On Tuesday, the Ottawa Redblacks introduced Henry Burris as their newest quarterback, joining Thomas DeMarco and Kevin Glenn, who were picked up in the expansion draft. Discount Vans Shoes Australia . Last week, the Blue Bombers made a substantial multi-year offer to Burris to take over the starters role. In a telling move, the veteran pivot turned down the offer, choosing instead to join the expansion Redblacks, assuming he thinks they offer a better chance at immediate success. Do you agree? Are the Redblacks a better option than the Blue Bombers right now? Last season, the Blue Bombers struggled to a 3-15 season and replaced head coach Tim Burke with Mike OShea, the likeable special teams coordinator from the Toronto Argonauts. Marcel Bellefeuille is back as the offensive coordinator, a position he took over last August. Changes are happening in the Manitoba capital in hopes of turning things around in short order. And in a league the size of the CFL, teams have gone from worst to competitive on many occasions so the Blue Bombers could very well make the playoffs as early as next season. Expansion teams rarely compete for a playoff spot In Ottawa, winning is not expected to come quickly. With a roster made up of players who were left exposed by existing teams in the expansion draft, it will take some time to build a successful organization. Thats what makes this move surprising. At 38 years of age, Burris window to win is small and yet, he decided the Redblacks offered a better opportunity than the Blue Bombers. Secondly, by making the offer to Burris after his release from the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, the Blue Bombers made it clear who their starting quarterback would be in Week 1. There would be competition in training camp but the job would be his to lose. The situation is not so clear cut in the nations capital. Burris will have fellow veteran Glenn, who likely thought he had the inside track on the starters role before Tuesdays move, and De Marco, likely the quarterback of the future, to contend with. While the early nod may go to Burris, the other two candidates bring their own talents to the table and will be gunning for that top job. Many factors go into making the kind of decision Burris made on Tuesday and winning is usually at or near the top of the list for professional athletes. Taking everything into consideration, Burris decided Ottawa was a better fit than Winnipeg. Do you agree? Which team do you think offers the best opportunity to win now: Redblacks or Blue Bombers? As always, its Your! Call. Air Max 270 Mens Australia .Y. - The Buffalo Sabres reassigned forward Sam Reinhart to the WHLs Kootenay Ice on Friday. Asics Shoes Outlet Australia .com) - The Los Angeles Kings peppered Ryan Miller with shot after shot.NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova reached the finals of the Connecticut Open for the third straight year, beating Samantha Stosur 6-3, 6-1 on Friday. She will face a close friend, Magdalena Rybarikova of Slovakia, for the title. The 68th-ranked Rybarikova beat Camila Giorgi of Italy 6-2, 6-4 in the first semifinal. Kvitova, ranked No. 4, bombarded Stosur with 11 aces, nine in the first set, improving to 5-0 against the Australian in hard-court matches. "It was hard to pick up her serve," Stosur said. "Certain big points, shed go to my forehand, then my backhand, so that was difficult. Kvitova broke Stosurs serve to take an early 3-1 lead, one of her four service breaks in the match. She did not get much of a challenge on her own serve, facing just four break points. Kvitova clinched the first set with three aces in the last game and cruised from there. "I knew that Sam would keep her eye little bit on her backhand (because) I have a left serve," Kvitova said. "I was trying to mix it, as she doesnt know where its going to be. Probably that was good idea." Kvitova won the tournament in 2012 and lost to Simona Halep in last years final. But she came into New Haven having played just three times since winning her second Wimbledon title, losing in her second match in Montreal and her opener in Cincinnati. "I think its important to have this before the U.S. Open," Kvitova said. "Im really glad with my form now." Rybarikova may be in the best form of her career. Thee 25-year-old broke Giorgi in the first game and breezed through the first set in 34 minutes. Vapormax 97 Sale Australia. . The 22-year-old Italian could not solve Rybarikovas serve, failing to convert on 11 break points. The hard-serving Giorgi, ranked 38th, also double-faulted seven times with just two aces. "It was very important for me to hold my serve, because I knew that she could make these double-faults. She can struggle on her serve," Rybarikova said. "So I was really focusing to hold my serve." Rybarikova mixed up the pace throughout the match, stretching out points with slices and drop shots. That seemed to frustrate Giorgi, whose power game was not working. "Its just a little bit that she has an A plan and no B plan," Rybarikova said. "Shes a young player. If shes going to learn to have a B plan, I think shes going to be a very good player." Rybarikova becomes the lowest-ranked player to make New Haven finals, her first in a premier-level event. She has four lower-level WTA titles on her resume, but her ranking dropped over the past year from the 30s into the 60s. She contends it was the result of unlucky draws, playing top-20 players such as Caroline Wozniacki, Lucie Safarova and Ekaterina Makarova in the early rounds of recent tournaments. She beat this tournaments top seed, the second-ranked Halep, in the second round. "Its not easy to beat all the top-20 players," she said. "But, of course, sometimes I have to beat these players, and it was this tournament." ' ' '
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Jan 8
Discussion
The most under-rated team in the FBS resides in the great state of Michigan. Leon Durham Jersey . To the surprise of many, it isnt the Wolverines but their in-state rivals the Michigan State Spartans. Head Coach Mark Dantonio leads a capable offence, and one of the best defences the Big 10 has ever seen. Outside of a loss to Notre Dame back in September, the Spartans have been perfect, working their way up the BCS rankings where they currently sit 16th. With Nebraska, Northwestern, Minnesota and potentially Ohio State in the Big 10 Championship game still on the schedule, Michigan State has a chance to crack the Top 10 and wind up in the Rose Bowl. For a team you have heard very little about, the upside for the Spartans is incredibly high. And its well deserved. In their nine games, eight wins and one loss, the Spartans have given up more than 17 points just once. In their last three games theyve combined to give up just nine points total. They have allowed 11.6 points per game which is third-best in the FBS. Now paired with their daunting defence is an offence that has provided capable of keeping pace. Sophomore Connor Cook has taken over as the starting quarterback and has tossed 13 touchdowns and only three interceptions. Jeremy Langford has done a respectable job replacing Leveon Bell with 11 total touchdowns out of the backfield. The fact of the matter is the Spartans have been dismissed because of all the talk that the Big 10 is "down" and the conference is well behind the likes of the SEC, Pac-12, ACC and Big 12. The truth is while the depth in the conference is down; the top end could compete with all of those other conferences. The three-headed monster of Ohio State, Michigan State and Wisconsin is capable of hanging with the other powers. Currently Michigan State sits behind Northern Illinois, Fresno State, and two-loss teams in UCLA and South Carolina in the BCS standings. On a neutral field the Spartans would win games against all four of those teams - a few of them handily. Depending on how they perform the rest of the season, it may take until the bowl season for Michigan State to prove that their ranking has been a sham all along, and the Spartans should have been considered elite long ago. Teams dont need to score 60 points to be exciting or successful, and the Spartans are the number one team at proving that point. They have work left to be done, starting with the Cornhuskers this weekend, but keep an eye out for Michigan State as they take a run at the Big 10 Title and a berth in a BCS bowl game. Other notes from around the NCAA: -Michigan lost their first game at home under Brady Hoke, falling to Nebraska. Theyve combined for minus-69 rushing yards the last two games. -Tyler Gaffney ran the ball 45 times in Stanfords upset win over Oregon, good for the new Cardinal school record. -Auburn scored 55 points against Tennessee despite attempting only seven passes. Theyve won two straight games without attempting 10 passes in either contest. -92 points and 1,092 yards in the Texas A&M win over Mississippi State. In likely his last game at Kyle Field Johnny Manziel tossed five touchdowns and three interceptions. -Tyler Cameron completed five passes and threw three interceptions against FSU. Amazingly, he wasnt even the teams worst QB on the day – that title goes to Tanner Price who had three picks and only one completion. The six INTs by Florida State were a school record. -Pitt upset Notre Dame 28-21. In the fourth quarter Ray Vinopal had interceptions on back-to-back passes by Fighting Irish QB Tommy Rees. -The 38 points Alabama scored against LSU were the most since they put up 41 back in 1947. -UCF RB Storm Johnson had his third 100-yard rushing game of the year and the Knights are tops in the American Conference. The stat may not be that impressive, but the name Storm Johnson sure is. Kyle Schwarber Jersey . (January 11, 2014) – Once again Kevin Martin proved why he is the all-time TSN skins leader, winning $11,500 in prize money and a spot in the Travelers All-Star Curling Skins Game presented by Pintys final following a semifinal victory over Brad Jacobs earlier this evening at the Fenlands Banff Recreation Centre in Banff, Alta. Phil Cavarretta Jersey . -- The Seattle Seahawks and wide receiver Sidney Rice have agreed to terms on a deal.TORONTO -- Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins, Ryan Getzlaf of the Anaheim Ducks and Claude Giroux of the Philadelphia Flyers have been nominated as finalists for the Ted Lindsay Award. The award is presented annually to the most valuable player in the NHL, as voted by fellow members of the National Hockey League Players Association. The three centres are also the finalists for the Hart Trophy, awarded by the NHL to the player considered most valuable to his team. Crosby scored 36 goals and led the league in assists (68) and points (104) to capture his second career Art Ross Trophy and lead the Penguins to their second consecutive division title. He registered points in 60 of the 80 games he played in (75 per cent), including 30 multi-point performances, and never went more than two consecutive games without registering a point. The 26-year-old Cole Harbour, N.S., native also reached the 100-point milestone for the fifth time hit 700 career points in his 497th game, the fastest among active players and sixth-fastest in NHL history. Crosby won the award in 2007 and 2013 and was a finalist in 2010. Jonathan Lucroy Jersey . Getzlaf scored a career-high 31 goals and ranked second in the league with 87 points to lead the Ducks to the top record in the Western Conference for the first time in franchise history. He posted a 14-game point streak from Nov. 15-Dec. 15 (six goals, 11 assists). Getzlaf, from Regina, also set a career high with seven game-winning goals and recorded a plus-28 defensive rating. Hes a first-time nominee and is looking to become the first Ducks player to receive the award. Giroux matched a career high with 28 goals and finished third in the NHL scoring race with 86 points to help the Flyers bounce back from a 3-9-0 start to the season. After being held pointless in his first five games and not scoring a goal until his 16th, Giroux totalled 28 goals and 51 assists in his final 67 games of the season. The 26-year-old Hearst, Ont., native also compiled a career-long, nine-game point streak Dec. 11-30, (six goals, 11 assists) and recorded his 100th NHL goal Dec. 19. Hes looking to become the first Flyer to receive the Award since Eric Lindros in 1995. ' ' '