About the only thing that can slow down Diontae Spencer, rising football star, is a little bureaucracy.
There sat the Ottawa REDBLACKS speedster, patiently waiting his turn in line at a government office, ready to get his work papers in order for another season. Spencer assured me he had time for a phone conversation, but I assumed he would pull some sort of spin and sprint, right there in the waiting room, cutting our interview short. He did not.
Diontae Spencer has his talents but there are limits after all.
The 26-year-old native of New Iberia, Louisiana, is entering his second season in Ottawa, with high hopes as well as a burr under his saddle, looking for a REDBLACKS surge that will put the team in position to return to the Grey Cup glory it experienced in 2016.
“I feel like we have the best offence in the league, hands down. If we can have the ball in our hands (even more) we can’t be stopped.”
– REDBLACKS receiver Diontae Spencer
Spencer sees no ceiling for the offence. “The sky’s the limit,” he says, adding that he can peer over to the other side of the line of scrimmage and get juiced about the defence he sees out there, under the guidance of new coordinator Noel Thorpe.
“It’s gonna be a great year,” Spencer says, when asked about the overall feeling in the nation’s capital.
“I’m excited. It’s just a different vibe this year. I think everybody’s buying into what we have.”
What the REDBLACKS have in 2018 is some continuity on offence, with Spencer and fellow receivers Greg Ellingson and Brad Sinopoli back to drive the air attack engine, on the other end of missiles delivered by quarterback Trevor Harris. Veteran running backs William Powell and Mossis Madu are in the backfield to keep opposing defences off balance.
Spencer, the dynamic returner who hauled back punts, kick-offs and missed field goals to the tune of 1,796 yards in 2017 (he returned one punt for a touchdown and one missed field goal for a 113-yard touchdown), has his sights personally set high, even if he will not define exactly what those goals are. Aim for a single-season combined yards mark? Try to top his single game record of 496 combined yards, set in a game against Hamilton last October? He ain’t saying.
“I have certain goals that I try to reach,” he offers. “I would like to achieve a lot of things but it’s not something I dwell on. I just want to do my best.” Then he adds, in a bit of a droll fashion; “Sometimes when you’re trying to do your best, records are broken.”
Last year, Spencer totalled 2,759 combined yards, placing him second in the CFL behind BC’s Chris Rainey, who topped the charts at 3,181. If Spencer wants the crown, it appears he will need to find even more yardage and he believes he can do much more in one particular area in 2018.
“This year, hopefully, I’ll be more of a threat on offence,” he says, referring to his desire to emerge as an elite receiver. He was no slouch in 2017, hauling in passes for 922 yards, ranking him 16th in the league.
“Kinda got things going late last year,” he says, a little disappointed in his pass-catching output. “But I was learning a different system.
Hopefully more will come out of that, being in the system another year.”
There are no real worries about the Ottawa offence for the upcoming season, even if there will be some new faces at what you would term the secondary receiving positions. With 1,000-yard rusher Powell driving the ground game, and 4,700 yard quarterback Harris slinging to the big three of Ellingson, Sinopoli and Spencer (that’s 3,390 yards in catches right there) the 2017 totals suggest the REDBLACKS offence should tick along nicely once again.
But here’s the question: How will a revamped defence, complete with Thorpe as the schemer, help the REDBLACKS bounce back from what was a mediocre, sub .500 year?
Spencer is excited by the possibilities and by what he has seen of the defence through camp, both from the sidelines and during practice.
“More physicality,” he notes. “More energy on that side of the ball. Guys flyin’ around and playing fast. Coach Thorpe, I think he’s doing a great job with those guys. We’ve added guys like (defensive back) Rico Murray and Kyries (linebacker Hebert) to be back there with those younger guys and add that leadership. It’s only gonna make us better in the long run.”
Thorpe, of course, arrived in Ottawa this past off-season after a stellar run as defensive coordinator in Montreal, where his crews consistently kept the Alouettes in games year after year despite the team’s failure to find any sort of offensive consistency following the retirement of hall-of-fame quarterback Anthony Calvillo. That he is designing the Ottawa defence has been cause for some great excitement in The Capital.
Along with veterans Murray and Hebert, Thorpe has a few more key free agent signings at his disposal; Strong side linebacker Loucheiz Purifoy is aboard, bringing his wrecking ball mentality from BC. So is defensive back Josh Johnson, a star with the Lions before heading south to the NFL for two seasons. Former Roughriders’ defensive end A.C. Leonard is now part of the mix, the hopes being that he can combine with the guy on the other end of the line, Jonathan Newsome, to make things less comfortable for opposition quarterbacks. Yes, the REDBLACKS did lose star middle linebacker Taylor Reed to free agency (Toronto) but, overall, the expectation for 2018 is that Ottawa will be much tougher to move the ball on.
“I feel like we have the best offence in the league, hands down,” says Spencer, when asked what an improved defence can mean to Ottawa. “If we can have the ball in our hands (even more) we can’t be stopped.”
A proven offence, an improved defence. They may not be the only things at play for the Ottawa REDBLACKS in 2018. A few weeks back, CFL.ca published its first media poll results, and every team except the REDBLACKS got at least one of the 73 votes as someone’s pick to win the Grey Cup.
“I’m very aware that we didn’t get any votes,” says Spencer, and you can pretty well hear his eyes narrow and his teeth clench, over the phone. “With what this organization has done in the past, with the success that it’s had, to not get a vote, it’s kinda put a chip on our shoulders.”
The oversight will undoubtedly be one of the things that stuffs the REDBLACKS’ engine room with coal in 2018. Spencer will be fuel, too, as a busy workload coupled with a comfortable feeling about the role he is playing might have him poised to crack the magic 3,000 combined yards barrier.
Not that he’ll put it in so many words.
“I’m looking to bring more excitement, to be a leader on the field,” he says, simply.
Which you can expect him to do and be, in 2018.
As long as that paperwork came through.
