Prukop willing to wait, learn watching Ray
TORONTO — Quarterback Dakota Prukop took the path less travelled last season to get playing time as a rookie with the Toronto Argonauts.
Veteran Ricky Ray started 17 Canadian Football League regular-season games before engineering Toronto’s Grey Cupwinning playoff run last year. So, while the six-foot-two, 205-pound Prukop didn’t throw a pass with the Argos, he did register six tackles on special teams.
And with Ray back for another season, Prukop is more than willing to contribute to Toronto’s Grey Cup defence by again racing downfield to cover kicks.
“I’m going to do whatever the team needs,” the 24-year-old Californian said. “Personally, I want to contribute as much as I can and that goes without saying for every player, you want to contribute and help the team in whatever capacity you can.
“So if I have the opportunity to help on special teams I’m all for that.”
Prukop appeared in nine games last year — he didn’t play in Toronto’s stunning 27-24 Grey Cup win over Calgary — as Ray and backup Cody Fajardo took the majority of snaps. Fajardo joined the B.C. Lions as a free agent this off-season after the Argos acquired James Franklin from the Edmonton Eskimos.
Franklin, 26, is expected to be Ray’s backup this season. That would leave few practice reps and little playing time for Prukop and fellow sophomore McLeod Bethel-Thompson, who threw just two passes — both completions — during his Argos rookie campaign, as well as Regina Rams rookie Noah Picton.
But with Ray expected to see little-to-no action Friday night when Toronto visits Hamilton in exhibition action, Prukop and the others will have a valuable opportunity to shine.
“As you progress from high school all the way to the professional ranks ... reps become more and more valuable because there’s less and less of them,” Prukop said. “Especially for a young guy, most of it is going to be mental prep and mental reps. But when you do get the opportunity to get a couple reps on film, you just watch those over and over and over for the good and bad. But we (quarterbacks) spend a lot of time together, we watch each other’s reps.”
Prukop said he learned plenty last year watching Ricky on film.
“The nuances and little details of quarterback in terms of your feet, the rhythm of your feet, perpendicular setups with your back foot in terms of where you’re trying to get the ball. And how he moves his head. Luckily we have these stripes on our helmets so you can actually see what Ricky is doing with his head and how he’s influencing different players. Just being in the same quarterback room as him I’ve felt myself develop just being able to watch him and try to soak in some of his knowledge.”