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<\/p>\nIt became Nuer Gatkuoth\u2019s signature celebration move during his days at Wake Forest and Colorado State.<\/p>\n
He calls it \u2018The Shark\u2019 and it features the defensive end punctuating a sack, a tackle for loss or any molar-rattling hit by putting his thumb on the front of his helmet with the rest of his hand at a right angle to represent a fin.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
And, hell yeah, Winnipeg Blue Bombers fans will certainly be on board to see that regularly from the club\u2019s first pick, fourth overall, in the 2026 CFL Canadian Draft.<\/p>\n
\u2018Sharknado\u2019 anyone? (We\u2019re open for nickname\/headline suggestions, by the way).<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a relentless defensive end. I would describe myself as a shark,\u201d said Gatkuoth Wednesday after his first on-field session as a Blue Bomber following a weekend rookie minicamp appearance with the Denver Broncos.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019ve ever seen me play that\u2019s why I put up the shark (mimics the move) because I feel like I\u2019m a shark \u2014 I go out there and I hunt.\u201d<\/p>\n
There wasn\u2019t much hunting for Gatkuoth on Wednesday as he was slowly eased into things on his first practice day. He played mostly the observer, took some snaps during the 12-on-12 session after doing some fitness testing, but did not step into the gauntlet that is O-line vs. D-line one-on-ones later in the session \u2014 although he was certainly game.<\/p>\n
\u201cI put on the pads, and I asked Coach Westerman (Jamaal Westerman, guest coach), \u2018Can I play? Can I play?\u2019 and he was like, \u2018Nah, you\u2019re done for the day.\u2019 It\u2019s all good,\u201d said Gatkuoth with a grin. \u201cI\u2019ll have my shot: I\u2019ll have my opportunity to play soon.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll be ready to go sharking, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Nuer Gatkuoth<\/p>\n
The Blue Bombers loved Gatkuoth\u2019s film from his college days, where he was named to The Athletic\u2019s All-Freshman Team in 2023 at Colorado State and last year at Wake Forest was a finalist for the Jon Cornish Trophy as the top Canadian player in the NCAA.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a good kid. He\u2019s in shape. He\u2019s ready to go,\u201d said Blue Bombers head coach Mike O\u2019Shea after practice. \u201cHe\u2019s up here sooner than we thought. I was hoping (he would stick with Denver). We\u2019ve got some really good football players from north of the 49th that do really well down there and I was hoping he was another one.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe wants to get playing. I like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gatkuoth slightly raised some eyebrows over the weekend when he told The Denver Gazette he wanted to come to the CFL and \u2018dominate\u2019, although he insisted this today when asked for a clarification:<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to really just dominate for my team and do everything I can to help the team win. That\u2019s what I meant. I knew I wanted to come play in the CFL (after the weekend in Denver).<\/p>\n
\u201cI grew up a Canadian and love Canadian ball, so once I didn\u2019t get the shot with Denver, I was immediately, \u2018let me go play with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.\u2019 I grew up watching the CFL and was a fan as a kid. Coming here is great. I love the blue.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked about the \u2018dominate the CFL\u2019 comment post-practice, O\u2019Shea grinned.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what you\u2019d want everybody to say, isn\u2019t it? They want to come and do play their best and do really well. He\u2019s wired right.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou wouldn\u2019t want it the other way: \u2018Well, I hope I come to the CFL and I\u2019m average.\u2019 You would never sign a guy like that. He\u2019s a competitive guy and his film shows that given his physical stature he packs a lot more punch than you may think. And then you put the film on and you see it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re excited.\u201d<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
An Edmonton product who said he went to at least one CFL game a year as a kid, Gatkuoth attended Austin O\u2019Brien High School in Edmonton before moving to West Toronto Prep prior to transferring to Champion Prep Academy in the U.S. He then landed his first NCAA opportunity with Colorado State before transferring to Wake Forest.<\/p>\n
Now, after bouncing around from school to school \u2014 and his weekend with the Broncos \u2014 Gatkuoth is simply just trying to settle into his new football home.<\/p>\n
He said he lost track as to how many hands he\u2019s already shaken since arriving Tuesday. It was a whirlwind upon touching down in Winnipeg for a first time \u2014 \u201cI came here, went to dinner, went to meetings and went to sleep\u201d \u2014 and he\u2019s just been following people around from as he gets acclimatized.<\/p>\n
And when that happens, he hopes to soon flash the skills that made him a first-round pick.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a guy who is relentless; a guy who gets out there every day and comes to work and puts everything on the line,\u201d he said. \u201cA guy who is there for his teammates and really loves to ball, really loves the game of football.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know my ability, I know how I can play this game and how I can affect any team so just being able to go out there and help the team win is my goal for the season.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It became Nuer Gatkuoth\u2019s signature celebration move during his days at Wake Forest and Colorado State. He calls…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":668247,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":["post-668246","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\/668246","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=668246"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668246\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/668247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=668246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=668246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=668246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}