At the 2015 CFL Draft held on Tuesday, May 12, Clan wide receiver Lemar Durant was picked to be a Calgary Stampeder.
The 6’2” Coquitlam native, who led the SFU football team in receiving yards in the 2014 season with 685 yards in eight games and amassed 2,392 receiving yards in 25 games over three seasons, was selected 18th overall by the Grey Cup champions.
“It was kind of a relief finally [getting] where I wanted to be and what I worked all these years for,” Durant told The Peak on the morning of Thursday, May 14.
Before the draft, Durant was projected to go in the first round, with the final CFL Scouting Bureau Rankings placing him eighth overall, near the end of the first round — and behind a few players who had signed with NFL teams, meaning that they would be picked later in the draft as they would be unlikely to sign in the CFL.
Instead, he fell to the final pick of the second round, and despite being the top ranked receiver going into the draft, he was the fourth receiver picked. Some analysts cited a perceived lack of intensity as the reason for the fall in draft position.
Durant himself was shocked, tweeting before he was drafted, “This is one of the most shocking things I have ever been through.
“I thought I was going to go before I did,” he admitted Thursday. “It makes me just want to show teams and other people that I should have been picked higher.”
Durant was also adamant that despite falling to the second round, he is not going to “let it affect [him] in a negative way.”
He believes that everything turned out for the best. “It helped the whole thing. Calgary was one of the teams I wanted to get picked [for],” said Durant. “Once they picked me, I was really happy — it never hurts going to the best team in the league”
Called the “steal of the draft” by TSN analyst Farhan Lalji, Durant believes that he can be an impact player next season.
“I just got to get used to the Canadian game a little bit, and then after that, I’m always a guy that wants to try to be the best,” he noted. “I think if I work hard, then I can get a starting spot and make a big impact right away.”
In the end, Durant was the only SFU player drafted this year, surprising considering the fact that eight Clan athletes were invited to CFL Combines, and two — Durant and defensive back Matt Isherwood — to the national combine.
However, Durant isn’t the only one receiving a shot at the CFL. SFU Football announced Wednesday, May 13 that former Clan running back Chris Tolbert, who tried out as defensive back at the regional combine in Edmonton, was invited to a BC Lions tryout. As an American, Tolbert was ineligible for the draft but can sign with a CFL team as a free agent.
In addition, SFU Football announced that fellow undrafted regional combine attendee Bibake Uppal has signed with the BC Lions.
