Michael O'Connor (born February 25, 1996) is a professional Canadian football quarterback who is a free agent. He most recently played for the BC Lions of the Canadian Football League (CFL). He played college football with the UBC Thunderbirds from 2015 to 2018 where he led the team to a Vanier Cup championship in 2015.
 O'Connor with the Lions in 2022 | |
| Born: | February 25, 1996 Orleans, Ontario |
|---|---|
| Career information | |
| Status | Active |
| CFL status | National |
| Position(s) | Quarterback |
| Height | 6 ft 4 in (193 cm) |
| Weight | 230 lb (100 kg) |
| College | Penn State |
| University | British Columbia |
| High school | Ashbury College Baylor School IMG Academy |
| CFL draft | 2019, round: 3, pick: 20 |
| Drafted by | Toronto Argonauts |
| Career history | |
| As player | |
| 2019–2020 | Toronto Argonauts |
| 2021 | Calgary Stampeders |
| 2022 | BC Lions |
| Career highlights and awards | |
| |
| Career stats | |
| |
College career
editPenn State
editO'Connor received several scholarship offers to play football and was named ESPN's sixth-ranked quarterback in the 2014 recruiting class.[1] The 4-star recruit ultimately chose Pennsylvania State University to play for then-head coach, Bill O'Brien, and the Nittany Lions.[2] O'Brien had resigned to accept a position as the Houston Texans' head coach, but O'Connor elected to continue with his decision to enroll at Penn State anyway. He redshirted during his first season there behind the incumbent starter, Christian Hackenberg.[1][2] Near the end of the 2014 season, O'Connor announced his intention to transfer schools.[1]
UBC
editOn February 12, 2015, it was formally announced that O'Connor had committed to play for Blake Nill and the UBC Thunderbirds.[3][4] As a freshman starter, he had immediate success, starting in all eight games, posting 165 completions on 276 pass attempts for 2383 yards, 13 touchdowns, and five interceptions to lead UBC to a 6–2 regular season record.[5] He led the team to a perfect 4–0 record in the post-season, including UBC's 51st Vanier Cup championship win where he was named the game's most valuable player.[6]
Collegiate statistics
edit| Passing | Rushing | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Team | GD | GS | Att | Comp | Pct | Yards | TD | Int | Att | Yards | Avg | Long | TD | |||
| 2014 | PSU | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 0 | 0 | |||
| 2015 | UBC | 11 | – | 465 | 284 | 60.4 | 3,959 | 23 | 10 | 38 | 224 | 5.6 | 45 | 2 | |||
| 2016 | UBC | 11 | – | 455 | 277 | 60.9 | 3,577 | 22 | 14 | 28 | 239 | 8.5 | 22 | 1 | |||
| 2017 | UBC | 11 | – | 365 | 250 | 68.5 | 3,216 | 25 | 8 | 18 | 128 | 10.7 | 12 | 1 | |||
| 2018 | UBC | 9 | – | 356 | 249 | 68.2 | 3,131 | 17 | 5 | 15 | 78 | 5.2 | 25 | 1 | |||
| Totals | 42 | – | 1641 | 1060 | 64.6 | 12,833 | 87 | 37 | 99 | 669 | 6.7 | 45 | 5 | ||||
Professional career
editToronto Argonauts
editAttracting the attention of professional leagues, O'Connor was ranked as the 17th best prospect in the Canadian Football League's Central Scouting Bureau Final Rankings.[7] Consequently, he was drafted in the third round, 20th overall, in the 2019 CFL Draft by the Toronto Argonauts and signed with the team on May 17, 2019.[8]
He began the 2019 season on the Argonauts' injured list, but dressed in his first professional game on July 6, 2019, against the BC Lions.[9] With Argonauts eliminated from the playoffs, O'Connor took his first regular season snaps under centre on October 26, 2019, against his hometown Ottawa Redblacks.[10] In that game, he threw his first career touchdown pass; an 11-yard completion to Rodney Smith.[10] Smith had thrown the ball into the stands, but the fan who retrieved it threw the keepsake back to Argos staff members.[11]
O'Connor dressed for nine games his rookie season, and saw snaps in two. He completed 15 passes out of 25 attempts for 173 yards and a touchdown.[12] He did not play in 2020 due to the cancellation of the 2020 CFL season and he became a free agent in 2021 following the completion of his rookie contract.
Calgary Stampeders
editOn the first day of free agency in 2021, O'Connor signed with the Calgary Stampeders on February 9, 2021.[13] He initially began the year as the backup quarterback, but was relegated to the third-string position following strong performances by Jake Maier. O'Connor dressed in six regular season games but did not attempt a pass as he ran the short-yardage team where he had four rush attempts for five yards. He became a free agent upon the expiry of his contract on February 8, 2022.[14]
BC Lions
editOn the first day of free agency, on February 8, 2022, O'Connor signed with the BC Lions.[15] He began the season as the backup quarterback to fellow Canadian quarterback Nathan Rourke. When Rourke suffered a significant foot injury in Week 11 O'Connor was named the starting quarterback the following week.[16] Unfortunately, he suffered a groin injury in the second quarter and was ruled out for the remainder of the game.[17] He sat out one game due to injury, but did not see any playing time upon his return to the lineup following the team's acquisition of Vernon Adams. He became a free agent upon the expiry of his contract on February 14, 2023.[18]
Professional statistics
edit| Season | League | Team | Games | Passing | Rushing | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GP | GS | Comp | Att | Pct | Yds | TD | Int | Att | Yds | Yd/Att | TD | |||
| 2019 | CFL | TOR | 9 | 0 | 15 | 25 | 0.0 | 173 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1.0 | 0 |
| 2021 | CFL | CAL | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 5 | 1.3 | 0 |
| 2022 | CFL | BC | 17 | 1 | 15 | 27 | 55.6 | 157 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1.0 | 1 |
Personal life
editO'Connor was born to Debbie Lavigne and John O'Connor and he grew up in Ottawa.[2] He was named after his uncle who died in a vehicle collision two months before he was born.[19]
Awards and honours
edit- 2016 UBC Thunderbirds Male Athlete of the Year Co-winner[20]
References
edit- ^ a b c "QB Michael O'Connor to transfer". espn.com. December 11, 2014.
- ^ a b c "Canadian-born QB Michael O'Connor settling into Penn State, still forging his own path". pennlive.com. February 4, 2014.
- ^ "Former Penn State quarterback Michael O'Connor commits to UBC". canadawest.org. February 12, 2015.
- ^ "Ottawa quarterback Michael O'Connor picks UBC after leaving Penn State". ottawacitizen.com. February 16, 2015.
- ^ "Michael O'Connor #15 QB UBC". usports.ca. Retrieved October 16, 2019.
- ^ "UBC Thunderbirds beat Montreal to win Vanier Cup". sportsnet.ca. November 28, 2015.
- ^ Wilkinson, Desjarlais climb final CFL Scouting Bureau rankings, Canadian Football League, April 12, 2019, retrieved October 16, 2019
- ^ "Argos sign two from Draft Class; Two LFA Players". May 17, 2019.
- ^ "October 11, 2019 – 7:00 pm ET Ottawa at Toronto Game Notes" (PDF). cfl.ca. Retrieved October 16, 2019.
- ^ a b Wilkinson, Desjarlais climb final CFL Scouting Bureau rankings Argos get major contributions from their young quarterbacks, Canadian Football League, October 27, 2019, retrieved October 27, 2019
- ^ Michael O'Connor throws 1st CFL TD pass, Argos route Redblacks, Calgary Stampeders, October 27, 2019, retrieved October 27, 2019
- ^ "Michael O'Connor CFL Stats & News". www.rotowire.com. Retrieved September 9, 2020.
- ^ "Stampeders sign O'Connor". Calgary Stampeders. February 9, 2021.
- ^ "Transactions – Football player trades and signings". Canadian Football League. Retrieved February 8, 2022.
- ^ "Lions ink deal with National QB Michael O'Connor". Canadian Football League. February 8, 2022.
- ^ "O'Connor ready for his turn in the Canadian quarterback spotlght". leaderpost. Retrieved August 29, 2022.
- ^ TSN ca Staff (August 26, 2022). "Lions QB O'Connor ruled out for the game with apparent groin injury – TSN.ca". TSN. Retrieved August 29, 2022.
- ^ "Transactions – Football player trades and signings". Canadian Football League. Retrieved February 23, 2023.
- ^ "Rookie Canadian QB O'Connor poised to take first snap in CFL". nationalpost.com. October 15, 2019.
- ^ Aaron Martin (April 4, 2016). "UBC's best honoured at 95th annual Big Block Awards and Sports Hall of Fame Banquet". gothunderbirds.ca. Retrieved April 18, 2021.