SASKATOON — The word is so incongruous in a football player’s biography that it pops off the screen.
But there it is, in the first sentence of Zach Minter’s bio on the Montana State Bobcats’ website (circa 2012): “An injury-marred senior season didn’t dim the contributions of Minter, one of the most talented and effervescent Bobcats in recent history.”
“ ‘Effervescent,’ ” the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ defensive tackle said when asked Thursday at Griffiths Stadium about the appearance of the word in his bio. “Wow. I can appreciate the vocabulary.
“The love I have for the game shows through practice and preparation and how I treat the minutes we’re out here on the field. I hope I’m grabbing every minute and trying to be grateful because you never know when it’s going to end.”
Told about the wording of Minter’s bio, Eddie Steele agreed with its author.
“That’s exactly him — to a T,” noted Steele, who lines up beside Minter on the Roughriders’ defensive line. “There’s a full personality on that guy.
“He’s a live, bubbly guy. I don’t think I’ve seen him be upset in camp once. Even when he messes up a play and sees it in the film room, it doesn’t get him down too much. He’s a hard worker and I love that in a guy.”
OK. Now what about Steele? Is he effervescent?
“I wouldn’t say as much,” replied the 28-year-old product of Winnipeg. “I’m a little bit more toned down than he is, but I show my personality in my own way.”
“He’s a good dude,” Minter, a 26-year-old from Glendale, Ariz., said of one of his roommates in a University of Saskatchewan dorm. “He’s funny. You can tell he cares for the (four-room dorm) pod like a leader does — not only the room but our defensive line.”
Minter and Steele have been lining up side by side during training camp and likely will do the same Saturday when Saskatchewan plays host to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in a CFL pre-season contest (7 p.m., Mosaic Stadium).
The linemates, both of whom signed with the Roughriders as free agents in the off-season, are being asked to clog up the middle for a team that is rebuilding the interior of its D-line.
One of last season’s starters, Corvey Irvin, signed with Winnipeg as a free agent in the off-season before retiring. Gregory Alexandre, who started two games for the Roughriders in 2016, wasn’t brought back this season.
Younger players like Makana Henry, Greg Milhouse and Ese Mrabure also took turns at defensive tackle last season — and all three of them have returned in 2017. But the players who had stints on the inside in 2016 combined for just seven sacks (five by Irvin and one each by Alexandre and Mrabure).
The Roughriders obviously are hoping for more production from Minter and Steele, who will be asked to anchor a rotation at the position.
“Eddie’s a little more stout in the run and ‘Mint’ is maybe a little bit more of a pass-rusher, but there’s not a whole lot of difference in their game,” said defensive line coach Ed Philion. “Eddie has seen a lot more. He has been in the league for eight years and he has been in more big-game situations, so he might have a slight advantage there. But they’re very similar in the way that they play.”
And that is …?
“Physical,” said Steele, a 6-foot-2, 280-pounder out of the University of Manitoba. “We’re out there to eat double teams, shut the run down and provide a serious push up the middle as far as a pass rush. That’s what the team was lacking last year, that presence in the middle, and both of us really fill that.”
Steele’s signing reunited him with the Roughriders coaches with whom he worked in 2014 and ’15 as a member of the Edmonton Eskimos.
The 6-foot-2, 300-pound Minter had NFL stints with the Chicago Bears, Cincinnati Bengals and Dallas Cowboys before signing with the B.C. Lions in 2015. He joined the Calgary Stampeders in July of 2016 and had two sacks in five games with them last season.
When he hit the CFL’s free-agent market in February, he knew he wanted to join the Roughriders.
“I like the way (Chris) Jones runs a defence,” Minter said of the Roughriders’ head coach and defensive co-ordinator. “There’s a lot of stuff that goes with (signing with Saskatchewan), but at the end of the day, I’m just grateful to get an opportunity to play on a good defence on a good team in front of the best fans in the CFL.”
Minter has yet to play a game for Saskatchewan, but he already has impressed his new boss.
Asked about Minter, Jones noted he watches video every day of the defence “and the only thing you see is No. 90 running to the football.”
In addition to their efforts on the field, Philion said both Minter and Steele keep things light in the locker room with their personalities, which can help immeasurably during an 18-game regular season.
Then again, Philion expects nothing less from a couple of veterans of the trench wars.
“Tackles are those types of guys up front,” Philion, a longtime CFL defensive tackle, said with a smile. “Ends are a more like divas and tackles are more like meat-and-potato, blue-collar guys.”
