In the third week of the 2016 Canada West football regular season, Manitoba Bisons third year quarterback Theo Deezar was selected Canada West Offence Football Athlete of the Week plus Bison first year kick returner/receiver Shai Ross was named Canada West Special Teams Football Athlete of the Week for the week ending September 18/16.

Quarterback Theo Deezar had one of his best games in his three year Bison career against the Alberta Golden Bears on Friday, September 16. The Bisons won 42-12 at home over the Bears and Deezar was near perfect in a 'must win' game to get back into the [playoff hunt for the Herd.

The Winnipeg pivot went a sparkling 21-27 (78%) for 345 passing yards and four passing TDs – tied for fifth most in Bison history in a single game – in just over three quarters of play. In addition, Deezar added 21 rushing yards on three carries and scoring one rush touchdown.

In the home win, the third year QB had touchdown passes of 40, 26, 21 and 15 yards and his longest pass went for 52 yards. In addition, 11 of his passes were thrown for 15 or more yards. Deezar also was in control as he had stretches of eight and six consecutive successful passes during the just over three quarters of his play.

In 2016 Canada West regular season stats, Deezar is second in passing yards at 1,080, second in passing touchdowns with seven plus third in competitions (74) and third in passing percentage (64.3%) while starting and playing in all three games.

Kick returner Shai Ross (pronounced: Shy) had quite the game on special teams and offence during the Manitoba Bisons 42-12 home win over the Alberta Golden Bears on Friday, September 16.

Ross was instrumental in setting up the home side with good field position as he had three kickoff returns for 94 yards (for a 31.3 yards average) and the longest was 45.

The multi-talented kick returner/receiver started the game with a kickoff return of 22 yards and then added a 45 yard return and ended the contest with a 27 yard return.

In addition, the third year eligibility but first year Bison had a strong game on offence with five catches for a game-high 104 yards and two receiving TDs.

The Winnipeg native leads the Canada West conference in kickoff return yards with 243 in three conference games plus first in conference kickoff returns at ten and second in kickoff return average at 24.3.

This is the second and third time that Manitoba Bisons football players has earned conference player of the week honours in 2016 season (week one: defence – DJ Lalama; week three: offence – Theo Deezar; week three: special teams – Shai Ross;).


Bison Football Notes: Manitoba (1-2) stays at home this weekend as they host the Saskatchewan Huskies (2-1) in the annual Homecoming Game on Saturday, September 24 at 1 p.m. CT at Investors Group Field (U of Manitoba Fort Garry campus). The game will also be televised live on canadawest.tv website along with radio broadcast can be heard live on 101.5 UMFM (online at: umfm.com).