The Riders’ Tobi Antigha has come a long way

There’s an adage in sports that says, “They don’t ask how, they ask how many.”

That could apply to Saskatchewan Roughriders defensive end Tobi Antigha, who recorded two sacks — the first two of his CFL career — against the Toronto Argonauts on Saturday.

Antigha’s first sack of Ricky Ray was a legitimate quarterback takedown, but the second one was a little less, uh, impressive. Antigha simply touched Ray after the veteran pivot ran out of the pocket and slid to the ground two yards behind the line of scrimmage.

“If (a sack) comes like that, I’ll be more than willing to accept it,” Antigha, 24, said with a grin Thursday after the Roughriders practised at Mosaic Stadium. “I don’t care how they come, as long as they come.”

The game against Toronto was Antigha’s fourth of the season with the Roughriders. He has been used as part of a rotation at defensive end, so he may not be getting as many opportunities to get to opposing quarterbacks as other D-linemen.

On Saturday, the 6-foot-2, 240-pounder finally broke the ice in that department.

“I don’t really worry about getting sacks; I just worry about playing hard and playing consistent and eventually the sacks will come,” Antigha said. “I just try to do my job and do my assignment and have the faith that it’ll put me in the right position to make plays.”

Antigha and his two brothers (Eyo Jr. and I.T.) were born and raised in Tampa, Fla., but the boys’ parents — Eyo and Sami — emigrated to that city from Nigeria before the boys were born.

Eyo and Sami knew more about soccer than football, but they were OK with it when Eyo Jr., I.T. and Tobi all decided to play football.

“As long as my grades were good, they didn’t really care what sport I played,” Tobi said. “The thing that my parents were strict on were my grades, making sure I had A’s and B’s on my report cards and not slipping up in the classroom.

“If we behaved well in the classroom, they pretty much gave us the freedom to play any sport we wanted.”

Tobi started playing football in only his junior year of high school, so he faced a steep learning curve. But having watched his brothers play, he had an idea of what he needed to do.

He completed his career at Tampa’s Steinbrenner High School with 49 receptions for 971 yards and 11 touchdowns. After graduating from Steinbrenner, he attended Presbyterian College, a private liberal-arts school in Clinton, S.C.

Antigha played four seasons for the Blue Hose, recording 117 catches for 1,415 yards and seven TDs in 29 games while also studying political science. A well-spoken, thoughtful individual — check out his Twitter account (@O_LouieNinety2) for proof — Antigha admits he’d probably be in law school right now if he hadn’t embarked on a football career.

But football was indeed the career path he chose, thanks in large part to one of his teammates at Presbyterian.

Former Blue Hose defensive back Justin Bethel was selected by the Arizona Cardinals in the sixth round of the 2012 NFL draft, becoming the ninth player from Presbyterian to make it to the NFL.

“He’s kind of the guy who put the goal in a lot of us young guys’ minds to start playing professional football,” Antigha said. “Once we saw him go, we realized it was within reach. It made us work that much harder.”

But the NFL wasn’t in Antigha’s future. In December, he attended a workout with the Roughriders and things changed for him.

Saskatchewan head coach-GM-defensive co-ordinator Chris Jones has said that the Roughriders had some good offensive linemen at the camp but no defensive linemen. So Jones took defensive backs, linebackers and receivers and put them up against the O-linemen.

Antigha — who attended the camp as a receiver — was in Jones’ words “a natural” at defensive end, so that’s where he was deployed for Saskatchewan’s mini-camp and training camp.

“I was surprised and shocked (when Jones suggested the move) but also willing to accept the challenge,” Antigha said. “I don’t really fall back from any challenge. I like them.

“I like to challenge myself physically, mentally and spiritually. When he proposed that challenge, I thought about it and then I made the decision to go with it.”

Antigha enters Saturday’s game against the B.C. Lions in Vancouver with six defensive tackles and three special-teams stops — and two sacks, of course. Asked if he was happy with how Antigha has progressed, Jones replied: “Defensively, yes. Special teams, no.”

“He has done a really nice job defensive-wise, but he needs to play much better on special teams,” Jones continued. “He’s a (designated import), so those guys have to be on three or four special teams and they need to play at a high level.”

Antigha doesn’t need to be reminded.

“Special teams is one of those things I’ve got to focus on each and every day to get better,” he said. “The more I work on teams, the better player I will become overall.

“I want to be the type of player who can be relied on in situations on defence and on special teams and give my team the most competitive edge possible.”