Elgersma becomes first Canadian university QB invited to Senior Bowl, 2 Canadians win CFP national championship
Canadian Notre Dame DL challenges Joey Chestnut at CFP media day
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After what was the LONGEST college football season of all-time — thanks to the expanded 12-team playoff — welcome to the offseason!
We’ll start with our U Sports headlines because there’s a big one here.
Back north: U Sports offseason headlines 🍁
Laurier Golden Hawk Taylor Elgersma is the first quarterback from a Canadian university to be invited to the Senior Bowl — the premiere showcase game for senior NFL Draft prospects — in Mobile, Alabama on Feb. 1. The 2024 Hec Crighton winner and defending Yates Cup champion is the second Canadian university football player to be invited. Former Western Mustangs wide receiver Tyrone Williams played in the 1992 Senior Bowl and caught the game-winning touchdown.
Nine U Sports football players made the winter edition of the CFL Scouting Bureau, which ranks the top 20 CFL Draft prospects:
7. Jeremiah Ojo, Montreal Carabins defensive lineman
8. Jackson Findlay, Western defensive back
10. Erik Andersen, Western offensive lineman
13. Darien Newell, Queen’s Gaels DL
15. Devin Veresuk, Windsor Lancers linebacker
16. Ethan Jordan, Laurier WR
18. Isaiah Knight, UBC Thunderbirds running back
19. Nate Beauchemin, Calgary Dinos DB
20. Taylor Elgersma, Laurier QB
Follow me on social media to get more in-depth insights on Canadian CFBers:
Heading south ✈️
Ohio State tight end Maxence LeBlanc (St-Bruno, Que.) and punter Anthony Venneri (Hamilton, Ont.) became the first multi-Canadian group to win the college football national championship since the 2001-02 Miami Hurricanes, which had four Canadians on its star-studded roster. Ohio State beat Notre Dame and its three Canadian defensive linemen Sean Sevillano Jr. (Winnipeg), Devan Houstan (Mississauga, Ont.), and Armel Mukam (La Prairie, Que.), 34-23, winning its first College Football Playoff national championship since the inaugural CFP-era title game in January 2015.
Notre Dame’s Sevillano Jr. made a bold move at the national championship media day when he was taking pictures with famous hotdog eater Joey Chestnut. In a video shared by USA Today’s and South Bend Tribune’s Mike Berardino to X/Twitter, the Winnipeg native and Fighting Irish defensive tackle said “some say I might take your crown. That’s what they say. It wasn’t me though.” Chestnut replied, “you can do it. Bring it, bring it.”
(Video: @MikeBerardino/X)
Eleven Canadian NCAA football players made up the remaining spots on the winter CFL Scouting Bureau:
1. Kurtis Rourke, Indiana QB (Oakville, Ont.)
2. Paris Shand, LSU DL (Toronto)
3. Elic Ayomanor, Stanford WR (Medicine Hat, Alta.)
4. Isaiah Bagnah, BYU DL (Lethbridge, Alta.)
5. Keelan White, Montana WR (Vancouver)
6. Jaylen Smith, North Texas LB (Hamilton, Ont.)
9. Hayden Harris, Montana DL (Mill Creek, Washington; dual-citizen)
11. Christopher Fortin, UConn OL (St-Rene, Que.)
12. Ali Saad, Bowling Green DL (Windsor, Ont.)
14. Nate Martey, Arkansas State DL (Ottawa)
17. Sam Carson, ULM OL (Calgary)
For a more detailed CFB breakdown, read my latest Canuck U:
Student shout-outs 📢
I got my start in multimedia storytelling and sports journalism at a student newspaper. It’s important for me to spread the love to those student journos finding new leads on campus fields across the country, just like I did a short time ago.
OUA
The Western Gazette (Western)
*My old stomping grounds!
The Cord (Laurier)
Imprint (Waterloo)
The Silhouette (McMaster)
The Varsity (Toronto)
Excalibur (York)
The Queen’s Journal (Queen’s)
The Fulcrum (Ottawa)
The Charlatan (Carleton)
Canada West
The Ubyssey (UBC)
The Gateway (Alberta)
The Gauntlet (Calgary)
The Sheaf (Saskatchewan)
The Manitoban (Manitoba)
RSEQ
Impact Campus (Laval)
*Covered Rouge et Or football in the Vanier Cup
Quartier Libre (Montreal)
Concordia
The McGill Tribune (McGill)
Le Collectif (Sherbrooke)
AUS
The Xaverian Weekly (StFX)
The Campus (Bishop’s)
The Athenaeum (Acadia)
The SMU Journal (Saint Mary’s)
ICYMI: Read last week’s Pressure Package newsletter
More Canadian college football coverage
The media covers U Sports football at a level not seen since theScore’s former television program “University Rush” covered Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS, the former name for U Sports) football until the early 2010s.