CFL Scouting Bureau releases winter RANKINGS: Goossen makes biggest move

TORONTO  –  The Canadian Football League Scouting Bureau today published its winter edition of the top 15 ranked prospects eligible for the 2014 CFL Canadian Draft.

For the second-straight ranking, McGill offensive lineman Laurent Duvernay-Tardif is the top ranked prospect. Duvernay-Tardif is followed by two other offensive linemen – Pierre Lavertu from Laval is ranked second and David Foucault from Montreal is third.

Duvernay-Tardif added a number of honours to his impressive resume at the end of the 2013 CIS campaign, his fourth with the Redmen. The 6-foot-5, 315-pound medical student was named a first-team all-Canadian for the second straight year, received the J.P. Metras Trophy as the country’s top down lineman, was the RSEQ conference nominee for the Russ Jackson Award (football, academics & citizenship) and, last but not least, was selected as a Top Eight Academic All-Canadian out of over 11,000 CIS student athletes.

Last month, Duvernay-Tardif was one of two CIS standouts invited to the 89^th edition of the prestigious East-West Shrine Game, the longest running university all-star game in the United States, which is set for this Saturday at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida. He will be accompanied by University of Manitoba defensive tackle Evan Gill, who is now considered the sixth best prospect for this spring’s draft after being left off the CFL Scouting Bureau list in September.

 

Rounding out the top five are St. Francis Xavier wide receiver Devon Bailey and Simon Fraser offensive lineman Matthias Goossen, who made the largest jump in the rankings, moving up ten spots to fifth.

BY THE NUMBERS

The ranking includes four offensive linemen, four linebackers, three defensive linemen, two defensive backs one receiver and one running back.

Queen’s has three players on the list, the most by any one school.

Other CIS players included on the January list are St. Francis Xavier wide receiver Devon Bailey (No. 4 / down two), Western linebacker Beau Landry (No. 7 / down one), Queen’s defensive back Andrew Lue (No. 8 / no change), Manitoba running back Anthony Coombs (No. 9 / previously unranked), Concordia linebacker Max Caron (No. 10 / down three), Queen’s linebacker Sam Sabourin (No. 12 / down three), Laval defensive back Adam Thibault (No. 13 / down eight), Queen’s defensive lineman Derek Wiggan (No. 14 / down four) and Western defensive lineman Dylan Ainsworth (No. 15 / previously unranked).

All 15 ranked players on last winter’s CFL Scouting Bureau list (it was published in December) were selected in the 2013 CFL Draft. Seven of those players were selected in the first round.

Last May, University of Calgary defensive tackle Linden Gaydosh became the seventh CIS player in as many years – and the 11^th in the past 14 years – to be selected first overall in the CFL Draft when the Hamilton Tiger-Cats called his name at No. 1. He had been ranked second, third and third on the three Scouting Bureau lists of 2012-13.