Backfield competition heats up
TRAINING CAMP: While Lions hunt for starting running back, Knapton hunts for food
— The most intense battle for a starting position at B.C. Lions training camp might be at running back where three experienced CFLers are competing for one spot.
As of this writing, incumbent Jeremiah Johnson sits atop the depth chart, but he’s being pushed by Travon Van and Brandon Rutley.
Van ran for 283 yards in six games with the Edmonton Eskimos last year. Rutley had 291 rushing yards in five games with the Montreal Alouettes in 2017.
“As of now JJ is slotted as the starter,” said offensive coordinator Jarious Jackson. “Full respect to him and I look at it as his position to lose but I can’t speak for the head coach.”
Return man Chris Rainey is also in the mix and second-year man Tyler Davis is in the picture as a returner.
“I think it’s going to be a hard decision at the end of the day,” said Jackson. “I’m glad it’s not solely my decision.”
With a shaved head, imposing physique and a thick beard, Lions defensive end Gabe Knapton looks like a character from Game of Thrones at the best of times.
Turns out he lives like one, too. Knapton, a Wyoming product who resides in Colorado, is a serious hunter. How serious?
“I have a couple hundred pounds of bison meat in my freezer, some deer, some elk, geese and duck,” he explains, before adding: “I’m not a trophy hunter. I use every bit of the animal to feed my family. It’s very spiritual to me.”
It’s a tough call but Knapton says his favourite is bison.
“I eat it three or four times a week,” he says.
Scratch this one off head coach Wally Buono’s bucket list. He has now worked with a Danish football coach.
Lars Carlsen, one of the founding fathers of Danish football, is a guest coach at this Lions camp. He helped establish the Kronberg Knights in the late ’80s and has served as head coach of the Danish national team. In the mid-’90s, his path crossed with Lions assistant Jeff Reinebold, who was then coaching the Rhein Fire in NFL Europe.
The two men have maintained a relationship since. Carlsen was also a guest coach at Wagner College on Staten Island for two years in the early ’90s.
“Football is football, right?” Carlsen says. “When we started (in Denmark) I’d tell someone we were doing American football and they had no clue what was going on. Now, we watch the games on TV, watch the Super Bowl. It’s getting bigger.”
Lions offensive lineman Jovan Olafioye has scrimmaged with the team the last two days after he was acquired from the Alouettes and projects as the starting right tackle. After playing all 18 games for seven straight seasons with the Lions, Olafioye missed six games with the Als last season and there were concerns about his back.
Back schmack, says the former most outstanding lineman.
“I don’t know what’s up with that,” he says. “I missed five games with a fractured hand. I missed one game because of my back and it was muscle spasms, it wasn’t the spine.
“People can say what they want to say. I know what’s going on and I’m good to go.”