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Saskatchewan Roughriders' GM Jeremy O’Day recalls his first CFL training camp experience

Allan Ly
jeremy-oday
The Saskatchewan Roughriders take on the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in CFL action on September 1st 10th, 2019 at Mosaic Stadium in Regina, SK.Photo courtesy: Saskatchewan Roughriders / Liam Richards/Electric Umbrella

Saskatchewan Roughriders' general manager Jeremy O'Day did not spend his whole playing career with the Riders.

"A lot of people probably wouldn't know this, but actually my first camp was in Toronto with the Argonauts," O'Day said on the SportsCage. "I played two years with the Argonauts. I was going into a team that was coming off the championship, they won in '96 before I came in '97."

The Argos repeated as champions in 1997, finishing 15-3 in the regular season in both seasons. O'Day won his other two Grey Cups with the Riders in 2007 as a player and in 2013 as the team's assistant general manager.

"I was on a heck of a team to start my first year. I do remember walking through the locker room in Toronto, looking for my locker and walking all the way around the whole locker room, but I didn't see a locker," O'Day recalled. "Then I looked in the middle of the locker room, there was a fold-up chair with some duct tape and my name on it. It was kind of like musical chairs waiting for me. As camp went on, guys were kind of disappearing around me. Then finally, one day, I came in and I got a locker. So that was a big deal for me."

O'Day recalls the different level of play with the Argonauts in his first CFL training camp. 

"I can remember my first one-on-one rep was against a guy by the name of Rob Waldrop, who I think was runner-up for the Outland Trophy," O'Day explained. "I remember the first one, I thought I did pretty good, I held my own. Then the second rep, he went by me so fast, it was like: 'OK, this is a little bit different.'"

Waldrop played defensive tackle and spent time with the Kansas City Chiefs in 1994, the Memphis Mad Dogs in 1995 then came to play with the Argonauts from 1996 through 1997. During Waldrop's post-secondary career, he was with the University of Arizona Wildcats from 1990 through 1993. In his last season, he won the Outland Trophy, the Bronko Nagurski Trophy, Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year and the United Press International Linemen Of the Year Award.

With CFL rookie camp opened, O'Day knows there will be challenges for players unfamiliar with the Canadian game.

"New rules different from the American rules that they would be playing in college or if they're in an NFL camp. The day before we go out in the field, they spend a day in the meeting rooms. As soon as we sign our players that are new to our team, it goes out to our coaches. Our positional coaches will call those guys right away. We'll encourage those guys to talk to guys that played in our league, to watch the film on our games and try to get used to it," O'Day detailed.

"Not just for the new guys, but even the veterans are really reminding these guys of the different rules, the halo on punt return, the wider sidelines, the last touch rule when the ball's loose by the sideline. Giving them all those intricacies of the CFL, you don't want to get into a game and a guy makes a mistake because he didn't know the rules. The receivers, using the waggle and timing up the waggle. In American football, the quarterback says hut and that's when they leave. But in our league, they have to time up the waggle based on the cadence of the quarterback."