Arden Zwelling
CFL.ca
Despite claiming five of the past ten Vanier Cups, the QUFL has seen just one Hec Crighton trophy in the last decade.
But in a year where the CIS is devoid of the standout quarterbacks that have marked the league in years past, one man is rising above the rest in Hec Crighton talk.
The University of Montreal’s 163-yard-per-game man — Rotrand Sené.
The sophomore running back has absolutely decimated QUFL run defences this year, hitting the century mark in all five of the Carabins games and crossing the 200-yard mark twice. He’s scored a touchdown in every single game he’s played and leads the nation in rushing attempts, rushing yards and yards per game.
His 163.4 yards per game are a full 30 yards ahead of the next closest back, Adrian Charles of the Regina Rams who has the benefit of four years of CIS experience. The 21-year-old Sené has just one.
Even if the Hec Crighton voters have something against the Quebec league, they surely can’t deny the hometown kid who’s turning heads in not only the CIS, but the CFL as well.
“I guess I’m a little bit surprised,” Sené said from Montreal when asked about his success at such a young age. “But I worked very hard to be here so I think it’s 50/50. I’m surprised but at the same time I’m not.”
But one thing is clear when you watch any game tape of Sené— he owes a tremendous debt of gratitude to his offensive line.
“I have a great supporting cast,” Sené said. “The offensive line does a great job of opening holes for me to run through and when I’m downfield the receivers are always doing a great job of blocking for me.”
To watch Sené run the football is sort of like watching lightning crash to Earth. Instead of running the football straight into the heart of the defence and taking tacklers head on, Sené zigs and zags his way down the field, using quick cuts to catch defenders off guard. The aftermath of his runs often looks like a bomb has gone off with defenders left lying behind in his wake.
One of his favourite moves is to draw a defender in one direction and then cut back the opposite way, sending the defender straight into a waiting lineman or wide receiver who can deliver a clean, unexpected block.
It’s those skills that helped him run for 981 yards and five touchdowns last season, finishing third in the nation in rushing as a freshman. His numbers this year are even better, something Sené attributes to getting more and more snaps under his belt.
“It’s experience,” Sené said. “I have all the experience from last year and that makes everything more natural for me.”
CFL scouts salivate over a player with Sené’s combination of speed and smarts. He clearly has the numbers to entice some teams to give him a shot at the next level, but he knows he still has a long way to go.
“I want to be the best,” Sené said confidently. “But I know I need to be stronger. I need to be faster. I have to work at these things in the offseason.”
Another thing Sené wants to improve before he tries to make the jump from the CIS to the pros? His English.
Sené prefers to speak in French but he said he was considering taking classes during the off season to improve his grasp of Canada’s other language.
“I know I have to work on my English if I want to make it,” Sené said. “I still have a lot of work to do.”
He’s also aware of the challenges facing Canadian tail backs trying to break into the pros. There are exactly zero Canadian running backs in the NFL and just nine non-import running backs currently on CFL rosters. Edmonton Eskimos running back Calvin McCartney was the only non-import running back to earn a start in the CFL last weekend.
At the CFL’s most recent Evaluation Camp in March, seven running backs from the CIS performed for the gaggle of scouts, coaches and team executives, but just two were drafted — Laval’s Sam Fournier by the Hamilton Tiger Cats in the third round and Calgary’s Anthony Woodson by the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in the fourth.
Fournier now plays fullback for the Tiger-Cats and is still waiting for his first career CFL carry. Woodson was returned to the Calgary Dinos for his fourth year of CIS eligibility.
“I know that it’s tough,” Sené conceded. “But I’m going to work very hard. I’m very driven.”
In order to stick with a CFL team, a move to wide receiver or slot back may be in Sené’s future — much like how Fournier made the move to full back to realize his dream of playing professional football. Sené said it’s a transition he’s willing to make if it means he’ll get his shot in the pros.
“I would have no problem with [switching positions,]” Sené said. “I just want to be a pro so I’ll do anything they want me to do.”
Sené and the 4-1 Carabins have been dominant this year, winning their first four games before surrendering their first loss 39-12 to the Bishop’s Gaiters last weekend.
But in the QUFL you aren’t worth your salt until you can beat the Laval Rouge-et-Or who have won the last seven Dunsmore Cups as conference champion. The Rouge-et-Or are well on their way to making it eight in a row, winning their first five games of the season by a combined margin of 200-39.
But if anyone in the QUFL is going to beat Laval it will probably be Montreal. It was Sené and the Carabins who beat the Rouge-et-Or 28-7 in the regular season last year before falling to them in the Dunsmore Cup.
“It’s going to be tough. It’s going to be a very physical game,” Sené said of his team’s matchup with Laval this Saturday. “But at the end of the day we have a great O-Line and I think they’re going to be able to open up holes for me.”
For Sené, finding room to operate may be tougher than he anticipates. The Rouge-et-Or have held teams to just 54 rushing yards per game, including holding the Concordia Stingers to negative 10 yards on the ground this past Saturday.
But Sené — who ran for 95 yards and a touchdown on 18 carries when Montreal downed Laval last season — loves nothing more than to test himself against the best.
“I like the challenge — I like it a lot,” Sené said. “When we go up against a good defence and we play well — it’s the best part of the game.”
