Quote Board: Friday morning at the CFL Combine

EDMONTON — The first practice session of the 2023 CFL Combine presented by New Era is in the books. The National and Global prospects at camp started their Friday morning off with a walkthrough, some light drills in the field house at Commonwealth Stadium and the early installation of offences and defences.

Here are a few standout quotes from the prospects out of the morning session.

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“We play a sport where, obviously the combine and such is big, but I’m the type of player that’s an on-the-field type of guy. Once I get pads on, you’re probably gonna get the best out of me.”

– Western RB Keon Edwards on his anticipation of practising at the Combine.

“(Wednesday’s testing) was long, I was nervous. The stress I felt yesterday, I can’t really compare to, mentally. Today…I’m having fun out here. We’re doing drills. This is the part of football that I like. The testing part you’ve got to do your best to get through it, but this is the fun part.”

– Southern Utah DL Francis Bemiy on getting past the testing and into football activities.

“The coaching has been great, so that’s awesome. I like getting on the field before the one on ones. It’s nice to get your feet back under you after having a flight and stuff and not rushing right away. I’m really excited to get into the (the one-on-ones) this afternoon now, I’ve got the taste back in my mouth.”

– Western OL Phillip Grohovac on the new format at the Combine. 

“It’s tough. It’s all about how you take care of your body after, stretching before bed, waking up in the morning, doing those sorts of things you don’t really want to do but it’s going to transition on the field. I feel great right now and I know we’re going to be hitting tomorrow so I know I’ll feel that later. So, you take care of your body off the field.”

– Saint Mary’s TE Sebastian Howard on the physical demands of the week.

“Eating up some o-linemen. Honestly, it’s going to be fun. I like playing with talented guys. It’ll be good to see how everyone performs.”

– Saint Mary’s DL Aidan John on what he’s looking forward to in the coming days. 

“You have chemistry with the guys you’ve been playing with, but for the most part, the majority of the run plays, we all have in and it’s just like the little things that they might do a little differently and you spill out. And I mean, it’s not gonna be like a well oiled machine in three days, but yeah, we’re gonna be able to hopefully pop some big runs on Sundays game and then hopefully we’ll be able to protect and it’ll all go well.”

– Grohovac on learning to play alongside new o-linemen this week.

“East-West Bowl helped a lot with that. I already knew a bunch of these guys from there. Other things, too, like Team Canada, I played with a few guys there.

“Just being on a team with somebody, it’s really awesome. Being around somebody for multiple days is where you build that camaraderie and you build that that relationship, friendship. I feel like with this format right now, we’re able to do that we hang out with each other. As a d-line, we’re sitting next to each other in the locker room. We’re talking, we’re talking about plays, the Global guys are communicating with us and it’s so far it’s been awesome to get to know them and get to know everyone that’s been here.”

– UBC DL Lake Korte-Moore on building chemistry with teammates at the Combine.

“The Global players are more outgoing sometimes. They want to reach out and they go and say hi to you. And, and yeah, you’ll, you’ll say hi to them and then that’s how it all starts. The way that you connect with people is through similarities. So the way that we’re connecting with them is through football. But then the thing is, is then we build on that we can build into maybe I’ve been to the country that they’re from or maybe I’ve wanted to (go) and there’s different things and you kind of have that communication with them and and similarities and things like that, that really build that bond with somebody.”

– Koorte-Moore on getting to know the Global players at the Combine.