No April Fools in Rider Camp as Team WorksToward Big Mini-camp April 10
The Saskatchewan Roughriders are entering April Fool’s hoping to find more diamonds in the rough in American free agency camps as the team gears up for a mini-camp in Florida April 10-12 that will give Rider Nation its first look at whether Darian Durant is back from his Achilles injury.
The Riders have been holding camps throughout the United States as part of the new team philosophy to go out and identify potential players who could make a difference to the club. While the focus of the Florida mini-camp will be Durant, the Riders are not shying away from trying out other quarterbacks in an effort to make the overall team stronger than the 3-15 train wreck that drove many of us to alcoholism last season.
The latest entrant in the quarterback stakes is Shane Austin, formerly of the University of Hawaii who has been showing his wares in the Arena Football League the last three years. In the Arena League he has thrown 248 touchdown passes to 42 interceptions over three years. Sure, it is an arena league, which if the CFL was smart, it would get involved in to help develop young players, but you have to like those numbers.
The point of all these tryouts is that it doesn’t hurt to work these players out to see if they have something to offer the Riders. There will likely be even more players as Major League Football announced that it was not going to operate this season and pin its hopes on next year.