He’s got his degree and now he’s got a Roughrider jersey.
Cameron Judge, picked second overall by the Riders in the 2017 CFL Draft, missed all of training camp to complete his final semester at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
UCLA, unlike most universities, runs a three-semester school year instead of two. That meant Judge didn’t write finals until last week. He didn’t want to miss training camp, but said it meant a lot to him to finish his political science degree
“It was very important for me and my family, it was definitely one of the things I wanted to leave UCLA with so I’m glad I got it done,” he said.
There was a time when even I wouldn't have believed you! Graduated pic.twitter.com/6PAipZEUqG
— Cameron Judge (@CameronJudge) June 18, 2017
The Riders were supportive of his decision to do just that. Head coach Chris Jones said the team’s philosophy is to be “people first.”
"People have got families and they’ve got futures and they’ve got careers that they've got to think about,” Jones said. “Football is important and this is basically my career, you know. So sure, I would have liked to have had him but he’s worked long and hard to try and get that college degree and it meant a lot to him and it meant a lot to his parents. So who was I to stand in his way?”
Now that Judge is here, he’s gone straight to work. Judge said his teammates have already made him feel welcome and Jones said he’s off to a rather impressive start. He’s been penciled in to play special teams on Thursday if he performs well in Tuesday's drills.
“He’s a good-looking kid and he’s extremely intelligent. He’s already caught to our defensive schemes and our calls special teams-wise. So look forward to see what he brings to our football team,” Jones said.
One thing that Judge likely wasn’t prepared for, however, was the questions about his jersey number. Judge sprinted out on to the field wearing number four: Former quarterback Darian Durant’s old number.
Welcome to #Riderville Cameron Judge. pic.twitter.com/pITa8ilECd
— Arielle Zerr (@arielle_zerr) June 19, 2017
He said he had no idea who wore the number before him and actually would have liked to wear number two in honour of his dad. But that number was taken when he got here.
“Two was my original number … but when I got to UCLA it was taken and four was open so it (was) close enough,” he laughed.
“I just asked for four (here) and it worked out. At the end of the day, it’s a number. It’s not too big of a deal for me.”
ODDS AND ENDZONES
Many of the players who didn’t dress for Friday’s game were back at practice Monday, however Chad Owens wasn’t.
Jones said he told many of the players he cut to stay in shape and keep in touch and that included Vince Young. Young has about eight weeks of hard training to recover from a hamstring tear, according to Jones. “It’s a matter of him getting well, number one and then deciding exactly what direction Vince wants to go.”
Jovan Johnson was added to the Riders practice roster Monday morning but was already out playing with the first team defence.
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