UCLA coach offers high praise for Riders’ top pick
Scott White is eminently qualified to judge the capabilities of Cameron Judge. White is the linebackers and special-teams coach with the UCLA Bruins, with whom Judge — whom the Saskatchewan Roughriders chose second overall in Sunday’s CFL draft — spent the past four NCAA seasons.
“He’s a first-class individual,’’ White said Monday. “He’s a guy that is going to come in there, do a great job and be everything they drafted him to be. He’s a blue-collar guy who doesn’t say a whole lot. In his mental approach, he’s going to be the same guy every day.’’
Whether Judge joins the Riders is uncertain because he’s scheduled to attend a rookie camp with the NFL’s Houston Texans on the weekend.
“If I don’t make the team, I’m definitely coming up there to play,’’ Judge said Sunday. “I’m going to give it everything that I’ve got and be fully committed to the team.’’
Riders head coach and general manager Chris Jones said he was aware of Judge’s interest in the NFL.
“I’m not going to comment on something that he’s going to do outside of here,” Jones said. “We’ll just comment and know that we’ve done our homework and look forward to hopefully being able to get him here.”
White didn’t rule out the possibility of Judge landing a job in the NFL.
“He’s going to see how that goes,’’ White said. “If that doesn’t (work out), he will light it up in Canada.’’
White feels that Judge could contribute early as a special-teamer and develop into a starting-calibre middle or outside linebacker. Judge was a special-teams captain with the Bruins.
“We talk about being a star in your role here and he was every bit of that,’’ White said. “He was a guy who earned his bones as a specialteams guy and became a star in that role. He can be an impact player in that league, not only on special teams but on defence as well.’’
Judge, who was born in Montreal, dressed for 47 games with the Bruins, recording 46 defensive tackles, 2½ tackles for a loss, one forced fumble and an interception.
Judge fits into the Riders’ plans with the international/national ratio because they are starting a Canadian, Henoc Muamba, at middle linebacker. White said Judge could handle a backup role as well as play outside linebacker.
“What we do with the guys is we cross-train them so it gives us flexibility and depth so if someone does go down we can slide guys around and get the best three guys out there,’’ White said. “He can do anything you ask of him and he will do a good job.’’
Saskatchewan’s other draft choices were Bethune-Cookman guard Dariusz Bladek (second round, 11th overall), Laval tight end Antony Auclair (fourth round, 30th), Western offensive lineman Eddie Meredith (fourth round, 32nd), Regina receiver Mitchell Picton (fifth round, 37th), Toronto offensive lineman Danny Sprukulis (sixth round, 46th), Sherbrooke linebacker Alexandre Chevrier (seventh round, 55th), Carleton defensive tackle Emmanuel Adusei (seventh round, 57th) and Montreal offensive lineman Marc Glaude (eighth round, 64th).
Jones may have landed a steal in Meredith, a 2014 and 2015 all-Canadian who didn’t play football in 2016. Jones said the offensive lineman suffered an illness after a trip to South America that contributed to him losing weight, adding that Meredith wanted to focus on his studies.
The Riders worked out Meredith on Saturday and were impressed with the six-foot-six, 315-pounder.
“We spoke to him for a long time and he assured us that he still wants to play football,’’ Jones said. “He’s a pretty highly qualified guy and based on his film of his past, we had him graded fourth or fifth (among offensive linemen). We felt very fortunate to get him in the fourth round.’’