THE CANADIAN PRESS
DeAndra’ Cobb has a tough act to follow this week.
His own.
The former Michigan State star accumulated 175 yards of total offence in leading the Hamilton Tiger-Cats to a 31-28 road win over the B.C. Lions last week. In his CFL debut, Cobb ran for 100 yards on 14 carries and added five catches for 75 yards, including a 48-yard, game-winning TD grab.
Cobb’s performance earned him the CFL’s offensive player of the week award. Heady stuff considering Cobb, 28, had been out of football two seasons before catching the Ticats’ eyes at a free-agent camp in California this off-season.
“I’d say I’ve been developing patience in the game of football ever since Pop Warner,” Cobb said. “It took me up to now to learn it because I was getting frustrated and saying I wasn’t sure if I wanted to play football anymore.
“But this (joining Ticats) was an opportunity and I wasn’t going to blow it.”
The Las Vegas native will make his second straight start Saturday when the Ticats (1-1) host the Winnipeg Blue Bombers (1-1) at Ivor Wynne Stadium (TSN, 6 p.m. ET).
The two teams will square off after an eventful week.
On Tuesday, Blue Bombers scout Ron Trentini was escorted out of Ivor Wynne Stadium after being caught spying on the Ticats during one of their practices.
Ticats officials confiscated Trentini’s notes, which included diagrams of plays Hamilton was running during practice, revoked his accreditation for Saturday’s game and lodged a complaint with the CFL.
The Bombers apologized to the Ticats, with president Lyle Bauer acknowledging the team used Trentini’s services in the area of personnel scouting, including tracking Canadian and CIS players. Bauer added Trentini wasn’t asked by Winnipeg to take notes of Hamilton’s practice.
No penalty was issued to the Bombers but CFL commissioner Mark Cohon told all member clubs “that this type of practice is unacceptable and similar incidents in the future may result in disciplinary action.”
Cobb’s short CFL tenure has already been an eventful one.
He signed with Hamilton on May 29 and went to training camp, only to be released June 25. The Ticats placed Cobb on their practice roster, then promoted him to the starting lineup after running backs Terry Caulley and Tre Smith were both injured in the club’s season-opening 30-17 loss to Toronto.
Cobb was regarded as one of U.S. college football’s top kickoff returners, returning four for touchdowns during his career at Michigan State — one shy of the Big Ten Conference record. Cobb was a first-team All-American as a junior, setting a single-season school record of three kickoff return TDs, which also tied the Division I mark.
Cobb was a sixth-round pick of the Atlanta Falcons in 2005, appearing in three games before being released Aug. 29, 2006. The Jacksonville Jaguars added Cobb to their practice roster Dec. 19 but he didn’t appear in any games and was subsequently released.
For the next two-plus years, Cobb worked a variety of jobs in California, including security at a high school and as part of a cleanup crew. But he never gave up on his dream of playing pro football, continuing to work out and send out letters and workout results to various pro teams.
Cobb also became involved with Elite Football Combines, a service that holds regional workouts and provides results and contact information to NFL, CFL and Arena Football League clubs. One of Elite’s graduates was receiver Marc Boeritger, the former Calgary Stampeder and Toronto Argonaut who also spent five seasons with the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs.
.”I always believed I would have that next shot, I just didn’t know when it was going to come,” Cobb said. “I worked hard at it and prayed that God would give me another shot.
“This time I don’t plan on letting it slip away from me.”
Cobb’s CFL opportunity almost never came. He nearly missed Hamilton’s free agent camp after attending an Elite Combine workout the previous day.
“We woke up the next day and said, `Why not? Give it all you got and see what happens,”‘ he said. “They liked my speed and my catching ability and gave me a shot, something I’m very grateful for.”
NOTES : All eight CFL teams will be sporting throwback jerseys from the 1960s this week. The uniforms were created by Reebok. The officiating crews will also have a retro look.
