A season filled with obstacles and ironies failed to prevent a former standout at the University of Cincinnati from competing for Canadian football’s highest honor.
Neither a severe concussion nor more than four months of inactivity nor two trades could keep Zach Collaros from Sunday’s appointment in Calgary as the Winnipeg Blue Bombers’ quarterback against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in the 107th Grey Cup, the Canadian Football League’s championship game.
Setting that appointment meant guiding the Bombers to three dramatic victories, including two on the road in the West Division playoffs. The first playoff win came against the defending Grey Cup champions, the Calgary Stampeders. In the second, Winnipeg beat the Saskatchewan Roughriders, the divisional champions and the team that employed Collaros when the season began.
“He’s very competitive,” said Buck Pierce, the Bombers’ quarterbacks coach. “I think that comes off just as who he is as a person. He’s very detailed. He understands the game of football. He understands how the position is supposed to be played.”
The Bombers hope to win their first Grey Cup since 1990. But when asked what playing in the CFL’s championship game meant personally, especially this year, the former Bearcat deflected attention from himself.
“Putting myself aside, you play this game to play in championship games, right?” Collaros said. “So you show up Day One of camp and you set a goal with your teammates that this is where you want to end up. Obviously, my path has been different but that doesn’t change what the goal is.”
That path began June 13 in Hamilton on the third play of the season. As Saskatchewan’s starting quarterback, Collaros suffered a concussion while sliding at midfield when linebacker Simoni Lawrence hit him in the head. Lawrence drew a 25-yard penalty and a two-game suspension, with Collaros going on the six-game injured list.
Collaros’ third concussion in 13 months forced him to confront unwanted retirement.
“You always have those thoughts,” he said. “You never know when your last play is going to be. I try to stay optimistic but you just never know, so you’ve really got to relish the moment and be grateful for the situation you’re in.”
Meanwhile, Collaros’ backup, Cody Fajardo, experienced a breakout season. Fajardo would lead the CFL in passing yardage (4,302), rank second in completions (338) and finish sixth in touchdowns (18) while guiding Saskatchewan to the league’s second-best record.
On July 31, the Roughriders traded Collaros to the Toronto Argonauts, where he began his CFL career. Though Collaros never took the field after that trade, the team’s medical staff played a pivotal role in his recovery.
“They sent me to every specialist you could think of,” he said. “They sent me to every doctor to make sure I was getting checked up on and doing all the right things to give myself peace of mind to get back out there.”
Two weeks later, Winnipeg lost its starting quarterback. On Oct. 9, the CFL’s trade deadline, the Bombers acquired Collaros from Toronto.
When the Bombers lost four of five games under Nichols’ replacement, Chris Streveler, Collaros began practicing with the first team to prepare for his first start in nearly five months: the regular-season finale Oct. 25 against Calgary.
All Collaros did was engineer a 64-yard drive in the final 2:01 that gave Winnipeg a 29-28 victory. Collaros completed 22 of 28 passes for 221 yards and two touchdowns with one interception.
The teams met again Nov. 10 in the West Semifinal. With Collaros throwing for 193 yards and a touchdown, the Bombers scored 27 points in the second half to rally from a 14-8 halftime deficit and earn a 35-14 win. Then in the West Final on Nov. 17, Collaros returned to Regina’s Mosaic Stadium under a fusillade of boos from a capacity crowd of 33,000.
But late in the first quarter, the former Roughrider crafted the drive that put the Bombers ahead for good.
Now, Collaros will try to win his third Grey Cup title on Sunday.
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November 24, 2019 at 08:44AM
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Catching up: Former UC QB Zach Collaros goes for CFL Grey Cup with Winnipeg Blue Bombers - The Cincinnati Enquirer
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