Bo Levi Mitchell gave the Calgary Stampeders a glowing recommendation when Matt Shiltz asked for his take on the CFL team.
Two thumbs up for the QB room …
And another two pointing skyward for head coach Dave Dickenson and the system here.
“Bo Levi told me how awesome it was going to be,” said Shiltz, when asking his former teammate about possibly landing with the Stampeders during free agency over the winter.
“And I just felt like this was the spot where God wanted me to be, and I trusted that,” continued the veteran quarterback, who also attracted attention from the BC Lions. “I think it’s been great in Calgary. It just kind of worked out that this was going to be a good fit.”
Even better for Shiltz now that he’s got first-string status with the Stamps — the gig held by Mitchell for so many wonderful years.
In just his second start for the Red and White, he goes up against Bo Levi and the host Hamilton Tiger-Cats on Friday at Tim Hortons Field (5 p.m., TSN, QR Calgary).
“I love Bo,” said Shiltz, with a smile. “We still kind of talk throughout the season, and we have a great relationship. So I want Bo to have all the success in the world and have a great season, and obviously he’s putting up numbers and doing his thing over there. So it’s been fun to watch him play.
“But it’ll be great to go against us this week. Yeah … I want him to play well. I want us to play even better and for us to come out on top.”
Such a favourable result would halt the ugly skid the Stamps are on.
They are winless in eight games — with a 0-7-1 mark during that span that knocked them out of the playoff picture for the first time in 19 CFL seasons.
The Horsemen are also an imperfect 0-7 on the road on the campaign, with two chances left to change that and try to improve on the paltry 4-11-1 record they’ve compiled on the 2024 calendar.
And it looks like it’s on Shiltz — and not Jake Maier or Logan Bonner or newcomer P.J. Walker — to try to steer them to a better ending on the year.
“We’re just going with Matt here and obviously see how things roll out,” declared Dickenson, when asked if he’d earmarked any of the other QBs in the Stamps’ stable to play this week in Steeltown or next week — for the team’s final game of the year — in Regina.
“I think we’re all auditioning,” continued the coach. “And honestly, you should be. That’s who you are. That’s your film that’s out there. That’s what you do. You can see from it some intangibles and some things that you know you want on certain players. And obviously you can see things — body language, other things — that if it looks bad, then that certainly is something that goes against them for the following year.”
In 31-year-old Shiltz, there hasn’t been much opportunity for Dickenson to see what he’s got.
When the native of St. Charles, Ill., went down with an ankle injury in practice a few months back, Maier had the Stamps in the playoff race.
But then came this current freefall, with Shiltz only becoming cleared for play in the last few weeks.
Of course, he mopped up in relief of Maier two weeks back in a loss to the host Lions, before getting last Saturday’s call for his debut start for the Stamps in a down-to-the-last-play loss to the visiting Edmonton Elks.
“I thought he competed hard,” said Dickenson of Shiltz. “I thought he used his feet, but he was able to sit in the pocket and make throws, and I thought he was good in the huddle.
“You know … the worst thing for Matt is he just hadn’t practised a lot. He was new to the team, and then he got hurt, and it was a leg injury. So he couldn’t really run around and do the things he wanted, but he did everything right to get back, and then really his first opportunity to play was against BC, and I thought he showed that he can extend plays and made that play over the top (for a Reggie Begelton touchdown), and he improved on that (against the Elks).
“So we’ll live and ride it out in this game and see if we can get a win with him.”
Against the Elks, the former NCAA Butler Bulldogs standout went 18-of-33 for 215 passing yards with one touchdown and one interception, while providing some escapability from the QB spot by running for 64 yards on five scampers.
“I don’t like how we kind of had some lulls there in the second and the third quarters,” said the 6-foot-2, 210-lb. Shiltz, upon reflecting on last Saturday’s contest. “I thought we started off relatively quick — would have loved to finish in the end zone in that first quarter. But I felt like we did do some good things.
“I think we still need to get on the same page a little bit with receivers and myself and just develop that chemistry. It was obviously the first time really getting legitimate practice reps during the week and then getting those game reps. There’s just little nuances on how they’re gonna be coming out of breaks and where I can expect them, where they expect the ball … those kind of certain things. And obviously, it would’ve been nice to capitalize on that pass at the end.
“But other than that, I felt like I was seeing the field pretty decent and I’m glad that my feet were able to be used in certain situations. At the end of the day, we were in a position to win at the end of the game, and I think that’s all you can ask.”
What he and fellow Stampeders are asking for this week is a win over his former team.
“It’s always different going against the old team,” added Shiltz, who was with the Tiger-Cats for the 2022 and ’23 CFL campaigns. “I spent two years there. I loved my time there. I love the fans there. I love the organization. I met my fiancée, Julia, there. You know … that’s her hometown, so Hamilton is definitely a special place.
“So I’ve got a very, very close spot in my heart for Hamilton, and I love the guys there. I have a lot of close relationships with a lot of people there. So it’ll be fun.”
SHORT YARDAGE
After suffering a head injury two weeks back, WR Cam Echols has been cleared to play Friday night … Also in are DB Nick Statz and DL Jaylon Hutchings … Coming out of the lineup are RB Peyton Logan, WR Cole Tucker (hamstring) and LB Darius Williams (wrist).
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