Q&A: Blue Bombers QB Zach Collaros on a year to remember, returning to Grey Cup

The Winnipeg Blue Bombers go into the 108th CFL Grey Cup not only looking to defend their title but also make history as one of the best teams ever. The Bombers are not only 11-3 but their average points scored (25.8), average points allowed (13.4) and turnover ratio (+18) are all league bests.

They dominated the CFL awards Friday night including their quarterback Zach Collaros being named the league’s Most Outstanding player. Collaros is 11-2 as a starter in 2021 and one win away from capping off one of the most dominant seasons by a player or team in CFL history.

Collaros was married a couple of years ago and now has two baby girls. That sense of family has him in a great space not only professionally but personally heading back to face the team that first made him their starter.

The former Hamilton Tiger-Cat quarterback will face off once again against current starter Dane Evans making it’s the first time since 2009, 2010 the same quarterbacks have started in consecutive Grey Cups.

In a conversation for the Waggle podcast, I spoke to Collaros about the long wait between defending Grey Cups and who has helped him along the way. Here are the highlights of that convo.

Sportsnet.ca: What is one word you’d use to describe this year?

Zach Collaros: I think the one word that really has stuck out and resonated with me since training camp probably isn’t a word to use to describe the path to get here, but just more so big picture overall look at everything. And Michael O’Shea said it in front of our team before training camp started. It was gratitude and finding things to be grateful for and thankful for. All the different rules and the hoops that we had to jump through to even play a season, to even have training camp for you guys to do what you’re doing here.

I’m sure it’s been crazy. You can find reasons to complain, but to really just at the end of the day, just be grateful that we’re giving the opportunity to play the game and to provide for our family this season. So that’s something that’s been in the back of all of our minds since he brought that up. And I think it’s something that’s been really powerful for our room.

SN.ca: You’re probably grateful for your health in a different way, being able to play now, we’re all grateful for our health. Sure, being here in 2021, what has that pause in between been like when the game was taken away from you, but from all of us?

ZC: Everybody talks about what you’re going to do after you’re done playing and having a plan for it. The scary thing with football is always it can be taken away from you at any moment. So, you really have to be prepared. And then that kind of happened in the form of a pandemic to everybody. So, I feel like even if you had a plan with the uncertainty surrounding, obviously the virus and the league itself, if we were going to play in 2020, there was definitely some days that were a little darker than others, just in terms of having hoped that we’re going to play a season.

But I can’t say again how grateful and thankful we are to be playing this season and for all the work that’s gone into it from everybody around the league, every front office, the people at the league offices, ultimately the players to be ready to play. It’s really cool that we’re here the culmination of the season of 2021 and having to miss that 2020 season just makes it even sweeter.

SN.ca: You got a preview of what life after football might be like. You got to spend some extended time with family, and certainly you don’t get to a position like this without support from your family. You’re going to have family in the stands. How vital are they in allowing you to be able to do what you do?

ZC: Yeah. I think everybody who plays this game to get to this moment in the season understands it takes a lot of time. There’s a lot of time you put in every single day, whether it’s the off season, especially during the season, and really, it goes back for me to my wife and just her unselfishness to allow me to do this. We only had one child at the beginning of this, and she was pregnant with our other one. And this is pretty unbelievable to me that again, all that time, she allows me to put into this while she’s home now. Obviously, she’s with the children. There’s obviously a lot of good things, but there’s a lot of challenges, too, right? My wife, obviously, and her family being in the area and flying out toward the end before the birth of our second child. My mother-in-law basically lived with us for two months, so really grateful for that. And my mom did too there for about a two-week span leading up to it’s amazing to have family support. I’ve always thought I’m a very lucky person in that respect growing up, but definitely with the pandemic and being away from it puts a lot of things in perspective. And again, just really feel the love and how lucky I am to have family like that.

SN.ca: If I had one word to describe watching you play and handle yourself this week, it would be comfortable. In 2019, you’re still introducing yourself to some teammates, in some ways, it’s your team now, but comfortable in the offence, comfortable in your place in the league and the organization. Is that a fair assessment of how you feel right now in your career?

ZC: I think so. I think that comfortability comes, there’s a lot of factors in it, obviously, like you said in 2019, I was scrambling to learn everything even during this week. But the organization has just been unbelievable and giving us as a team everything that we need to be able to prepare at the level that we prepare for, to be ready for the season and ultimately for this game. I think you find comfort in your preparation and starting at the top of Wade, they provide us everything that we need week in and week out to be ready to play these games.

And I think on a personal level, just getting to know my teammates more and more during the pandemic, even though it’s just mostly text threads and then obviously in training camp and throughout the season, it’s just been unbelievable for all of us. And I think great teams are comprised of great people and great relationships, and it’s just been great being able to get to know everybody more and more. And that bond, I think, goes a long way on the field.

SN.ca: When you first started in the league I remember thinking, who is that, that Jim Barker’s been hiding? You were so athletic I was thinking, if someone blitzes, you better get home, or you might pull it and make a big play. Now, watching I say if someone blitzes you, he’s going to make a big play over the top if they don’t get home. Is that a transformation in terms of young quarterbacks they often fear being blitzed, where veteran quarterbacks, they actually look forward to being blitzed?

ZC: I think the first part of your question is just I didn’t know what I was doing. When you’re young and you get thrown in there and you haven’t seen a lot of the looks. This game is radically different from the College game in the US. So just I think really relying on athleticism to kind of get me by there for the first part of my career. When I got to Hamilton and was coached there, I’d make a big play and really get hit and continuously get told by the coaching staff, hey, you have to start figuring out the big picture here because availability is the best ability and we need you on the field.

I was coached really well there. Tommy Condell, who’s still their offensive coordinator, the way that I look at the game, I really learned through him and his eyes and how to prepare for the different looks and coverages. I still apply those things today. And I think it’s gone a long way for me. And as you get older, I think you also understand the big picture of the game. And can I get out and make a big play? Yes, there’s obviously risk reward involved with it.

But if we all see a look, which again credit to our offence, credit to our staff. We have a lot of really smart people involved, it’s hey, we all kind of see it. Can we really pierce the defence here if we catch them in this look? You always try to find those little wrinkles in a defence, and maybe it might happen one or two times a game. But if you could take advantage of it, it’s a big thing.

SN.ca: You have a different voice in your ear as in 2019 the offensive coordinator was Paul LaPolice and now it’s Buck Pierce. Has there been an adjustment for you being the quarterback on the field trying to execute?

ZC: No, I think again, 2019 was so different than this year as I was just learning as I go, and things were much more basic. I feel like working with Buck has just been an amazing experience because obviously with him being in his first year, there’s some things that quote unquote he doesn’t know about this or that. And I think just his humility is something that really shines through. At the beginning of training camp. He’d be in front of the unit and ask the receivers how we should run this concept or things like that.

And I think that really was great for a unit because that’s something that you want to lead. You don’t want somebody who’s going to just pound the desk and say, we’re going to do it my way or the highway kind of thing. I think it really resonated with the group and along those lines, he’s just been great with his communication skills, of what the game plan is, what it’s going to take to win. And obviously on the preparation side of things, he doesn’t just walk in and throw a game plan on the table and say, this is what we’re doing.

Him and I are texting each other at 10:00 p.m. or 06:00 a.m. Like, hey, did you watch this clip? What do you think? Blah, blah, blah. Let’s get together and talk through this. And I think for a quarterback anytime that you’re involved, I’m not saying I’m involved in the entire game plan, but anytime you’re involved in different situational football, when you get out there in the field, it’s like, oh, I’ve thought through this, I’ve seen this. We’ve talked about it. I know why he’s calling this play, and I think that really goes a long way.

Our success as a unit, I think, has really been picked up from Buck and just his style of coaching.

SN.ca: When I look at the success of this offence, the thing that jumps out is how multiple you are, same package, same groupings can do a lot of different things which doesn’t really allow defences to play fast. Has that been a point of emphasis throughout the year?

ZC: I think it’s been a point of emphasis in this organization dating back to when LaPolice was here. You see signs around that we’re going to run all the same plays that everybody does in the league, but we’re going to do that in multiple sets, and we’re going to motion to it, and we’re going to be the best in the league at it. And that’s kind of our mindset. And along those lines, having so many veterans and the continuity, we’ve been really able to, I think, pick up our communication this year, like you said earlier, when we see a look that we can maybe pierce the defence, we can get into a certain play or slide protection.

And the receivers are thinking what I’m thinking. I think that’s really gone a long way. But like I said, it all starts with playing fast, and I think being able to be multiple presents the defence with some problems.

SN.ca: Nice luxury in having 33 behind you.

ZC: It’s pretty obvious what he does in the running game. But I think obviously his leadership skills are huge for not just our unit, but the entire locker room. And for me personally, as a quarterback, the way that he sees protections, I can hear him as he’s running behind me or as he’s coming across to pick up a linebacker. Hey, you’re hot, hot. And it’s like having another quarterback out there just in terms of seeing what the defence is doing and you can really find comfort in.

All right, I can hold on to this ball split second longer to let Darvin win on this route and hopefully make a big play.

SN.ca: Something you’re less comfortable talking about is yourself. But a lot of people are talking about the year you’ve had putting it up there with great years that other quarterbacks have had. When you think of the fact that your name is being mentioned in that conversation, does it for you feel like an affirmation of all of the hard work you put in to get in that conversation?

ZC: You think about being up for an award like I’m up for and kind of the big picture, like historically of it. And some of the guys who have won the award, the Warren Moon’s and Doug Flutie’s, two guys that I kind of idolized growing up when they were playing, not even realizing they were in the CFL as an American player. When you sit back and think of it that way, it’s pretty awesome to even be up for the award. I haven’t spent a lot of time thinking about it.

This game is the most important thing, but I think any individual award, I think Biggie (Adam Bighill) would say the same thing and Stanley (Bryant), too. We don’t get this type of praise without the entire unit, the entire organization. I always say the quarterback gets a lot of the praise when things are going really well and a lot of the blame when they’re not going well. And I wouldn’t be sitting here being asked a question like this by you if it wasn’t for our offensive line, our running backs or receivers.

Just the way that we’ve approached the entire season in the whole process of day to day going to work, guys making plays. And ultimately, they got to give the award to somebody. I hate talking about myself, but I feel really lucky to just be a part of the organization, be a part of the unit. I’ve never been in a locker room where you’re just around so many people that take this profession seriously and want to be great and I think guys feed off it.

And I’ve told a lot of the guys in the locker room behind the scenes, hey, I’m honored to be your teammate, and I tried to work harder for the example that you set. I think a lot of guys feel that way. So anytime you’re given a chance to win an award like this, it’s ultimately about the team.

SN.ca: Is there a player that you want to win this game for?

ZC: Yeah. I think about Michael Couture, who had an injury in week 18 of the 2019 season and wasn’t able to play in the game. Him and the offensive line, we put a lot of work in together during the week and really good friends with all those guys off the field as well. I’m really excited for him to run out of the tunnel, get that experience. But he’ll tell you the same thing once the ball snapped, like, we’re getting to work. But I’m really excited for him that we were able to get back in the spot.

SN.ca – You had some great years, in this town. Knowing what football means to this community, how cool is it to be part of it the local celebrations of the Grey Cup.

ZC – I think it’s awesome. I feel like the old guy in the room even more where we’re staying. It’s like, oh, yeah, we can go here. We can go here. And I know little spots and rolling in the stadium yesterday definitely brought back some good memories. Spent a lot of time obviously at work there. I think it’s amazing for the city. I think the passion for the CFL just in the entire country is impressive, but you really obviously feel it in the city as well, especially when you’re playing for the Ti-Cats or against the Ti-Cats.

It’s been an amazing week so far. We haven’t even really been able to interact with any of the fans yet, so it’s going to be really special, I think obviously on Sunday, and I know Grey Cup is a big party, so I’m sure there’s a lot of fans from all over the country coming in to see what Hamilton has to offer, and I think it’s really special for the community.

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