Rookie DB getting his CFL education early
Eric Fraser knows exactly what Keenan MacDougall is going through.
Three years ago, Fraser arrived at his first Calgary Stampeders training camp as a highly touted rookie safety, an early-round draft pick (first round, eighth overall in 2009) who had a solid college resume.
“You come into rookie camp, and you’re the man, you’re the top of the class (as a high draft pick),” said Fraser on Sunday. “And then the vets come in and you get pushed down a little bit.”
That “welcome to the big leagues, rook” moment came early for MacDougall, the Stamps’ third-round pick in last month’s CFL draft out of the University of Saskatchewan.
The first-year safety was assigned the intimidating task of covering speedster Romby Bryant in a oneon-one drill during the opening session of main camp seven days ago. MacDougall’s coverage was a little close for Bryant’s liking, and the veteran receiver turned and stared bullets at the rookie, before turning around and jogging back to the receivers group.
It was a silent message, but it was sent very loudly and very clearly — veterans are veterans, rookies are rookies.
“Oh, I remember that,” said MacDougall with a smile on Sunday before the Stamps’ annual mock game. “We were doing one-on-ones, and I was just going for the ball, I guess, and he wasn’t real happy about. He didn’t say anything, but he gave me the look, yeah. They want us to practise hard, but practise smart. I don’t know, I was just playing hard. You just have to try to do your job as best you can; that’s all you can really do.”
Macdougall, the youngest player on the Stamps’ training-camp roster at 21, has done a nice job of that. It appears that he has nosed ahead of fellow rookie Andre Clarke in the bid to be fraser’s backup and take a role on special teams, and he’s justifying the faith the Stamps showed in him with their third-round pick of a player who didn’t play a game at Saskatchewan in 2011 because of a partially torn quad muscle.
It helped that the six-foot-two, 208-pounder from Saskatoon was thrown in with the first-team defence for a few days while Fraser recovered from a bout with back spasms.
“He’s done a good job,” noted Fraser. “He got a lot of reps to start camp, and from the first day to when I got back on the field, you could see the progression in him. and still now, every day he’s growing and you can see the difference in his breaks and the way he’s reading the quarterback.”
That tells you that Macdougall is doing his homework, despite to a pace, on and off the field, he never had to deal with at Saskatchewan.
“Busy,” he said with a nod. “Early mornings, in the stadium all day and back to the dorms at 9:30 or 10 p.m. So pretty long days, but it’s been tons of fun.
“There’s a steep learning curve, for sure, coming from CIS to the CFL. I guess you try to limit those ‘holy crap’ moments by mentally preparing, and the coaches do a good job of setting us up for success.”
Sunday’s mock game was only one of the items on Macdougall’s to-do list for the day; the other was preparing for the annual rookie night following the game, when first-year players must show some kind of non-football talent. Suffice to say, the mock game was a bigger priority.
“I think I’ll have to come up with something (between practices),” said Macdougall with a chuckle. “It doesn’t have to be a song; people can pretty creative. I have some time. I’ll think of something. I wrote a poem when I was a freshman (at the University of Saskatchewan) so maybe I’ll do that again.”