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Almost everywhere you look, the Hamilton Tiger-Cats are being picked to finish atop the CFL East. But, asked if the Ticats were a better team, Pruneau said: “How many times did they beat us last year (Ottawa won all four games)? They have a lot of things to prove. They’re a pretty good team. We’ve always had good battles with them, but we’ve always been on top.”

While Ottawa’s defence returns nearly intact — all-star cornerback Chris Randle replaces Rico Murray — the offence has a new look, with Dominique Davis taking over as starting QB. Pruneau lines up against the unit each day in practice and says the talent level is still high.

“Dominique is a great quarterback,” he said. “A bunch of these receivers were here last year, they were in the rotation, and, when their name was called, they performed really well. I think there will be a lot of new fan favourites. People forget: Last year we had a lot of changes on our defence and look at how we performed. I don’t see any reason why our offence can’t perform this year.”

THE SURVEY SAYS: In the annual CFL Media Poll, Redblacks defensive co-ordinator Noel Thorpe was the top vote-getter as up-and-coming coach who should be hired as a head coach, with 11 of 45 votes. Other than that, the Redblacks were not mentioned a lot (for the sake of transparency, I did not vote). Ottawa’s Rick Campbell received the third-most votes (five) as the head coach you’d want coaching your team (Calgary’s Dave Dickenson received 31 votes and Winnipeg’s Mike O’Shea received six). Receiver Brad Sinopoli got 11 of 50 votes as the player likely to be Most Outstanding Canadian (Winnipeg running back Andrew Harris got 28). Former Redblack Greg Ellingson got seven votes as the player who will get the most receiving yards (B.C.’s Bryan Burnham got 20 votes). B.C. was listed as the team that had the best off-season (with 24 votes). Calgary receiver Reggie Begelton got the most votes (eight) for player most likely to have a breakout season. (Ottawa QB Dominique Davis got five votes and receiver RJ Harris got two.) QBs Bo Levi Mitchell and Mike Reilly each got 14 votes for likely Most Outstanding Players. Former Redblacks William Powell and Trevor Harris each got a vote. Calgary and Winnipeg tied with 14 votes each as the team most likely to win a Grey Cup. Ottawa got just four of 50 votes as the team most likely to win the East (Hamilton got 43 and Toronto got three).