Here's something to remember with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats' 2019 clock about to hit 2 p.m. As in post-Masoli.

When hype generator Johnny Manziel was relegated to third-string quarterback last summer before he was profitably traded to Montreal, it wasn't just because of his own work, it was also - and, arguably, more so - because of Dane Evans' work.

Saturday night against the B.C. Lions, the 25-year-old Evans gets his second start as The Guy, with Jeremiah Masoli out for the season and, if still by increments, the Ticats are becoming his team in reality. On paper they already were his team, as soon as Masoli went down two games back.

"He's settled in," head coach Orlondo Steinauer says. "He's got the belief of his teammates. He's taken command of the huddle a little bit more and a little bit more in the meetings.

"I think the biggest thing is that he and Tommy (Condell, offensive co-ordinator) are getting more familiar with each other. Dane was a huge support to Jeremiah, but on game-plan input then it was mainly Jeremiah, the things he was comfortable with. Dane's learning Tommy and Tommy's learning Dane."

There's been a lot of CFL talk lately about two quarterback-ish things: all the starters who've been on the shelf, which last week included the entire eastern conference; and the concept of Game Manager. The latter is often a pejorative but it really just means controlling the football and making sure you don't turn it over needlessly. Exploiting only what you've got and what defences give you, and not overreaching, forcing your own defence and special teams to do all the heavy lifting. Evans himself referenced NFL icon Tom Brady as the ultimate Game Manager and said he'd take that label any time.

Evans, who arrived here in October 2017, just after the Hamilton offence got good again, knows the playbook and his receivers, but it's the subtleties of 'feel' between throwers and catchers that takes time and has to advance by archipelagos, not massive land masses. As Evans says, "no two zebras have the same stripes," so that feel usually doesn't happen automatically. CFL backup quarterbacks don't get a lot of practice reps, and even fewer game reps, although Evans did toss for 315 yards in that lame-duck schedule-ending loss to Montreal last season. That rest-up-for-the-playoffs-Jeremiah game was his only pro start before last week in Saskatchewan.

"He's a natural leader, he's a quarterback, that's what they are, and he just stepped right in," said Speedy Banks, who returns to the lineup after a week away with a foot injury.

"Quarterback and receiver, any time you have that combination fresh in the middle of the season, it's important to get the timing down."

Banks says that both quarterbacks have superb arms, but Masoli and Evans differ in the way the ball is released.

"Dane's ball gets up on you a lot faster; I dropped one last time," he says. "The speed is different and you have to get used to it. It's all about reps together. Dane, I almost compare it to a baseball pitcher the way it comes out."

A perceptive analysis by Banks. Growing up in Texas after his family moved from Chickasha, Okla., when he was six, Evans played a ton of baseball. The first time he didn't was when he went to college, and then only because Tulsa didn't have a team.

His parents Damon and Kathy are teachers. They took jobs in Sanger, Texas, close to the Oklahoma border so Damon could be his son's offensive co-ordinator in high school. In Tulsa's airborne offence, Evans threw for 80 touchdowns over his final three years.

This year, he mopped up for Masoli in a Game 2 wipeout of Toronto, completing five of six passes for 105 yards and a touchdown, then went 13-for-25 for just 94 yards, with an interception, after Masoli tore his ACL in Game 6 against Winnipeg. In last week's narrow loss he was 19-for-29 for 196 yards with a touchdown and a first-play interception. Both times, the offence found some rhythm later in the game as familiarity set in.

Evans knows what he'll be facing when the Lions, who've won just once in seven starts, come into Tim Hortons Field. They're hungry, and he's fresh meat.

"The record doesn't show it, but they have a good defence," he says. "Especially me, being a younger guy, I can't take them lightly at all. I want to be a coach one day, and if I was a defensive coach right now and there's a younger quarterback in, I would blitz.

"So I've just got to be ready for it, the whole team's got to be ready for it. As long as we know it's coming, which we're pretty sure it is, we'll throw it where the ball needs to go."

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