Ticats pre season evaluation

(Update)

The Hamilton Tiger-Cats are getting ready for their spring mini-camp at McMaster University next week — it will be the first opportunity to see many of the Cats’ off-season signings on the gridiron, wearing black and gold. We spoke with head coach Kent Austin about what he hopes to get out of this pre-season evaluation.
Ticat fans will get a sneak-peak of a dramatically-different football team next week, when off-season training activities begin at McMaster. At the forefront will be new starting quarterback, Zach Collaros who will be keenly evaluated by head coach and quarterbacks coach Kent Austin.  “So, from what gets installed one day and how well he prepares and how prepared he is to execute on the next day — all those things are indications of a guy’s heart and his commitment level to this club and to his teammates.”

We’ll also get a look at what off-season acquisition Abraham Kromah has to offer at linebacker — a position that’s wide-open now that Simoni Lawrence has signed with the Minnesota Vikings, and Jamall Johnson has re-joined the B.C. Lions.

And without recent-retiree Marwan Hage and injured-genius Peter Dyakowski, the offensive line will also have some new faces. A total of 19 players — who weren’t Tiger-Cats in 2013 — have now been added to the roster.

Kent said: “The players that we’ve signed know that they will be given every opportunity to perform and get a fair evaluation. We’re trying to get the football team better, and we’re excited to see all of them, really.”

Austin and his coaching staff will have their work cut out for them, as they try to determine how many of the players in town next week will be invited “back” to training camp at the end of May: “How quickly they can learn and just do an overall evaluation of their physical skills and where they might fit into the puzzle, if at all.”