REGINA — It is one of the most-intense job interviews on planet earth, with eyeballs from all nine Canadian Football League teams fixated on a player’s every move on the field and studying every answer in one-on-one sessions behind closed doors.
A good day at the CFL Combine — which wrapped up Sunday at the AffinityPlex here in the Saskatchewan capital — could lead to a long career getting paid to pay the game.
And a bad morning or afternoon, well, that could also slam that coveted door of opportunity shut.
The key, then, was to flush that magnitude of all that and live in the moment. To keep grinding, if you will. And count University of Manitoba running back Breydon Stubbs among the crew that did just that over the weekend.
Breydon Stubbs; photo by Alex Ward/CFL
“I loved the competition. I loved everything. I loved the one-on-ones. I loved the team period. I loved every bit of it. It was good,” said Stubbs, a wide smile dominating his face during a chat with bluebombers.com. “You never know what to expect at something like this because everyone here is so good, and everyone is competing. Really, all you can do is try to put your best foot forward and not get too high or too low with every rep.
“As a running back, I wanted to try and make a good impression on every play, even if it’s a pass play and you have to block somebody. It’s about doing whatever you can to make your team better on that play and doing whatever you can to succeed.
“I also had some good conversations in my interviews with teams — most of them didn’t really ask too much about football; it was more personal stuff. There were some laughs at the end, so I’m assuming that meant it went well.”
As for what’s next — the CFL Draft goes April 29th — Stubbs grinned and added, “in this moment it’s about hydration, hydration, hydration. I mean, it’s pretty hot in this building right now.”
The Blue Bombers had several staff here monitoring the whole event — GM Kyle Walters, head coach Mike O’Shea, Director of Football Operations Matt Gulakow, Eric Deslauriers, one of the team’s new Senior Directors of Player Personnel, veteran assistant coach Richie Hall and new assistant coach Billy Jean.
Blue Bombers assistant coach Billy Jean
That crew will now take the information gathered here and piece together its final draft list in advance of the event later next month. Deslauriers, for example, had an early exit from Regina to get to other locales to further scout Canadian talent not at the Combine.
The Blue Bombers have three picks in the Top 20, including sixth overall, and a bonus selection at the end of the second round for having the most snaps by Canadians in 2024.
“You’re certainly not watching and saying, ‘Here’s our guy with the sixth overall pick,'” said Walters. “An event like this, you’re looking at the different positional groups and actually crossing off a few names, between their testing numbers and film, that aren’t good enough to be considered one of the guys we want to nail with a Top 30 pick. Unfortunately for some of these guys, that’s just how it works.”
The other issue after taking in the CFL Combine is how teams balance who was here in Regina vs the prospects who chose not to attend, either because they are legit NFL talents or are participating in Pro Days at their schools or elsewhere. That list includes quarterbacks Kurtis Rourke (Indiana) and Taylor Elgersma (Wilfrid Laurier), receivers Elic Ayomanor (Stanford) and Keelan White (Montana), defensive linemen Paris Shand (LSU), Ali Saad (Bowling Green) and Hayden Harris (Montana) linebacker Connor Shay (Wyoming) and offensive lineman Christopher Fortin (Connecticut).
“That’s a challenge for those guys that are doing their Pro Days and decided not to come here,” Walters said. “Now, our scouts will get to all these Pro Days and try to get eyes on them, but it a different challenge comparing all the players we saw here in person over a three-day period vs. the Pro Day guys. The guys that came to this, they get the benefit of the doubt… if their testing numbers or their film is similar to those that aren’t here, you tend to lean to the guys you’ve seen in person and have more familiarity.”
In addition to the on-field stuff on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, the Blue Bombers staff held one-on-one interviews with players through the weekend and spent Saturday night going over the film of the first couple of days of training. All of that is important, naturally, and O’Shea — as he often does — is also studying what happens between the reps and throughout the entire event.
“It’s not necessarily just about who is standing out for me,” said O’Shea. “It’s the little details that they are continually doing right. A guy can run around and make big catch and, yes, you notice that. I like watching the drills and seeing the players do more right more often and then fix and apply any correction they get from the drill and then see them do the drill again and do it right.
“The guys that need to be communicating, are they communicating? Is it effective communicating? There were a couple guys cleaning up after the interviews last night. We overheard them say, ‘Well, we can’t leave it like this because then it will look bad on all of us’ and then they clean up the area. Those are the little details you notice and it’s important that those little details matter to them. They’re observant. They didn’t just walk by a bunch of crap and leave it. Part of being a football player is being able to take in information, notice what’s going on and apply it and make a decision and go with it. There’s a lot of those little things you see out here.
“They have to have a base level of athleticism that we know they can compete at this level. Those physical traits, a player has to check those boxes. But we also need to know whether those guys can fit and that’s what the interview is about; getting to know the kid, let them get to know us and answer any questions they may have. There are also a bunch of questions we need to ask to get information. And then in the span of 12-13 minutes try to figure out if the guy has the personality that is going to fit with us. They can be all types of different personalities and to give you an exact adjective as to what that means — fit — is pretty difficult. The guy has to be authentic and whether a guy would be a good fit in our locker room we believe we can figure out in the locker room.
“This whole process… I’ll tell ya, walking here today I was really excited about seeing this group of guys,” he added. “It happens every year and I don’t try to compare it from one year to the next. I just know that being here today was exciting for us as a staff to see these guys compete, especially after going through some interviews with them and getting to know their names.”
KUDOS TO: Bisons QB Jackson Tachinski, who took a ton of reps on the weekend at receiver. We told you of that transition in this story and Tachinski spoke of learning on the job following his session on Saturday.
“I know they have a lot of film on me at quarterback and so that’s why I wanted to do as much receiver stuff in these practices,” he said. “Coming in here, it’s like diving in head-first because this is my first experience at receiver. But I had a lot of fun. I found myself learning throughout the practices and growing. I could tell that once I got a feel for it I was getting a lot better. It was a lot of reps, but it was good.
“I thought I was solid. Obviously, there’s a lot of things I have to work on because I’m pretty raw. There’s some technique things I’ve got to do — one tip was my feet were getting a little wide in my breaks and it was causing me to slip — but that’s stuff I can work on and get better. I just wanted to make sure I put in 100 percent effort. The blocking… that was pretty interesting. It was pretty much my first time, but it was fun, too. I’m a physical player and I got the handle of it.”
FYI: A couple of draft prospects had to step out during Saturday’s session with Université de Montreal defensive lineman Jeremiah Ojo tweaking a hamstring and then Western O-lineman Erik Anderson suffering a concussion. Highly rated defensive tackle Darien Newell had to return home for personal reasons after Saturday morning’s session while Windsor linebacker Devin Veresuk, did not participate in on-field drills to avoid risk of injury. He is said to be drawing NFL interest after superb testing numbers at the University of Buffalo Pro Day, including a 4.47 40.
Here are a handful of guys that jumped out (in no particular order):
- Eric Cumberbatch, DB, Ottawa — tested through the roof with three Top 5 numbers in the events; 2023 U Sports First-Team All-Canadian who separated himself athletically.
- Max Von Muehldorfer, DT, Western — another who had sensational testing results, especially for a man weighing in at 290 pounds. He finished first in the bench and ran a 4.96 40. Defensive tackle is a position the Blue Bombers are set at with their Canadians, but Von Muehldorfer definitely helped his cause.
- Daniel Wiebe, WR, Saskatchewan — A 2024 U Sports First-Team All-Canadian. Good testing totals. Stood out in one-on-ones.
- Joey Zorn, RB, Windsor — Good size at 6-2, 205. Flashed when the helmets and shoulders pads came on for the weekend session
BEST TESTERS
40-yard dash
1 Opemipo Oshinubi, RB, Alberta – 4.41
2 Ethan Jordan, WR, Wilfrid Laurier – 4.44
3 Eric Cumberbatch, DB, Ottawa – 4.51
4. Dolani Robinson, DB, Regina; Daniel Wiebe, WR, Saskatchewan — 4.52
* All-time record – Stephen Turner, Bishop’s, 2010, 4.31 (hand-held time)
Bench Press
1 Max Von Muehldorfer, DL, Western – 34
2 Nathan Girouard-Langlois, FB, Montreal – 31
3. Daniel Dove, OL, Waterloo — 28
4. Daniel Hocevar, OL, Guelph — 26
5. Olemipo Oshinubi, DB, Alberta; Jeremiah Ojo, DL, Montreal; Liam Hoskins, DL, Windsor — 25
* All-time record – Michael Knill, Wilfrid Laurier, 2011 – 47
Vertical leap
1 Maliek Cote-Azore, DB, Wilfrid Laurier — 41
2 Eric Cumberbatch, DB Ottawa – 39
3 Tommy Wilson (Global), WR, Postdam Royals – 37.5
4. Daniel Wiebe, WR, Saskatchewan — 37
5, Isaac Gaillardetz, WR, Laval — 36.5
Broad jump
1 Eric Cumberbatch, DB Ottawa — 11 feet 2 3/8 inches
2 Tommy Wilson (Global), WR, Postdam Royals– 10 feet 10 3/8 inches
3 Maliek Cote-Azore, DB, Wilfrid Laurier – 10 feet 10 inches
4 Hakeem Harris, WR, Davenport — 10 feet 9 3/8 inches
5 King Ambers, DB, East Texas A&M — 10 feet 7 inches
Shuttle
1 Daniel Wiebe, WR, Saskatchewan – 3.95
2 Anton Haie, DB, Laval – 3.96
3 Keanu Yazbeck, RB, Western – 4.02
4 Jonathan Senecal, QB, Montreal — 4.08
5 Louis Geyer (G), Stuttgart Surge; Seth Hundeby, LB Saskatchewan; Ludovick Choquette, RB, Long Island: Max Von Muehldorfer, DL, Western — 4.15
3-Cone Drill
1 Anton Haie, DB, Laval – 6.62
2 Ronan Horrall, DB, UBC – 6.72
3 Louis Geyer (G), WR, Stuttgart Surge; Maliek Cote-Azore, DB, Wilfrid Laurier; 6.81
4 Samuel Davenport, WR, UBC; Riley MacLeod, LB, Western — 6.82
5 Tommy Wilson (G), WR, Postdam Royals — 6.82
