We’ll see what the Stampeders have in mind tomorrow an hour before kickoff, but I don’t think it’s a fait accompli that LaMarcus Coker will be sitting for the season opener against the Montreal Alouettes.

The 46-man roster that was released on Saturday shows 24 imports. Three of those are quarterbacks, and they don’t count as imports, so that takes it down to 21, meaning two imports will have to be among the four pre-game scratches (each team can dress a maximum of 19 imports, a minimum of 20 non-imports and three quarterbacks).

And speaking with John Hufnagel on Friday, he made it clear that wasn’t automatic that Matt Walter coming into the lineup would mean that Coker sits. Walter’s primary responsibilities (assuming he gets the call tomorrow) would be on special teams, not as a running back.

I suspect left tackle Edwin Harrison and linebacker Demetrice Morley, both of whom are coming off injuries and didn’t see a ton of action on the practice field this past week, would be more logical choices, meaning the Stamps would still have access to Coker’s game-breaking speed as a changeup every third series for Jon Cornish.

That said, I’ve been wrong before. Really, really wrong. We’ll see.

Talking with a few Stampeders on Saturday, you really got the sense that tomorrow’s 5 p.m. kickoff can’t come soon enough. It will have been nine days since the pre-season finale in Regina, and a full month of training camp. The players (and, yes, the media) can’t wait to get things going for real.

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