What do you make of this Stampeders team as they match up against Edmonton? What do you think they need to do to pull off the upset, even though they're at home?

I mean, the Stamps are one of few teams in the CFL who can really get pressure with four, and I think that's a big part of this matchup.

What can you do to knock Cody Fajardo off his game? Obviously, you can't be completely undisciplined on first down.

You've got to make sure that you're containing Justin Rankin.

He's obviously a big threat.

But if you get the Elks into second and long, you can at that point pin your ears back.

And I do think they have the athleticism as a front four to keep Cody in the pocket and put some pressure.

If they fire at all cylinders, they might be the best team.

Mm-hmm.

And, um, we, we've, we've had injuries.

This is one of the most banged up teams in the Canadian Football League.

And it's not just the number of injuries, but, you know, the, the seriousness of some of the injuries to some of their star players.

Roland Milligan Jr. is almost certainly out for the year.

And then you've got guys like Javon Campbell, who's been out long term.

Samuel Emilus going back on six-game.

Are the Lions starting to evolve into the theme- the team that we thought that they would eventually become and, and a contender?

Mm-hmm.

And, um, we, we've, we've had injuries.

This is one of the most banged up teams in the Canadian Football League.

And it's not just the number of injuries, but, you know, the, the seriousness of some of the injuries to some of their star players.

Roland Milligan Jr. is almost certainly out for the year.

And then you've got guys like Javon Campbell, who's been out long term.

Samuel Emilus going back on six-game.

Are the Lions starting to evolve into the team, the team that we thought that they would eventually become and, and a contender?

Mm-hmm.

But the issue is it, you know, it, it's easy to ask your fans to be patient when you've been good recently, [laughs] and you hit rock bottom.

Um, there is no grace right now in Ottawa, and I don't blame those fans, right? This team has made the, the, the playoffs once since, uh, that 2018 Grey Cup that you've referenced.

And I mean, it's been, th- multiple head coaches.

You know, Rick Campbell to, to Paul Appoules to Bob Dice to Ryan Dinwiddie.

And it's been multiple starters at quarterback from, you know, Don Davis to Matt Nichols to Nick Arbuckle to Drew Brown to Jeremiah Masoli to now Jake Mayer, and, and just none of it has worked.

And I mean, it's, it's wild to think that, you know, it, it, it's pre-pandemic that, that this team was consistently good.

Mm-hmm.

So, um, can you help us to get, uh, what was the fundamental thing discovered in this paper for our audience?

Yeah.

Um, so one of the, uh, first parts of it was actually just trying to figure out, uh...

There are kinda two main parts to it.

Um, the first being, can we actually describe the, uh, complex trait? And the way that I approached this was I used, uh, a bunch of images from some existing data that we already had on hand.

Uh, and I just tried to ask, can I actually sort of describe this just using nearest neighbor analysis? Where if we kinda know approximately where all the stomata are in an image, can I look at the sort of distances between rank-ordered neighbors, uh, take the vectors of those distances, because you don't just have a distance, you also have, like, a trajectory, um, and do those rank orders describe new information? Uh, and as it turned out, ob-obviously we got it published, so there, there was a pattern.

Uh, and- You actually, what we started to see is that there's some fundamental biology that you could capture just using that nearest neighbor analysis, uh, where the first two neighbors seem to actually be describing the fi- the file system, which is a fundamental feature of how grass stomata genesis works.

Can you tell us, uh, more about your publication experience with, uh, Plant Phenome Journal? What was the journey from initial submission to until it is in the print? What exactly you changed?

What have you seen from Trey Ford this year, and, you know, have you seen any steps from his time in Edmonton forward?

Yeah, and I, I've done some poking around about this and, and, you know, all the sources that I've spoken to, uh, regarding Trey in Hamilton are, are very positive.

He is someone who is coming in early.

He's someone who is staying late.

He's someone who is all in on football.

And whether they were valid or not, I think there were some concerns about that in Edmonton.

So it certainly seems as though, whether it's, uh, the influence from Scott Milanovich, the influence from Bo Levi Mitchell, um, it seems as though, uh, at the very least, Trey is, is currently operating like a, uh, like a true franchise quarterback, which again, I, I'm not saying is or, or was not true in Edmonton, but there were some, some concerns about that at times from the local leadership that was in place, at least while Trey was a, a relatively young quarterback there, uh, with, you know, some of the comments, for example, that Chris Jones made.

Mm-hmm.

What have you seen from Trey Ford this year? And, you know, have you seen any steps from his time in Edmonton forward?

Yeah.

And I, I've done some poking around about this and, and, you know, all the sources that I've spoken to, uh, regarding Trey in Hamilton are, are very positive.

He is someone who is coming in early.

He's someone who is staying late.

He's someone who is all in on football.

And whether they were valid or not, I think there were some concerns about that in Edmonton.

Mm-hmm.

It's been great.

Yeah, I love the 35-second play clock.

Um, I, I think all the changes, frankly, that have been done for this season have been very positive.

I anticipated before the seasons that they would be positive.

I, I know some, there, there were naysayers on the other side.

That's okay.

People are entitled to their opinions.

Yeah.

It's been great.

great.Yeah, I love the 35-second play clock.

Um, I, I think all the changes, frankly, that have been done for this season have been very positive.

I anticipated before the seasons that they would be positive.

I, I know some, there, there were naysayers on the other side.

That's okay.

People are entitled to their opinions.

Yeah.

Going back to the drawing board, what do the Elks have to improve on after this type of measuring stick against, let's just face it, the best team in the CFL?

I like that you called it a measuring stick game.

I kind of thought the way the schedule worked here for Edmonton is you kind of got a couple of those back-to-back, right? You had the home-and-home with Saskatchewan, and the Elks proved full well that they can hang with the Riders, right? Super evenly matched teams.

And then they got this measuring stick game against Montreal, and they went, oh, okay, no, we can't hang yet.

So the good news is you've got a whole second half of the season to figure that out.

And if you're going to see the Alouettes again – It's going to be in the Grey Cup, right? So that would be a good problem to have is, okay, we're matching up against the Alouettes in the Grey Cup.

I think everybody in Edmonton would be pretty over the moon for the Elks to make the Grey Cup this year just a little bit down the road in Calgary.

Yeah, I play well, but not so well as down south looking at you and might pull some of our talent out of our great game.

And, uh, I mean, uh, listen, uh, Vernon Adams, what is he, 17 [laughs] touchdowns, no picks in 2-4? Like, there's a lot of things about this Calgary season, and at least their record, that just does not make a lot of sense if you've watched the way they've looked most of the time they've been out there.

Yeah, I mean, this offense has been unbelievable.

DeAndre Mills is the CFL's leading rusher right now.

He's been excellent.

Vernon Adams Jr., 17 touchdowns, no picks.

Like, I, I'm pretty sure Chad Kelly won MLP a few years ago throwing 23 touchdowns and 12 picks.

So through just six games, I mean, the, the pace that VA is on is, is unbelievable.

But taking a step back and looking at it critically, what are your thoughts on Drew Brown right now coming out of that game where it didn't look good for a long time, but then given a bunch of opportunities, they went in, made them pay, and ended up getting the win?

So, uh, how do you see this heading into, uh, week seven as they get to kick things off on Friday?

Well, I think it's a good match up, right? I mean, these two teams played a heck of a game in Kelowna.

The Lions got the best of the Elks, and I think everyone would agree that after a couple of really, really awful defensive performances to start the year, the Lions are better than their record indicated, right? This is a team that everybody picked to make the playoffs in 2026.

They've got the MLP at quarterback.

And though obviously, yeah, there, there are still elements that they need to work on.

Pass rush has to be more consistent.

Special teams has to be better.

But what's your, what's your read on Cody?

[chime]

Yeah, and look, I, I don't think the BC Lions are nearly as bad as their record shows.

Yeah, they were 0-3 coming into that game in Kelowna.

You know, defensively, yeah, they had a poor start to the season.

Um, offensively, they've, they've been nicked up at receiver in, in particular.

But, I mean, when you have the MOP under center, a guy who's a dual threat, who can m- you know, make any play that you could reasonably expect of a quarterback, and you have two great weapons, because Keon Hatcher and Justin McInnis are healthy, I, I mean, they, they can put up 30 points easily, which is why I'm so excited for that matchup.

I think BC's offense is dangerous, but Edmonton's defense is excellent.

Um, Trey Ford came in and went five for six and, you know, almost double the average, 7.8. What do you think they do at the quarterback position next for their starter?

What, what's your expectations for Friday? Like, here's an opportunity for Edmonton to just say, "Okay, we didn't like our game in BC," but they gotta bounce back, and I, and I think it really starts on both lines of scrimmage, 'cause they kinda got manhandled in BC.

Yeah.

And look, I, I don't think the BC Lions are nearly as bad as their record shows.

Yeah, they were 0-3 coming into that game in Kelowna.

You know, defensively, yeah, they had a poor start to the season.

Um, offensively, they've, they've been nicked up at receiver in, in particular.

But, I mean, when you have the MLP under center, a guy who's a dual threat, who can m- you know, make any play that you could reasonably expect of a quarterback, and you have two great weapons, 'cause Keon Hatcher and Justin McInnis are healthy, I, I mean, they, they can put up 30 points easily, which is why I'm so excited for that matchup.

Um, Trey Ford came in and went five for six and, you know, almost double the average, 7.8. What do you think they do at the quarterback position next for their starter?

Mm.

"... stacking the box.

We are overwhelming the line of scrimmage.

We are not losing contain for anything." I mean, we saw particularly the, the 47-yard touchdown this past week, that was unbelievable.

Isaac, uh, uh, Adeyemi Burgland, and you had Najee Murray for the, the Montreal Alouettes just crash off the edge.

Had Justin Rankin dead to rights.

I still don't know how he dodged both guys and broke contain.

But at one on one, uh, what's the feeling for this Bombers team?

No.

That said, uh...

Oh, actually, no, sir, you are correct.

It's been three years in Hamilton.

The first one was, was totally forgettable.

Um, injuries.

And to Bo's credit, he kept pushing through, and he will rave and, and rave about the team's strength and conditioning coach, Marcellus Bowman, former CFL linebacker, played for the Bombers and Ti-Cats.

Uh, if there is a, a, a starting quarterback controversy in the CFL, is Edmonton one of the places that you might predict it could happen?

We're talking astronomical numbers here, aren't we, John?

Yeah, and I mean, there's nothing official.

The CFL...

When asked directly today, we had Stuart on our podcast at 3downnation.com, and he declined to confirm anything other than it was a substantial increase over the previous television deal, though it's worth noting they've never officially made it clear how much the old one is worth.

So we believe it's somewhere over the six years in the neighborhood of $500 million.

I've been led to believe it might be a little lower than that, somewhere in the $440 million range.

And also it's possibly a little bit more backloaded.

on inside sports uh you know and we go back to the criticisms of the the field modifications and the rule changes and the playoff format and um all i know john is that what was it two or three weeks after the playoff format was announced as a private group that wants to build a stadium in halifax and i'm going already we're starting to see uh interested parties I think what the CFL, and correct me if I'm wrong, what they're trying to do is show interested parties, this is the value of CFL, this is how much you could make, and now you throw in this rights deal, which like you say, there's unofficial numbers out there, but there's a chance to make real money in this league now.

Uh, what happened with those guys that caused them to leave the team and be put on the suspended list?

Yeah, weird situation.

I, I think when it comes to both of these departures, it came down to the realization [laughs] that both these guys signed, Thorne signed in January, uh, Bryce Perkins signed in December.

Terry Wilson's obviously been around.

But, you know, this once looked like a spot where the QB job was, maybe not up for the taking now, but it was up for the taking in the relatively near future, right? Zach Collaros is gonna turn 38 in August.

He's coming off two down years.

You can see how, for a, a quarterback, whether you're talking about Taylor Elgersma, Bryce Perkins, Peyton Thorne, Terry Wilson, whoever, you can see how, okay, this is a really good spot to potentially set up and, and be the franchise guy for a marquee CFL franchise for the next 10 years.

What did you kinda make of the defense and, and some of the battles on the other side of the football for the Bombers?