2018 CFL Draft featured 81.2 per cent of talent from U SPORTS programs

By: Earl Zukerman (McGill) & Alan Hudes ( U SPORTS)

Men's Football | 5/4/2018 3:32:00 PM

TORONTO - The 2018 Canadian Football League Draft featured 56 U SPORTS standouts selected out of 69 total picks (81.2 per cent) on Thursday evening. A year ago, U SPORTS players made up 78.9 per cent of draftees (56 out of 71).

Colleges from the NCAA produced 14 picks, including one from Simon Fraser, which previously competed in U SPORTS.

The Ontario-based OUA led all Canadian conferences with 28 players chosen, while Canada West produced 15 selections, followed by Quebec's RSEQ division with eight picks and the Atlantic's AUS league had five, including two from Bishop's, a former RSEQ school that switched leagues two years ago. The breakdown by conference is somewhat skewed as it is directly related to how many players are in their senior year, which makes them draft-eligible.

McGill, which only had five seniors eligible for the draft, had none picked for the first time since 2015. Calgary led all U SPORTS programs with a whopping eight players drafted. Western was next with six, followed by Laval (4), UBC (4), Guelph (4), Carleton (3), Queen's (3), Laurier (3), Alberta (2), Bishop's (2), Concordia (2), McMaster (2), Montreal (2), Ottawa (2) and Waterloo (2). Seven other Canadian universities each had one player picked, including Acadia, Saint Mary's, StFX, Regina, Toronto, Windsor and York.

Many of the U SPORTS picks had previously been selected to play in the U SPORTS East-West Bowl, which serves as an annual CFL prospects game. The 2018 U SPORTS Valero East-West Bowl Week, showcasing the next generation of top prospects heading into to the 2019 CFL Draft, begins Monday at Université Laval, with the game slated for Saturday, May 12 at 12:30 p.m. at TELUS-U.L. Stadium. McGill has one player selected to play, namely Kamba Katchelewa, a six-foot, 227-pound linebacker and physical education junior from LaSalle, Que.

The East-West game will be live-streamed here.

Mark Korte, an offensive lineman from the Alberta Golden Bears, was the first U SPORTS player selected in the draft when the Ottawa REDBLACKS called his name at No. 4. He was one of four U SPORTS players who went in the opening round on Thursday, along with UBC offensive lineman Dakoda Shepley at No.5 (Saskatchewan Roughriders), and Calgary offensive linemen Darius Ciraco at No. 6 (Hamilton Tiger-Cats) and Ryan Sceviour at No. 8 (Calgary Stampeders).

Korte, a 6-foot-4, 285-pound business major from Spruce Grove, Alta., was ranked No. 6 on the April CFL Scouting Bureau Top 20 prospects list, rising six spots from No.12 in December, after going unranked on the initial list last August.

Korte was a driving force in Alberta's No.2-ranked rushing offence, helping the Golden Bears to their first playoff appearance since 2010. Korte was named a U SPORTS First Team All-Canadian and was a nominee for the J.P. Metras Trophy as the Outstanding Down Lineman of the Year. He was also invited in January to the prestigious East-West Shrine Game, the longest running university all-star game in the United States, which features over 100 draft-eligible seniors.

Shepley (No.3), Sceviour (No.13) and Ciraco (No.14) were also ranked in the Scouting Bureau's Top 20 going into the draft. Shepley, the top-ranked player on the Apr. 12 list, dropped in the first round after signing with the NFL's New York Jets on Apr. 28 as an undrafted free agent.

Click here for the CFL Draft Tracker to see the full list.

2018 CFL DRAFT BREAKDOWN
U SPORTS players selected by round

First Round: 4
Second Round: 9
Third Round: 6
Fourth Round: 9
Fifth Round: 5
Sixth Round: 8
Seventh Round: 8
Eighth Round: 7

ALL-TIME CFL DRAFT PICKS FROM McGILL (131)

YEAR	# PICKS	NAME	POS	TM	SELECTED

1953	7	Jim Miller	DE	MTL	na
		Garnett Bertrand	OL	MTL	na
		Don Menard	HB	MTL	na
		Cameron Kenney	RB	OTT	na
		Geoff Crain	QB	TOR	na
		Don Williams	QB	TOR	na
		Rod Foster	OG	TOR	na
1954	9	Joe Benoit	OL	TOR	na
		George Klein	RB	OTT	na
		Len Shaw	FB	OTT	na
		Vince Capogreco	OG	OTT	na
		Mark Hart	OG	OTT	na
		Fred Wilmot	RB	MTL	na
		John McGill	OL	MTL	na
		W. Moulton	OG	HAM	na
		George Bertrand	OG	HAM	na
1955	1	Herb English	RB/DB	MTL	na
1956	2	Ted Taporowski	OT	CAL	na
		Emil Bosacki	QB	HAM	na
1957	9	Bob Holland	DB	BC	na
		John Larsen	OT	HAM	na
		Rick Adrian	DB	HAM	na
		Bob Rogers	DB	HAM	na
		Murdy Armstrong	DB	WPG	na
		Paul Dingle	DE	WPG	na
		Vaughan McVey	OL	MTL	na
		Bill Picard	DB	MTL	na
		Livio Desimone	OG	EDM	na
1958	10	Len Sigurdson	OT	SSK	na
		Leo Konyk	OG	SSK	na
		Merv Shaw	OG	SSK	na
		Garnett Bertrand	OL	SSK	na
		Ron Murphy	DE	MTL	na
		Sam Yuska	DE	MTL	na
		John Bennett	DE	OTT	na
		John Sandzelius	DB	WPG	na
		John Cronin	DB	HAM	na
		Rae Brown	OT	HAM	na
1959	1	Steve O'Farrell	DB	OTT	na
1960	3	Gordon Merritt	DE	CAL	na
		Joe Irvine	DB	OTT	na
		Bob Tucker	DE	HAM	na
1961	4	Peter Hoisak	OG	CAL	na
		Al Braekvelt	OG	MTL	na
		Bob Milligan	DB	TOR	na
		John Moore	DB	OTT	na
1962	9	Harry Haukkala	DB	MTL	na
		Tony Blair	OG	TOR	na
		John Cleghorn	OL	TOR	na
		Chuck Wood	OG	OTT	na
		Bob Winsor	DE	OTT	na
		John Roberts	DB	HAM	na
		Leo Konyk	OT	HAM	na
		Bob Kennel	OT	HAM	na
		Colin Russell	OT	HAM	na
1963	9	Willie Lambert	RB/LB	MTL	na
		Murray Thomas	DB	MTL	na
		Fraser Allen	DB	MTL	na
		Pete Holmay	OT	MTL	na
		James Hogan	OT	SSK	na
		Graeme Strathdee	DB	CAL	na
		Ewart Budgell	DB	CAL	na
		Tom Skypeck	QB	HAM	na
		Ian Monteith	FB	WPG	na
1964	1	Bruce Johnson	DB	MTL	na
1965	3	Ian Bruce	DB	TOR	na
		Al Jenner	OT	MTL	na
		Eric Walter	RB	CAL	na
1966	4	Rich Ripstein	QB	SSK	na
		Jim Dickie	DE	OTT	na
		Dick Fiedler	OG	OTT	na
		Peter Howlett	FB	WPG	na
1967	1	Brian Rose	OT	HAM	na
1968	3	Don Desontis	FB	WPG	na
		John Frost	DE	TOR	na
		George Springate	DE/K	HAM	na
1969	1	Dave Fleiszer	RB	SSK	na
1970	2	Robert Taylor	OT	BC	na
		Dave Doherty	DB	OTT	na
1971	1	Dan Dulmage	OT	CAL	na
1972	0
1973	0
1974	0
1975	1	Don Cowie	DB	CAL	19th
1976	1	Yvon Thibeault	OT	MTL	Territorial
1977	1	Hector Pothier	DT	MTL	14th
1978	5	Phil Roberts	LB	BC	33rd
		Barry Dobson	TE	BC	42nd
		Daniel Graham	LB	SSK	57th
		Tom Barbeau	RB	OTT	61st
		Eris Salvatori	RB	MTL	72nd
1979	1	Keir Cutler	WR	MTL	62nd
1980	1	Paul Gohier	OT	BC	14th
1981	1	Marc Lacelle	RB	MTL	Territorial
1982	4	Mark Lemery	LB	TOR	20th
		Denis Tardif	LB	CAL	39th
		Mark Joncas	DT	SSK	49th
		Ron Poulton	DB	OTT	na
1983	1	Tony Lawson	DE	EDM	Territorial
1984	0
1985	1	Glenn Miller	SB/K	HAM	44th
1986	1	Denis Touchette	DB	MTL	50th
1987	2	Robin Belanger	DB	BC	36th
		Allan Lekun	OL	WPG	60th
1988	2	Floyd Salazar	DB	TOR	31st
		Scott Warr	OT	OTT	49th
1989	1	Michael Soles	RB	EDM	5th
1990	4	Paul Kerr	DL	TOR	17th
		Gerry Ifill	RB	TOR	44th
		Hagen Mehnert	LB	OTT	56th
		Chuck Petitpas	K	OTT	Supplemental
1991	3	Christian Masotti	SB	EDM	15th
		Steven Baillargeon	WR	OTT	51st
		Francois Belanger	OT	HAM	57th
1992	0
1993	0
1994	2	Val St. Germain	OL	HAM	1st
		Matthieu Quiviger	OT	SSK	10th
1995	0
1996	0
1997	1	Ryan Coughlin	OL	MTL	14th
1998	2	Samir Chahine	OG	EDM	11th
		Daniel Lafontaine	OL	MTL	34th
1999	1	J.P. Darche	LS/LB	TOR	21st
2000	0
2001	2	Randy Chevrier	LS/DT	EDM	5th
		Ben Wearing	RB	WPG	19th
2002	1	John Macdonald	DL	HAM	7th
2003	2	Jim Merrick	OG	SSK	31st
		Nick Hoffmann	FB	BC	41st
2004	1	Mike Mahoney	LB	TOR	39th
2005	1	Robert LeBlanc	SB	EDM	40th
2006	0
2007	1	Greg Hetherington	SB	CAL	45th
2008	1	Jean-Nicolas Carriere	LB	TOR	21st
2009	0
2010	0
2011	0
2012	0
2013	4	Mike Edem	LB	MTL	3rd
		Jesse Briggs	LB	WPG	17th
		Laurent Duvernay-Tardif	OT	CAL	19th
		Alexandre Bernard	LB	OTT	57th
2014	0
2015	0
2016	1	Shaquille Johnson	WR	BC	33rd
2017	1	Qadr Spooner	OL	WPG	15th
2018	0
TOTAL:	131