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Edmonton Eskimos take foot off gas in preparation for early exhibition

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After holding the pedal to the metal throughout the first five days of training camp, the Edmonton Eskimos held a short on-field session Friday before focusing on the recovery process.

There is, after all, a game to be played already on Sunday, when they open their pre-season schedule against the visiting Saskatchewan Roughriders (3 p.m., TSN, 630 CHED) at Commonwealth Stadium.

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“For a short camp until the first game, to beat your guys up right before we play it, if we want to see absolutely what our guys are made of, this is the way we look at it as a medical staff and on the strength and conditioning side with our players,” said Eskimos head coach Jason Maas. “We asked our players back in November to be in a different state of mind coming into this training camp.

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“Absolutely, during mini-camp (in Las Vegas last month) we told them the same thing, so I feel like our guys are right where we need them to be.”

Hence, pumping the brakes somewhat during Friday’s on-field session.

“Taking care of their bodies was one thing so we could see them near 100 per cent for Sunday,” Maas said.

But just because they hit the showers early doesn’t mean the Eskimos punched out for the day.

“We got a lot of work in mentally over the first four practices, and so now was basically just a break from that,” Maas said. “They’re still working out today, they’re working out and recovering so they’re doing it a little bit different than being out on the field, but we got a lot of work in.”

SCOUT IT OUT

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The Eskimos are entering the 2018 season with a couple of new bloodhounds in the scouting department.

Will Homer and Chris Milo were officially brought on board earlier in the month, with Homer taking over as director of U.S. scouting after spending the previous two seasons as the western U.S. scout for the Ottawa RedBlacks.

“Will was a guy that we hired in Ottawa when I was there,” said Eskimos general manager Brock Sunderland, who spent four years as RedBlacks assistant GM. “He was with the San Francisco 49ers for four years previous, helped co-ordinate and run their draft. He worked very closely with their general manager, so he’s well-versed in all things scouting.

“What we do here, personnel-wise, is very much what we did with the New York Jets, it’s very similar to an NFL-ran draft, so he sees eye-to-eye on how we do things. He’s going to be a very integral part of that.”

Homer has a proven track record.

“The other key thing is he understands our grading system, how we do reports and what our database is like from Ottawa,” Sunderland said. “Before he was in San Francisco, he ran the East-West Shrine Games, so he’s been a talent evaluator who’s had to acquire talent at three different venues for a while.”

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Milo, meanwhile, officially earned scout status after assisting the Eskimos in the Quebec Student Sport Federation last year – when he wasn’t donning a jersey and lacing back up his previously hung-up cleats as a placekicker with the team, that is.

The two-time Grey Cup champion – once with the Redblacks and once with the Saskatchewan Roughriders club that drafted him in the fourth round (30th overall) out of Laval University in 2011 – briefly signed with the Eskimos in September while placekicker Sean Whyte was dealing with a leg injury.

“Chris Milo helped us out a little bit last year on a volunteer basis,” Sunderland said. “A former player, as everybody knows, kicked for us for a couple weeks last year.

“The biggest thing there is that Chris really wants to get into personnel. When I was the assistant GM in Ottawa, kickers don’t do a lot during practice when they’re not out there, so he would just come and pick my brain a bit on players.

“Part of scouting is the want-to, the other half is knowing what’s out there and what plays at this level. He’s been around it for a long time in a lot of successful organizations.”

Former Eskimos defensive back Torey Hunter spent the previous four years as a regional scout with the club, before joining the B.C. Lions as director of player personnel over the off-season.

In and out: On Friday, the Eskimos announced the signing of WR Je’Mari Luper, out of Central Oklahoma, who attended rookie mini-camp with the National Football League’s Tennessee Titans as an undrafted free agent earlier this month, as well as DB Maurice McKnight, a San Jose State product.

Email: gmoddejonge@postmedia.com

On Twitter: @GerryModdejonge

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