Eskimos ease into tilt against Roughriders

After holding the pedal to the metal throughout the first five days of training camp, the Edmonton Eskimos held a short on-field session Friday before focusing on the recovery process.

There is, after all, a game to be played Sunday, when they open their pre-season schedule against the visiting Saskatchewan Roughriders (3 p.m., TSN, 630 CHED) at Commonwealth Stadium.

“For a short camp until the first game, to beat your guys up right before we play it, if we want to see absolutely what our guys are made of, this is the way we look at it as a medical staff and on the strength and conditioning side with our players,” said Eskimos head coach Jason Maas. “We asked our players back in November to be in a different state of mind coming into this training camp.

“Absolutely, during mini-camp (in Las Vegas last month), we told them the same thing, so I feel like our guys are right where we need them to be.”

Hence, pumping the brakes somewhat during Friday ’s session.

“Taking care of their bodies was one thing so we could see them near 100 per cent for Sunday,” Maas said.

But just because they hit the showers early doesn’t mean the Eskimos punched out for the day.

“We got a lot of work in mentally over the first four practices and so now was basically just a break from that,” Maas said. “They’re still working out today and recovering so they ’re doing it a little bit different than being out on the field, but we got a lot of work in.”

SCOUT IT OUT

The Eskimos are entering the 2018 season with a couple of new bloodhounds in the scouting department.

Will Homer and Chris Milo were officially brought on board earlier in the month with Homer taking over as director of U.S. scouting after spending the previous two seasons as the western U.S. scout for the Ottawa Redblacks.

“Will was a guy that we hired in Ottawa when I was there,” said Eskimos general manager Brock Sunderland, who spent four years as Redblacks assistant GM. “He was with the San Francisco 49ers for four years previous, helped coordinate and run their draft. He worked very closely with their general manager, so he’s well-versed in all things scouting.”

Milo, meanwhile, officially earned scout status after assisting the Eskimos in the Quebec Student Sport Federation last year, when he wasn’t donning a jersey and lacing back up his previously hungup cleats as a placekicker with the team, that is.

The two-time Grey Cup champ briefly signed with the Eskimos in September while placekicker Sean Whyte was dealing with a leg injury.

“Chris Milo helped us out a little bit last year on a volunteer basis,” Sunderland said. “A former player, as everybody knows, kicked for us for a couple weeks last year.

“The biggest thing there is that Chris really wants to get into personnel. When I was the assistant GM in Ottawa, kickers don’t do a lot during practice when they’re not out there, so he would just come and pick my brain a bit on players.”

Former Eskimos defensive back Torey Hunter spent the previous four years as a regional scout with the club before joining the B.C. Lions over the off-season.

Taking care of their bodies was one thing so we could see them near 100 per cent for Sunday.