Huskie Outsider

CanadaWest teams are allowed to travel with 40 players on the roster. At home, they can dress 50. The Huskies hit the road this weekend to take on the Calgary Dinos. With a reduced roster size, they decided that they could only afford one roster spot for kickers.

The Huskies did not need to use an extra roster spot for a kicker last year as Grant Shaw was a starting corner and handled all kicking duties. He is now a CFL star. Perhaps, at home, the Huskies could dress two kickers with the expanded roster. But for this weekend Special Teams Coordinator Doug Humbert had to make a decision. Do you go with someone who is a slightly better punter? Or do you go with someone who is a slightly better placekicker?

Huskies kicker Denton Kolodzinski (Steve Hiscock for Liam Richards Photography)

Throughout training camp and during the non-conference game against Western Stephen MacDonald and Denton Kolodzinksi battled to be the number one kicker. MacDonald, who is an accomplished field goal kicker, was working on punting. Kolodzinski, fresh out of high-school, is a good punter with a strong leg, needed to improve on place kicking.

In the end, the Huskies coaches decided to take Kolodzinski to Calgary.
“Both of the kickers have done a tremendous job this week,” said Humbert. “Denton has a quicker release time, especially in his punting. That is what it probably boiled down to.”

“Stephen and Denton both have strong legs. What they really need is some game experience,” added Humbert. “They need to play in a pressure situation because they both have the talent to kick in this league.”

While Kolodzinksi is a CIS rookie, there are lots of veterans on special teams to help him when he needs it. The Huskies will use similar systems to what they did last year  which means the veterans will be more comfortable. “I think that we are further down the road than we were at this time last year,” said Humbert. “And with the veterans on the team, I think the special teams are in good shape.”

“It will be great to go to Calgary and see where we are at,” Humbert said. “It will give us a good starting point. Our philosophy is that we want to get better every game and starting against the top ranked team in the country should give us a good indication of what we need to do to improve.”

Kick-off on Saturday night is at 7:00.

Filed under: Huskies Tagged: | humbert, kolodzinski, macdonald