 ypc
Coombs 5 catches, 61 yards, no TD, 12.2 ypc

Go Maleek! Keep racking up those yards.

was going to come on here and alert you to the fact that maleek is now first string tailback in hamilton. i haven't checked but my sense is the starters won't be back any time soon. i will check though.

i thought maleek looked very good. very hard to bring down. hamilton will have to tailor things to that.. although maleek did have success as pass catcher, i wouldn't have thought it would be strength.

maybe they can bring back h-back/tight end position for him to play sometimes..

he looked good on pass protection.

as noted, hamilton hadn't beaten calgary in a long time (twice a season). or even shown much offensively

i think maleek will be better and better running the ball over time. not sure about the pass receiving. but that receiving stats were excellent too.