Fraser Caldwell
Ticats.ca
You might excuse him if he pulls up a little short when he first encounters a quarterback on Saturday night. After all, Jermaine McElveen spent four years being reprimanded for every nudge he gave to Anthony Calvillo.
Oh how much difference a new season and a swap of jersey make. Now in his fifth campaign as a CFL jack-of-all-trades on the defensive line, the long-time Alouette finds himself in Black and Gold and relishing a very appetizing prospect.
He can – at long last – lower the boom on Calvillo.
“I get to finally hit him,” says an obviously excited McElveen. “It’s going to be fun for me. Chasing him around in practice so many times and not being able to hit him – being cussed out by Coach Trestman for getting too close to the quarterback – it’s going to be pretty exciting to now be able to hit him.”
The fifth-year defensive lineman – who has seen time at both the end and tackle positions as the Tiger-Cats’ structure in the trenches continues to evolve – is an enthusiastic on-field personality. He greets even the most mundane question with a smile, and perks up noticeably when talk turns to the promise of live action.
So it’s difficult to imagine McElveen needing any extra emotional push to greet a game day. But with his former team arriving on Saturday as the next pilgrims to Ivor Wynne, a motivational boost is precisely what the lineman expects to feel when he takes to the field.
“It’s going to be fun for me,” says the fifth-year CFLer. “Those guys know me and I know them. They know what I bring to the table, so it’s going to be really fun for me to play against my old team. There’s always extra motivation when you play your old team. I’m going to have a little extra, and when I sack Calvillo I might say a little something. But that’s it.”
The lineman’s Head Coach George Cortez speaks of such added competitive fire as being only natural. He points out that people of all walks of life can trace rivalries back to their days of playing pickup games around the family home. Whatever game you play, at whatever level you play it, familiarity will always breed competition.
“I think it’s human nature,” says Cortez of McElveen’s intensified approach to Saturday’s game. “It’s like if you play against your brother in your back yard, you probably play harder against him than you do against your neighbour. When you know people, they might in another life have been your best friend, but when you’re playing against them you want to do well.”
McElveen’s ambition is in plain sight as he speaks of downing the league’s all-time leading passer. He knows as well as anyone that Montreal protects the pass ferociously, aware as the Alouettes are that Calvillo rarely ventures into the free-fire zone that exists outside of his pocket.
With that reality in mind, the Tiger-Cat defensive lineman stresses that pressure – rather than outright sacks – must be his team’s priority as they look to contain Montreal’s offence.
“One thing I saw while I was [in Montreal], when we lost games, teams were able to mess up his rhythm,” says McElveen of Calvillo. “Sometimes we might not get sacks, but maybe we can collapse the pocket so that he can’t get a full throwing motion. Just getting hands in his face and having bodies around him can throw him off his game a little bit.
“I feel like we did that well last week, and that was why Ricky Ray’s numbers were down. If we do that this week with our DBs putting hands on the receivers and the front causing pressure, we’ll be just fine.”
McElveen will be one of the chief agents of that pressure on Saturday night. If he and his squad mates can execute the concepts that they have envisioned, he could very well fulfil his midweek dream of standing over Anthony Calvillo.
