Seven seniors from SFU’s football team have been invited to CFL combines. Michael Couture and Quinn Horton have been invited to the 2016 CFL National Combine in Toronto, which will take place from March 11th to March 13th. Earl Anderson, Tyler Nickel, Jamie Puffer, Nikolai Karpun, and Tiernan Docherty have been invited to the Regional Combine in Edmonton which will take place on March 7th.
Couture started every game he played during his four years with the Clan, while Horton finished with the most tackles from a defensive linemen on the team with a total of 37. Being directly invited to the National Combine, they do not have to attend the Regional Combine taking place in Edmonton.
Ever since the season ended, Couture has been preparing for the combine to impress all nine CFL teams that will be there.
“I’ve been training six days a week,” said Couture. “I’m a offensive lineman and Quinn Horton’s a defensive tackle who’s also going, and that worked out really well, because we’re the same age, almost the same weight, [and] we go against each other on the field. We’ve been up here four days a week and then we have a personal trainer in Surrey we’ve been going to twice a week.”
The combine will feature a number of drills that players will have to test themselves on, such as one on one drills, bench press, and 40 yard dash. Each team will also have 15 minutes to interview a player and ask him a series of questions.
“The CFL YouTube site has interviews with some of the players and teams [from past drafts],” explained Couture. “I actually went on and watched every interview that they’ve provided, and I’ve written down every question that they would ask a player [. . .] some of them are tricky, so I’ve written those down and on the car rides to and from school we’ll quiz each other on the questions, just so we get a feel for how we should answer them.”
Couture has also had help from past SFU teammates who have gone through the combine process.
“There was a handful last year, and the year before that we had three guys invited to the national and we had two guys invited to the Edmonton Regional, and both of those guys got invited to the National Combine,” he said. “So we had all of our five draft eligible player at the national. And I was very close with all five of those guys, and so any question I’ve had through the process I’ve been texting them, phoning them, they just give me tips on how to take in the whole process.”
Couture and others hope to join SFU football alumni Lemar Durant and others in the league when the draft is held May 10.
