Veteran defensive lineman Charlie Taggart has a pretty simple goal for the 2017 OUA football season.
“When coach (Brian) Cluff asked me what I’d like to do this season, I said ‘Finish every play.’ If everybody has that same mindset where we want to go 100 per cent until the end of every play, we will be successful,” he said. “We will be as successful as we can be as a team as long as we stick to that mentality of going hard, playing for each other and really, just staying committed to the process.”
The third-year Gryphon and the rest of his teammates completed their training camp Thursday.
“It went all right,” he said. “As a team, we were really flying around. Everyone seemed to be really focused which was really positive and the energy has been outstanding. We’re flying around on the football team.”
Taggart also feels he’s set for the season to begin.
“Myself, I feel like I’ve had a pretty good camp. I tried to apply some stuff that I worked on in the off-season with a few former (Gryphons). I feel like I’m ready for the season and hopefully have a big season.”
The Gryphons left Friday morning for Antigonish, N.S., where they’ll play in the Summer Showdown there with the St. Francis Xavier X-Men and Mount Allison Mounties. Each team gets two quarters of game time against each of the other two teams.
“We’re going to see what we’re made of,” Taggart said. “We’re going to go and get a good look at Mount Allison and StFX. Those two are always playing in the (Atlantic) championship against each other. That will help prepare us.”
Taggart has also been slotted in as a back-up long snapper behind Job Reinhart.
“I’ve been working on it periodically,” Taggart said. “I worked on it with Daniel Mac (Dan MacDonald) who used to be a long snapper here. I’ve worked with Job (Reinhart) and I’ve worked with Gabe Ferraro a little bit, gone back to Hamilton when he’s gone to kick and I’ve done some long snapping with him. I’m trying to add it to my repertoire.”
That could help him make the step to the professional ranks because the more you can do, the more valuable you are.
“That’s the dream,” he said.
The Gryphons are to start their regular season against a pair of tough teams as they’re to host the Ottawa Gee-Gees at Alumni Stadium Aug. 27 at 1 p.m. and play the Western Mustangs at London at 7 p.m. on Labour Day.
“Those two, Ottawa and Western, are always good teams — winning records, good offensive coordinators, good defensive coordinators,” Taggart said. “It’s definitely better to start with a tough schedule than a soft one so that we can really see how tough we are as a team and see what we need to fix.”
Both the Gee-Gees and Mustangs qualified for the playoffs last season as Western finished at 7-1 and Ottawa was at 6-2. And both beat the Gryphons in their 3-5 campaign, Western winning 50-16 in Guelph’s Homecoming Game and Ottawa winning 31-28 in double overtime at Ottawa. Those losses will help serve as motivation for the Gryphons.
“We can’t wait to play,” Taggart said. “There’s a lot of unfinished business and I think everyone has the same feeling in their stomach. We can’t wait to get out there.”