Don Landry
CFL.ca
That rumbling sensation people felt in the vicinity of Toronto’s Varsity Stadium Sunday morning came from a different source than the usual.
Normally, residents of the area get those little tremors as subway trains from the Bloor-Danforth line barrel through every few minutes. On this day, the shaking came in short bursts as defensive and offensive linemen tested their speed and agility at the CFL’s evaluation camp for draft eligible players.
The tests were straight forward, including football’s greatest speed-test staple, the 40 yard sprint. Add the shuttle and cone drills to the mix and you had a lot of big beef moving at top flight speed for most of the morning. For good measure, the linemen were then pitted against each other in one-on-one battles, adding a little more vibration to the neighbourhood.
Fastest of the behemoths was Simon Fraser defensive lineman Justin Capicciotti, who crossed the finish line with a time of 4.89, followed closely by Western’s David Lee, anther defensive linemen, at 4.93. The two split the agility drills, Lee winning in the 3-cone race in 7.01 seconds, while Capicciotti took the shuttle run with a time of 4.18.
Capicciotti, a native of Toronto, was continuing his dominance among the D linemen. On Saturday, he was best in class in the broad jump and vertical leap.
North Delta, B.C. native Tyson Pencer (Washington State) was tops among offensive linemen in the 40, with a time of 5.19, followed closely by Oro Station, Ontario’s Tyler Honeywood (Acadia) at 5.20.
Saskatchewan’s Ben Heenan, ranked as the number one prospect for this spring’s draft on May 3, sprinted the distance in 5.28 seconds.
Heenan did not take part in the one-on-one drills between offensive and defensive linemen, after suffering soreness in either a groin or hip muscle (he wasn’t sure which it was), but spent a good portion of the weekend with an ice pack.
“It was a little sore coming into camp and yesterday during the jumping drills I felt it a little bit more. On my second shuttle test today, I kind of slipped a bit and aggravated it,” said Heenan.
“My time should have been a lot better than that, in my opinion, I was a couple of tenths slow.”
Pencer’s showing in the 40 was not the only thing he did right. His work in the one-on-one drills caught the eye of All-Time Argo and TSN commentator Chris Schultz.
“The Washington State kid (Pencer) looked good,” said Schultz, moments after the drills finished up.
“He’s got great size (6′ 8”, 330 pounds) and his feet look smooth. Pass blocking all starts with your feet. If you have a good base and you maintain that base, for the length of the pass block, everything else you can develop from that. His footwork’s pretty good.”
Schultz knows the numbers posted in various drills are important, but maintains they aren’t the be all and end all.
“There’s nothing more important than protecting your quarterback,” he said.
“In the overall evaluation process, they take that probably more seriously than the 40 times or any athletic drill. Because if you have the natural ability to pass block one on one, effectively, if you can master that skill, you can play football.”
A weekend of jumping, running, hitting and lifting is now over for the big men. Mix in the mental gymnastics of the interviews each did and CFL player personnel executives now have a more complete picture of the line of scrimmage prospects they’re grading out.
What remains is just the little matter of making selections, on May 3.
