in CFL action between the Saskatchewan Roughriders and the B.C. Lions on Saturday July 16th. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Rick Elvin
Sam Eguavoen’s long-awaited comeback to the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ lineup is about to be complete.
The 24-year-old linebacker, whose 2016 season ended after just six games because of a knee injury, was expected to be a fixture on the Roughriders’ defence this season. But an ankle injury suffered in training camp delayed his return longer than he and the coaches had hoped.
On Saturday, Eguavoen finally will dress for a CFL regular-season game again. He’ll take over at middle linebacker for Henoc Muamba, who’s out with a knee injury.
“It has been a long time coming,” Eguavoen said Friday at Mosaic Stadium, where the Roughriders are to face the Winnipeg Blue Bombers on Saturday.
“You’ve just got to love the game. When it was taken from me last year, there was so much watching, balling my fists and being like, ‘Oh, I would have done this. I would have done that.’ Now it’s time to put it to the test and really just go out there and play hard.”
Eguavoen made the Roughriders’ roster as a rookie in 2016 and started their first six regular-season games at weak-side linebacker. He was off to a fine start, but a knee injury sustained Aug. 4 against the host Calgary Stampeders ended his season.
He didn’t require surgery for the torn medial collateral and posterior cruciate ligaments in his left knee, but the damage was bad enough to sideline him.
He worked through the off-season to get ready for training camp, but an ankle injury suffered on the first day of camp in Saskatoon again forced him to be a spectator.
“I thought I was cursed,” Eguavoen said. “I was like, ‘Man, maybe this isn’t my game.’ But the trainers and everybody were right there behind me giving me everything I needed to do to get back as fast as I could. Coach (Chris) Jones kept believing in me. Now it’s time to ball out in front of all these thousands of fans.”
Eguavoen played middle linebacker during his days at Texas Tech University, so there won’t be much of an adjustment to the position. But he will have to assume more of a leadership role, getting the signals from the sideline and getting his teammates in the right spots. Those duties were handled by others when Eguavoen was the Will linebacker.
When the Roughriders started practice Tuesday, Eguavoen was just a backup. By Friday, he was the starting middle linebacker.
Despite his quick ascension up the depth chart, Eguavoen will be prepared for his task.
“I’m always ready,” he said. “You can ask anybody on the team: I’m front row and centre watching film, I’m asking questions, I’m writing in my notebook.
“I would never take myself too far away from the game just because I’m injured or not active or on the practice roster or any of that. I’m right there in the middle of film trying to get better.”
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Muamba started practice Wednesday and Thursday, but left the field both days. On Friday, he was put on the six-game injured list after an MRI showed some damage inside Muamba’s knee.
“We hope it’s not (a long-term thing), but it looks like it could be,” Jones said. “Right now, we don’t know what the extent of his injury is going to be.”
Muamba had five defensive tackles and a special-teams stop in Saskatchewan’s season-opening 17-16 loss to the Montreal Alouettes on June 22. While Eguavoen will replace Muamba in the middle, the Roughriders will have to make adjustments at other positions because Muamba is a national.
“He’s a ratio Canadian that you have to now make different packages for different guys so that you’ve got your seventh Canadian,” said Jones, who added: “We’re going to have a multitude of people playing Mike and Will tomorrow (because of the ratio), so good luck deciphering who they are.”
While Muamba was taken off the roster, Rob Bagg was added. The veteran receiver is slated to start the game as Nic Demski’s backup, but Bagg is expected to get some action.
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Bagg, Demski and the rest of the Roughriders went through their walkthrough Friday wearing T-shirts commemorating Canada’s 150th birthday — and honouring one of Saskatchewan’s legends.
Each shirt bore the number 34 and the name “Reed” on the back as a tribute to former Roughriders fullback George Reed.
Quarterback Kevin Glenn, who has a solid grasp of the franchise’s history, said he and Bagg agreed that wearing the T-shirt was “kind of cool.”
“Wearing this number is very significant — and some of the guys here are too young to even know who (Reed) is,” Glenn said. “Hopefully they go back and research him with this technology we’ve got where you can Google his name and everything will come up.
“Me and Robbie were kidding and saying, ‘No one looks right in this 34. He was the only one who looked right in this 34.’ It was kind of like the whole Walter Payton thing. When you see 34 in the NFL, you think Walter Payton. Here, it’s the same thing. When you see that 34, you think George Reed.”
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Jones led the Roughriders to a 5-13-0 record in his first season at the helm and missed the playoffs for the first time in his CFL coaching career.
On Friday, the Roughriders’ bench boss was asked how much pressure he’s putting on himself to turn around the franchise’s fortunes.
“My expectation levels are to win every football game,” he replied. “People say, ‘Well, that’s unrealistic,’ but why get in it if you’re going to go in thinking you’re going to lose the game?
“You prepare like you’re going to win every game with understandings that you’re going to stub your toe every now and then. But our job is to win the Grey Cup.”
