Devin Gardner to Saskatchewan

Submitted by Zeke21 on

Ol' 98 will be doing some passing and running for the Roughriders.

Go Blue.

SeasideBlue

June 29th, 2018 at 12:22 PM ^

Awesome!!  As a life-long Rider fan it would be great to see him on the field.  Incredible fan support up there if he does stay on.

Hardest (and easiest) part about moving to Ann Arbor way back when was learning how to cheer against a team with green/white colors.

 

MGoGrendel

June 29th, 2018 at 12:40 PM ^

Weird... I was just thinking about him today and wondering how he was doing (in Japan; I don't keep up enough).  Even weirder, I was driving and the thought popped in my head around the same time you posted this!

Thanks for the update.

Bill Brasky

June 29th, 2018 at 1:13 PM ^

Wow. I never knew there was a football league in Japan! I’ll look it up too, but I wonder how I could watch those games/what the rules are? I’m fiending for some football these days. Seriously (and pathetically), I’ll be awaiting XFL or any other Spring football league.

GoBluenoser

June 29th, 2018 at 2:08 PM ^

My cool story bro: sat next to RoughRiders’ coach on a plane last year, I told him I was a recent Michigan grad and football fan.  Asked me about DG and Norfleet.  I raved about poor damn DG and how he never had a chance with that o-line but would make a great cfl qb with the arm to make the sideline throw and legs.   

 

To summarize, I am taking full credit for this development.  Best of luck in Rider Green DG

MGoFoam

June 29th, 2018 at 2:09 PM ^

Yeah, they play football. This was apparently national news in Japan recently.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/22/sports/football/japanese-football.html

stephenrjking

June 29th, 2018 at 2:42 PM ^

This seems pretty significant for Gardner, even though he's basically on board as the emergency third QB while Zach Collaros is recuperating from injury. Just getting a sniff gives him a chance to catch on somewhere in the CFL, which gives him a chance to improve as a professional QB.

QB in the CFL is no joke, good ones can build solid careers and last for a decade or more. I'd be delighted if he even did enough to earn a regular backup position there next year.

stephenrjking

June 29th, 2018 at 3:11 PM ^

To wit: Argos QB Ricky Ray has been a solid QB in the league for 15 years. Darian Durant put together a 10-year career. Current Calgary star Bo Levi Mitchell (SMU, if you're curious) has been their starter for 5 and shows no signs of slowing down, and so has Edmonton starter Mike Reilly. 

Also telling is the past: Anthony Calvillo turned a Utah State career into an 18-year run in the CFL, winning three Grey Cups. Marcus Allen's brother Damon played for six CFL teams over an incredible 22 seasons, winning four Grey Cups and being named the CFL's most outstanding player at age 42; he retired with the most passing yards of all time in any football league, and as the third leading rusher in CFL history. 

It's not easy to break in as a starting CFL QB, but if you can do it there's a real career available.

Sambojangles

June 29th, 2018 at 4:27 PM ^

Here's a hot take: Canadian rules are better than American rules. The bigger field and extra player and lack of 4th down open things up. I haven't seen much CFL but when I do it's highly entertaining. Good luck to Gardner.

rob f

June 30th, 2018 at 10:27 AM ^

A question about Devin Gardner while at Michigan:

I recall reading some comments on an MGoBoard thread a few years ago about Drew Dileo complaining that Gardner skipped several informal summer drills while he was our starting QB. Dileo's alleged complaint boiled down to this:  we could have been a better team offensively if we could have counted on Devin to show up at drills that summer...  (not using quotation marks because a search turned up nothing).  

My best guess is that this particular thread would have been about 4 years ago, after Dileo would have graduated.  Does anyone know if the allegations about skipping drills were ever proven or at least backed up by other Michigan teammates?