By Arash Madani,
For CFL.ca
He had never played football before, until this fall day on a high school field, back in September of 2000, when Samuel Giguère was a tenth grader. But it was then, as he was picking up the game at Bishop’s College School in tiny Lennoxville, Quebec, when his head coach, former Winnipeg Blue Bombers receiver Steve Zatylny, took him aside with a message.
“You are going to play pro football one day,” the one-time Grey Cup champion told his protégé.
“You’ve just got to work at it.”
Just under a decade later, the words appear to be prophetic. Giguère, a fast receiver like his old coach, is pegged as one of the top talents in today’s Canadian College Draft, and his stock may very well have dipped over the last 72 hours. Not because this now 22-year-old University of Sherbrooke product has done anything negatively to jeopardize his CFL career, other than being signed as a free agent by the NFL’s Indianapolis Colts on Sunday.
“The whole NFL draft process was really nerve-wracking,” said Giguère, who inked the deal with Indy just hours after that draft wrapped up. “I had high expectations going into it. I wanted a team to give me a shot. It was stressful, and now that it’s done I’m realizing it’s a great opportunity to go there. They gave me a spot, now it’s up to me to keep it.”
It’s been a remarkable rise for a ridiculously ripped kid who didn’t even get into the weight room until his three-year collegiate CEGEP career at the powerhouse Champlain Lennoxville Cougars program.
“And then when I got to university, I realized working out could help me out a lot on the field,” said Giguère, who stunned the CFL Evaluation Camp last month after being the only athlete to record a sub-4.5 second 40-yard dash (4.49) and register a staggering 42-inch vertical. “I joined the track team at the university as well to put time into my physical preparation.”
He also put a lot of much needed time working on the field. To a man, Giguère is still a remarkably raw football player but is a specimen of young man. Once Sherbrooke hired former Alouette André Bolduc as the school’s head coach in January, 2007, the one-time pro and the about-to-be pro began working together on mechanics and specifics to refine his abilities as a receiver.
“Athletically I was always above the rest of the guys, but over the last year we were polishing route running, the way I catch the ball and learning how to read defenses started to come together,” said Giguère.
The additional work transformed him from just a monster in the gym to the country’s second-leading receiver (45 receptions for 871 yards during the 2007 CIS season) and helped get an invite into the East-West Shrine Bowl all-star game in January. Improvement was significant enough for the Colts to see potential in Giguère, and for every CFL team to take notice.
“He is,” said one scout from an Eastern team, “head and shoulders better than any receiver in the draft.”
Giguère’s definitely has plenty of upside, but because he only recently began to get elite coaching at his craft, there are a few question marks. Not about his size, muscle, speed, nor his ability to test well. Those excellent tools are well known. But what about lining up on the field in the pro game?
“He’ll probably go higher than his actual ability on the field shows, but he’s got the ability to develop into something down the road. I think he’s got the ability, the more he’s groomed, to improve,” said a CFL personnel man. “He has average hands. Can he stretch the field? Yeah. Is there a place for a guy who can stretch the field and open things up? Yeah. It all depends.”
Giguère is well aware he can only get better. Over the winter he spent some time in Montreal with Étienne Boulay, who has left the Alouettes for a shot at cracking the New York Jets roster. The duo worked one-on-one drills and the receiver picked at the defensive back’s brain.
“He’s one of the best guys, if not the best, I’ve played against and he taught me some things,” said Giguère. “I know I can improve on all levels of the game. I don’t think right now I’m at the NFL level or the CFL level. I have to work on a lot of things. Route running, reading defences, working on my hands – just so many things. But I like that, and I just want to get better.”
Today, Giguère will still be selected early in the draft – and likely in the first round despite his departure for a Colts mini-camp on Thursday. While he won’t go with the No. 1 pick now that he’s Indianapolis-bound, Giguère will still head to the athletic complex at the University of Sherbrooke campus for a draft day party to see where his CFL fate is headed.
“(Wednesday) is the plan B day,” said Giguère. “I’m looking forward to seeing where I’ll end up if it doesn’t work out with the Colts. As long as I play professional football, that’s what I want.”
