Buck Pierce came out of the box ready to go

[WestCoastJoe]

'Lucky' Pierce came out of the box ready to go

CanWest News Service Wednesday, October 31, 2007

<CREDIT: Les Bazso file photo - The Province

Buck Pierce, shown practising in Surrey last month, has an injured shoulder now but a promising future ahead of him. Pierce, in his third season with the B.C. Lions, is one of the rare CFL quarterbacks to have enjoyed success in his rookie year.>

Some quarterbacks come out of the wrapper destined for greatness.

With a few weeks of training camp, an encouraging pat on the back and a football in their hand, they're ready to roll. See Buck Pierce. But for most CFL passers, the climb from third-stringer to greatness takes much longer.

Here's how it went for the Lions QBs:

DAVE DICKENSON

Physically, he's not a prototypical quarterback, but Dickenson became one of the league's best passers by conquering the mental part of the game.

"I may have gotten cut [by Calgary] in my first preseason. Danny [Barrett] was traded here but he hadn't done much in camp, didn't overly light it up and I think I was about 13-for-15 for a couple of touchdowns and that maybe bought me one year to stick around. They saw enough that they wanted to take a longer look. But I don't think there was any lock that I was going to do well.

"I had always run a shotgun, Canadian-type style offence in college [Montana] and I had to make quick decisions, so I didn't feel any different with our offence. You have to be mobile and all that. You can be good for a year or two being mobile, but you have to make a living throwing the ball in the pocket. You just take too much of a pounding to try to do it game-in and game-out with your legs.

"There's not much difference between a great quarterback -- like a starter, and a backup and third-string -- skill-wise. Everyone throws the ball well. If you're just throwing one-on-ones, everyone can throw an out route and everything else.

"Ultimately, it's, can you take coaching and can you improve? That's why I was able to succeed. I don't always throw the prettiest ball, but I throw to the guy who's open. If [the receiver is] open, you don't have to be purrfect."

BUCK PIERCE

Like Ricky Ray, Pierce was a rare fellow who became a productive passer as a rookie. Now in his third season, he's one of the CFL's rising stars.

"There's a lot of potentially great quarterbacks who are unemployed right now. I consider myself very lucky. I came to a system that needed somebody and I came in at a good time. A lot of things were in place -- great offensive coaching, a great quarterback in front of me. I got early opportunities to make a name for myself and play and make plays. I think most 25-year-old pro quarterbacks haven't had the experience and really haven't been put in the positions I've been put in so early.

"The main adjustment for me was the three downs. You have to be so much more effective on first down. There's really not a running down up here, like there is in the NFL and U.S. college. You have to get used to the three downs and being effective every time you throw the ball.

"There's the extra guy and it's hard to see the whole field. You have to understand the difference between a boundary corner and a field corner. They play different techniques. And it's hard for a quarterback to see everybody in this league, so you really have to study up on all your film work."

JARIOUS JACKSON

The Lions' third-stringer in Week 1, Jackson is now the starter. He joined their practice roster in 2004 and slowly was groomed into this position.

"My biggest adjustment was learning to slow down and not deliver the ball so fast. Because the field is wider and bigger, sometimes the routes take longer, so you have more time to actually get rid of the ball. You have a little more margin for error than you do down south. In the NFL or U.S. college, you take three steps and the ball has to be gone. The windows close quicker. Here, you take three steps, take a hitch [gather yourself] and then throw it. I had to learn to slow down my rhythm on some pocket passes.

"The thing about this league is that more than one quarterback gets an opportunity to play because starters get dinged up so much. They do more running and things of that nature than they do in any other league.

"You just have to be patient and make the most of your opportunity."

© The Vancouver Province 2007

[WestCoastJoe]

B.C. Lions' three QBs toe line

Cam Cole Vancouver Sun Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Two years ago, it was a controversy. Today, it barely qualifies as a debate.

Who starts at quarterback when the B.C. Lions next play a football game for keeps? Who cares? What does it matter?

It is the least contentious, least acrimonious, most easy-going conversation in town, and it's the same inside the Lions' dressing room as it is outside. Thirteen wins will do that for you.

"It is a non-issue," Wally Buono concurred Tuesday, directing a meaningful look at your agent, "because it's not been fuelled. No one has poured gasoline on it.

"There's always people who are happy and always people who are disappointed. It's how you deal with your disappointment that sometimes makes it contentious. You're not going to have a quarterback today whining. That's not going to happen.

"Now, if the media wants to speculate, so be it. If someone wants to fuel the media speculation, so be it."

Not me, coach. Play whoever you wish. Jarious Jackson, Dave Dickenson, Buck Pierce once he's healthy. There is no wrong answer.

"It always matters who plays quarterback," said Dickenson, "but we're in a position of having three guys who can play the position well. I don't think any of us really have blown the doors off of any team yet, but the teamwork is there, the continuity is there. You can say it doesn't matter, but I think we're pretty good players, all of us."

And best of all is that Buono doesn't have to hurt anyone's feelings to make the call.

That applies either Saturday evening at BC Place against Calgary or on Nov. 18, when Buono's squad plays host to the West final. He just starts Jackson and keeps his eyes open -- and if it doesn't work out for a quarter or a half, he brings in Dickenson, and everyone's happy about that, too.

In fact, if Pierce were just a little less prone to freak injuries, this might be an even more remarkable three-way discussion -- but not argument -- heading into the time of year when careers and reputations are made or broken, and egos are apt to get in the way of teamwork.

"We'll all get some action this week," Dickenson said Tuesday, meaning himself, Jackson and Gino Guidugli, who's still around only because Buono has never been able to get all his QBs healthy at the same time, and Pierce aggravated his sprained throwing shoulder again in Hamilton last week.

"As for how we split it up, who knows," Dickenson said. "But I don't really think right now, if Jarious is healthy, that there's any guessing about [who starts]. He has played the most football, and he's won a lot of games. I don't see why he doesn't keep playing.

"The tough one is Buck -- Hard Luck Buck -- because we really need him back and I think potentially with three weeks off he should be back. But how that pans out, I don't know."

This, mind you, from a long-standing starting quarterback with all the competitive fire and ego required to be pugnacious at 5-11 and 195 pounds (according to the media guide), which Dickenson might actually be, in platform shoes with lead weights in his pockets.

It's not that he doesn't want to play. It's certainly not that he doesn't care. It's that he knows he is part of a special team, one that has persevered through the loss of Dickenson and Pierce and has now thrown its weight wholeheartedly behind Jackson, who was a short-yardage specialist when the season began and was never going to be anything but No. 3 ... until the injuries came.

What Jackson has wrought, from his humble start, is a beautiful season -- a franchise record-setting one, if the Lions win a 14th game Saturday -- and he ought to be very proud of what he has done, regardless of how much help this very gifted, very committed team has given him.

"I am proud of how things are going, and maybe after the season I'll sit down and think about that," Jackson said. "I'm definitely happy about how we've continued the roll and how I've had a hand in it, along with the other 11 guys on the field with me.

"It's been amazing. We've been through so much adversity from training camp on -- one week it's quarterbacks, the next week it's DBs, the next week it's linebackers. It's like we all took turns being hurt and making it an uphill climb to win each week. But some way we just kept fighting."

Saturday could provide different shadings to the conversation, but is unlikely to dislodge Jackson.

"That's Wally's decision. But I think he's made it in weeks up to now, whether I was 2-2 or 4-2 as a starter," said the 30-year-old former Notre Dame star. "We were on a roll, and I think Buck came back healthy and ready to play, but the fact that we were rolling ... I think Wally's taken an 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it' attitude. Especially with the situation he went through a couple of seasons ago [with Dickenson and Casey Printers) ... I think he kind of learned that if things are going well, why try to start over?"

"I think it speaks volumes for how complete a team we are," said centre Angus Reid, of the Lions' persistence and continued excellence regardless of whose hands were between his legs ... so to speak. "This league has the tendency to be a league of stars, a couple of stars here or there and they carry a team. Then you look at what happened in a place like Edmonton, where the star goes down and the whole team falls apart."

This one didn't. It may have actually gotten mentally stronger, and now its immediate challenge is to find the balance between playing hard, one more time, and playing smart. Between trying to win that 14th game and not risking anyone's health unnecessarily on the effort.

Dickenson sounds sincere when he says all the oars are pulling in the same direction, this time, and that his spectacular return to the lineup in relief last week doesn't change a thing.

"It was such a long time. I mean, I hadn't played in three months, so it's good to get back in, but the expectations of anything beyond that are just ... who knows," he said, stepping carefully through the minefield. "I'm not trying to ... I just want to win. If I play, great. If I don't, hopefully I can do something else to help us win."

ccole@png.canwest.com

[WestCoastJoe]

Wally Buono:

"It is a non-issue," Wally Buono concurred Tuesday, directing a meaningful look at your agent, "because it's not been fuelled. No one has poured gasoline on it.

"There's always people who are happy and always people who are disappointed. It's how you deal with your disappointment that sometimes makes it contentious. You're not going to have a quarterback today whining. That's not going to happen.

"Now, if the media wants to speculate, so be it. If someone wants to fuel the media speculation, so be it."

Dave Dickenson:

"We'll all get some action this week," Dickenson said Tuesday, meaning himself, Jackson and Gino Guidugli, who's still around only because Buono has never been able to get all his QBs healthy at the same time, and Pierce aggravated his sprained throwing shoulder again in Hamilton last week.

"As for how we split it up, who knows," Dickenson said. "But I don't really think right now, if Jarious is healthy, that there's any guessing about [who starts]. He has played the most football, and he's won a lot of games. I don't see why he doesn't keep playing.

"The tough one is Buck -- Hard Luck Buck -- because we really need him back and I think potentially with three weeks off he should be back. But how that pans out, I don't know."

Jarious Jackson:

"I am proud of how things are going, and maybe after the season I'll sit down and think about that," Jackson said. "I'm definitely happy about how we've continued the roll and how I've had a hand in it, along with the other 11 guys on the field with me.

"It's been amazing. We've been through so much adversity from training camp on -- one week it's quarterbacks, the next week it's DBs, the next week it's linebackers. It's like we all took turns being hurt and making it an uphill climb to win each week. But some way we just kept fighting."

Jarious Jackson:

About who should start, Jackson said: "That's Wally's decision. But I think he's made it in weeks up to now, whether I was 2-2 or 4-2 as a starter," said the 30-year-old former Notre Dame star. "We were on a roll, and I think Buck came back healthy and ready to play, but the fact that we were rolling ... I think Wally's taken an 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it' attitude. Especially with the situation he went through a couple of seasons ago [with Dickenson and Casey Printers) ... I think he kind of learned that if things are going well, why try to start over?"

Dave Dickenson:

Dickenson: "It was such a long time. I mean, I hadn't played in three months, so it's good to get back in, but the expectations of anything beyond that are just ... who knows," he said, stepping carefully through the minefield. "I'm not trying to ... I just want to win. If I play, great. If I don't, hopefully I can do something else to help us win."

[WestCoastJoe]

Jarious, Buck, Dave and Gino.

The 4 Musketeers.

Team first attitudes.

Of all the many attributes these guys have, it is the unselfishness that is most amazing. And how they all have each other's backs.

[Soundy]

Of all the many attributes these guys have, it is the unselfishness that is most amazing. And how they all have each other's backs.

And THAT's the kind of thing that leads to great team chemistry!

[moby]

thanks for the links.
thought it was interesting how the coaches voted on the" next big thing "reguarding qbs. dont know how to post the link, but it was in the blitz.

[mightybuck]

Maybe he should try throwing the ball out of bounds more, if nobody's open.

Thats the stupid part of this one John Henry, this last hit to the already damaged shoulder came as a part of Buck trying to get out of bounds and not take the hit. But the defensive player grabbed his fask mask and turned him around and after he was on the ground got hit again

the shoulder injuries and ribs have been due to late hits or at least in some peoples eyes marginal at best.

[notahomer]

I read a quote by DD where he referred to his cohort as "toughluck Buck"!

[Blitz]

I read a quote by DD where he referred to his cohort as "toughluck Buck"!

Dickenson has been quoted a lot lately regarding Buck's injuries!

[Dan Russell]

I read a quote by DD where he referred to his cohort as "toughluck Buck"!

toughluck or hardluck is the same thing unfortunately for buck.