Roughriders mini-camp produces some quality candidates

VERO BEACH, Fla. — Alexandre Gagne survived — and then he thrived.

The 24-year-old product of St-Hubert, Que., made it through a tryout camp held by the Saskatchewan Roughriders at Historic Dodgertown, playing his way into the CFL team’s mini-camp.

Then, during that three-day event, the former University of Sherbrooke Vert et Or linebacker impressed everyone with his grasp of the Roughriders’ defence, his play on the field and his long-snapping ability.

“He was a very pleasant surprise,” Roughriders head coach-GM Chris Jones said after the final sunbaked workout of mini-camp. “He could be a two- or three-teamer and then be your backup snapper, no problem.”

That was music to Gagne’s ears.

The 6-foot-0, 235-pounder wasn’t selected in the 2016 CFL draft, so he returned to Sherbrooke for his final season of U Sports eligibility. The whole time, he dreamed of getting to the pros.

With the Roughriders going with national Henoc Muamba at middle linebacker, Gagne stands a good chance of landing a job at training camp.

“This is a big opportunity for me,” he said. “I’ve been working hard to get this far. Every year in college, I was working on my long snaps thinking about the opportunity that I could have in the Canadian Football League.

“I’m pretty satisfied with what I’ve done here,” he continued. “I showed my tools and I showed what I can give to this football team. If I get the opportunity to go to camp and I get some shoulder pads on, that’s where I’m really good.”

Gagne was one of 27 players on the field Thursday — about 10 others missed the final workout due to injury or other commitments — and Jones said “the top three-quarters” of the campers will be moving on to the Roughriders’ training camp. It starts May 28 in Saskatoon.

Receiver Jenson Stoshak is hoping he did enough in Vero Beach to earn an invitation. The 23-year-old graduate of Florida Atlantic University certainly was a consistent performer throughout the mini-camp.

“I think I did pretty well,” Stoshak said. “The biggest thing was learning the playbook. It was different with 12 guys on the field and all the different motion, but I caught just about everything that came my way. I’d say I had a pretty good week.”

But Stoshak — like every receiver who moves on from mini-camp to training camp — faces an uphill climb to make the Roughriders. There were 14 pass-catchers on the team’s roster before mini-camp opened.

For Jones, the key for receivers to crack the roster is consistency.

“Showing up every day and seeing their jersey number show up every single day, I think that is what we’re looking for,” the head coach said. “It’s not just the flash play here or there or what the big-time potential is, but showing up every day at practice, showing up every day in meetings and then, when you get under the lights, showing up.”

One player everyone wanted to see show up at mini-camp was former NCAA and NFL quarterback Vince Young, whom the Roughriders signed in March.

The former Tennessee Titans starter is attempting a comeback with the Roughriders — he hasn’t played in a regular-season game since 2011 and hasn’t been part of a team since 2014 — so people wanted to see how the 33-year-old pivot would do.

Young had his moments during the mini-camp, but he also made some mistakes. He gave himself a C-plus when asked to grade his performance, which Jones said was good enough to give Young a spot at training camp.

The veteran QB said his football background served him well in Florida, although he did have to adjust to the pre-snap motion allowed in the CFL and to calling plays in a short amount of time between plays.

Now he faces another month of physical and mental preparation before training camp arrives.

“(I have to) continue to keep that rhythm that we’ve been doing here — waking up, eating breakfast, going to get your work in, getting your work practice in, going and watching film on yourself,” Young said. “(You have to) keep that up just to get your mind ready for a day like this.”

All of the players who are moving on to main camp will have to ramp up their game. They may have performed well against other CFL newcomers in mini-camp, but they’ll primarily face established CFLers in Saskatoon.

“Those guys are veterans for a reason,” Jones said of the players currently on the roster. “They’re good enough to have played pro football for a while and a lot of these guys haven’t played or have just been in a camp here or there. They’ve got to go make a very good roster and play against some solid veterans.”