As talented and hungry as he is, Nuer Gatkuoth will no doubt have his welcome-to-the-CFL moment with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
That’s just the way it goes for college players making the significant jump to professional football, no matter how good they think they are.
Two of Gatkuoth’s new teammates on the defensive line, also Canadians, shared their welcome-to-the-pros moment as the Bombers No. 1 draft pick joined the team at training camp on Wednesday.
Cam Lawson was a second-round draft pick of the Montreal Alouettes out of Queen’s University in 2021 and made their lineup as a rookie.
“I remember being super nervous,” Lawson said of his first training camp. “I was drafted that COVID year, so we didn’t have a season that year. So I had a whole year to think about it, sit on it. You’re super nervous, but also excited at the same time. You just want to show what you’ve got right away.”
Instead, Lawson was quickly shown what it takes to play in the CFL.
“I got pancaked hard,” the 6-foot-3, 290-pounder said. “The real welcome moment is definitely your first game experience. It was a screen pass, and the O-lineman stepped to the side and just whacked me in the back and I just face-planted into the ground. I was like, ‘That’s embarrassing.’
“When you know you have to watch it (on film) the next day, too, oh god.”
Collin Kornelson, a Winnipeg draft pick from the University of Manitoba, got three rookie camps under his belt before cracking the Bombers roster in his third try.
That still didn’t prepare the Winnipegger for what was to come.
“In university or college, some O-lines will have one really good guy, or two,” Kornelson said. “Here, everybody’s good. There’s no big drop-off between the Group 1s and the Group 2s.”
On and off the roster last season, the 285-pounder was released mid-summer, then re-signed just before the Banjo Bowl against rival Saskatchewan.
“Didn’t know I was going to play,” Kornelson recalled. “Only practised once that week. I think it was the third play of the game, and the O-lineman got on me fast. It was like, ‘Oh, alright, you’re back.’ I got pushed pretty far out of my gap. It was something.”
Even future Hall of Famers can have their welcome moment.
Head coach Mike O’Shea says he actually had a few.
The one that stands out for the University of Guelph product happened in training camp with Hamilton in 1993, O’Shea a raw rookie about to be schooled by fourth-year CFLer Bobby Dawson.
The kid from North Bay, Ont., was the wedge-buster on kickoff coverage, a job that takes no small amount of courage.
“And I’m not really doing very well,” O’Shea said. “He says, ‘Stand over there and watch.’ He goes on kickoff and he runs by the first guy, destroys the second guy, smashes through the wedge, makes the tackle. I’m coming on the field… he goes, ‘You get it?’
“And I’ll never forget Bobby Dawson for that. There was a bunch more where I got killed, but that’s the one I remember the most.”
For those who don’t give up, those humbling, eye-opening moments can be matched by a moment when they know they belong.
“When you make your first play,” Lawson said. “You complete your assignment and maybe you go above and beyond, athletically. Okay, if I can recreate this multiple times, I know I can do it. You get that first burst of self-confidence, knowing you can play.”
Lawson won’t hesitate to share his experiences with Gatkuoth as the 24-year-old navigates his first training camp and, potentially, his first games.
“One hundred percent,” Lawson said. “That’s what I wanted (in Montreal). I want to be that guy for new guys coming in.”
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Even Hall of Fame players like Mike O’Shea, now head coach of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, experienced welcome-to-the-pros moments as rookies.
Even Hall of Fame players like Mike O’Shea, now head coach of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, experienced welcome-to-the-pros moments as rookies.