The Ottawa REDBLACKS selected a pair of specialists\u00a0in Wednesday\u2019s 2026 CFL Global Draft, including South African Aidan Laros from the University of Kentucky and Paul Geelen from the Netherlands and Southern Illinois University.<\/p>\n
Laros, a native of Cape Town, South Africa, signed with the NFL\u2019s Tampa Bay Buccaneers as an undrafted free agent after finishing his collegiate career at the University of Kentucky (2024-25), where he played 24 games over two seasons. With the Wildcats, he posted 82 punts for 3,679 yards for an average of 44.86 yards per punt. Before his time at Kentucky, he spent time at UT Martin and the University of Charlotte.<\/p>\n
Geelen, who hails from Utrecht, the Netherlands, will attend minicamp with the NFL\u2019s Denver Broncos. Geelen played 24 games over two seasons at Southern Illinois University (2024-25), where he posted 90 punts for 3,803 yards for an average of 42.3 yards per punt and a long of 65 yards. Geelen also handled the placekicking duties, converting 25 of 32 field goals (78.13%) with a long of 53 yards. He began his collegiate career William Jewel College before transferring to Southern Illinois.<\/p>\n
Le ROUGE et NOIR d\u2019Ottawa ont choisit deux botteurs lors du rep\u00eachage mondial 2026 de la LCF qui s\u2019est tenu mercredi, \u00e0 savoir le Sud-Africain Aidan Laros, issu de l\u2019universit\u00e9 du Kentucky, et le N\u00e9erlandais Paul Geelen, issu de l\u2019universit\u00e9 Southern Illinois.<\/p>\n
Originaire du Cap, en Afrique du Sud, Laros a sign\u00e9 avec les Buccaneers de Tampa Bay (NFL) en tant qu\u2019agent libre non rep\u00each\u00e9 apr\u00e8s avoir termin\u00e9 sa carri\u00e8re universitaire \u00e0 l\u2019universit\u00e9 du Kentucky (2024-2025), o\u00f9 il a disput\u00e9 24 matchs en deux saisons. Avec les Wildcats, il a effectu\u00e9 82 punts pour un total de 3 679 yards, soit une moyenne de 44,86 yards par punt. Avant son passage au Kentucky, il a jou\u00e9 \u00e0 l\u2019UT Martin et \u00e0 l\u2019universit\u00e9 de Charlotte.<\/p>\n
Geelen, originaire d\u2019Utrecht, aux Pays-Bas, participera au minicamp des Broncos de Denver (NFL). Geelen a disput\u00e9 24 matchs en deux saisons \u00e0 l\u2019universit\u00e9 du sud de l\u2019Illinois (2024-25), o\u00f9 il a effectu\u00e9 90 punts pour un total de 3 803 yards, soit une moyenne de 42,3 verges par bott\u00e9 de d\u00e9gagement et un plus long de 65 verges. Geelen s\u2019est \u00e9galement charg\u00e9 des placements, r\u00e9ussissant 25 des 32 placements (78,13 %) avec un plus long de 53 verges. Il a d\u00e9but\u00e9 sa carri\u00e8re universitaire au William Jewel College avant d\u2019\u00eatre transf\u00e9r\u00e9 \u00e0 l\u2019universit\u00e9 Southern Illinois.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Ottawa REDBLACKS selected a pair of specialists\u00a0in Wednesday\u2019s 2026 CFL Global Draft, including South African Aidan Laros…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":646882,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":["post-646881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cfl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canadian-football-league","tag-canadianfootballleague","tag-cfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646881","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=646881"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646881\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/646882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=646881"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=646881"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=646881"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}