When Jeremiah Masoli went down with a non-contact injury vs. the Hamilton Tiger Cats, many RedBlacks fans assumed the season was over. And justifiably so.

   The club was off to another poor start, exacerbated by a revolving door at the quarterback position. The team had already cycled through Nick Arbuckle, Tyrie Adams, and Masoli. Now they were turning the ball over to an unknown prospect out of Kent State named Dustin Crum.

   Fast forward two weeks, and suddenly fans of the “rouge et noir” are wondering aloud whether they’ve found their new franchise QB.

Golden Boy

   Prior to authoring back to back overtime victories over the Blue Bombers and Stampeders, Crum was a 3 sport star in Grafton, Ohio. As a senior at Midview High School, the now 24 year old threw for 32 TDs and rushed for 14 more scores on the ground as he flashed his dual threat ability en route to becoming a finalist for the Mr. Ohio Football award.

   He opted to stay close to home for college, electing to attend Kent State University where he saw limited action as a freshman and sophomore. However in his junior season he would start the final 12 games of the year for the Golden Flashes, and was named the MVP of the 2019 Frisco Bowl.

   In his breakout bowl performance he would throw for 289 yards and two TDs while adding 147 yards on the ground plus a score as Kent State downed the Utah State Aggies 51-41. The victory marked the first bowl win in school history.

   COVID would disrupt his senior year, resulting in an extra year of eligibility for the 6’1’ quarterback. As a 5th year senior Crum would go on to earn 1st team All-MAC, MAC offensive player of the year, and MAC MVP honours.

   But despite his live arm, and ability to gain yards with his legs, NFL teams weren’t exactly  lining up to select the Mid American Conference standout. After going undrafted in 2022, the Kansas City Chiefs signed Crum as a UDFA, but waived him later that summer on August 27th. 

   With Patrick Mahomes under centre, and veteran Chad Henne having a cult-like following in the hearts of Chiefs fans, the Ohio native would ultimately lose out on the final QB spot to Shane Buechele out of SMU.

Welcome to Canada

   But the Chief’s loss was the RedBlacks gain as Ottawa would go on to ink Crum to a midseason deal on September 6th 2022. Following the conclusion of a less than inspiring 4-14 campaign, the front office came to terms with Crum on an extension, with the understanding that he would be a depth QB in 2023.

   Fate it would seem had other plans for Crum.

   After a series of injuries and ineffective play from his fellow QBs, head coach Bob Dyce tapped Crum to be the week 6 starter vs. the powerhouse Winnipeg Blue Bombers. After falling agonizingly short in the comeback attempt vs. Hamilton a week prior, Crum and the RedBlacks orchestrated an OT victory for the ages, much to the delight of a reduced crowd after hundreds of fans foolishly left the game early, thinking the match over.

   It was a similar scene last night as Ottawa would once again emerge victorious in overtime, this time on the road against the Calgary Stampeders. 

   Across what essentially amounts to two and a half games at this point in his CFL career, the American QB has amassed 664 yards through the air, and 264 yards on the ground. While his 3 interceptions show he still has some nuances of the Canadian game to learn, what’s refreshing is that both Crum and the RedBlacks alike don’t begin to unravel as a result of turnovers like they have in the past.

   Since former Ottawa QB Trevor Harris moved on, RedBlacks fans have seen a multitude of signal callers come and go through the nation’s capital. The common thread amongst them being that they could get the ball down the field, but rarely into the endzone. Instead, fans would have to settle for a steady dose of Lewis Ward field goals and hope that their defense could hang on.

   But with 74pts over their last two games, Ottawa is suddenly finding paydirt early and often. To put that in perspective, it took Ottawa 4 games and change to score 74pts to kick off the season last year. The team was also held under 20pts in 9 of their 18 matchups, which is no small feat in the high scoring CFL these days.

   With a sudden ability to put up points, all aspects of the RedBlacks game seem to be playing with a renewed sense of belief in themselves. Where once observers could quite literally see the body language shift in players after a costly turnover, a “shake it off, we got this” mentality has now replaced the painful case of deja vu which permeated the team from 2019 onwards.

   “What I loved about the team is everybody picked everybody up. When we were down on special teams, the offence and defence picked us up. And the same way you saw the belief last week vs. Winnipeg, it carried through this week. It’s about everybody working together for the outcome. All that matters is the W, it’s not how you did it. These guys love each other, they fight for each other. And it’s something special,” said head coach Bob Dyce after the Stampeders win.

   With a 3-3 record, Ottawa suddenly finds themselves out of the basement in the East Division, and sitting in sole possession of 2nd place behind the red hot Argos. For a team that used to be almost unwatchable, even to the most devoted of CFL fans, Ottawa is suddenly one of the most entertaining teams in the league.

   While not every game will be quite as dramatic as the last two from here on out, that’s likely just fine in the minds of the RedBlacks faithful. With a solid defense headlined by breakout star Brandin Dandridge, all Crum needs to do is provide serviceable quarterback play for the remainder of the season for Ottawa to have a chance at the playoffs.

   And as fans saw in 2016 when the team went 8-9-1, but ultimately won the Grey Cup, anything can happen in the postseason.

-Kyle Skinner

Twitter: @JKyleSkinner

Photo: Winnipeg Blue Bombers. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

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