ROUGHRIDERS LINEBACKER - JERRILL FREEMAN

Jerrell Freeman at Roughrider practice on Tuesday morning.
Photograph by: Bryan Schlosser, Leader-Post

REGINA — On the website Wikipedia, the entry about the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor contains five notable alumni.
The list includes such legendary Texans as:

— Margaret Lea Houston, the eldest daughter of one-time Republic of Texas President Sam Houston;

— Miriam Ferguson, the first female governor of the state; and,

— Jerrell Freeman, a rookie linebacker with the CFL's Saskatchewan Roughriders.
"Wwwoooowww! That's crazy!" the 23-year-old product of Waco, Texas, said Tuesday when informed he had made the big time — at least as far as Wikipedia was concerned. "I've never really thought of it like that.

"A lot of people at home, the coaches and everything, everybody's proud of me. But I try to stay humble. That's the kind of guy I am. If not, my mom would get on me."

If he wanted to, Freeman would have plenty of reasons to crow about his football career.
After a monster senior season at UMHB — located in Belton, Texas — he was named D3football.com's National Player-of-the-Year and a first-team All-American. He finished that campaign with 112 tackles, 18.5 tackles for losses, six sacks, seven pass breakups, three forced fumbles and a blocked punt that he returned for a touchdown.

Then, after playing four seasons with the Crusaders and becoming the first player in school history with more than 300 career tackles, Freeman signed a free-agent contract with the NFL's Tennessee Titans in 2008. That made the 6-foot-0, 220-pounder the first UMHB player ever to sign with a pro team.

"I just work hard, just try to be the best I can be at whatever level I'm at," said Freeman, who was released by the Titans and then signed with the Roughriders in March. "Whatever happens that way happens."

Now he's making things happen with the Roughriders.

After recording one special-teams tackle in Saskatchewan's 28-24 victory over the B.C. Lions on July 3, Freeman had a team-high three special-teams stops in Saturday's 46-36 triumph over the host Toronto Argonauts. He also blocked a Justin Medlock punt and recovered it in the end zone for a touchdown during Saskatchewan's 30-point second quarter.

"Wherever I can get in and wherever I can play, great," Freeman said. "Making that 42(-man roster), everybody has a role and everybody has a job to do. Right now, it's special teams for me so that's where I'm going to do my best."

"He hasn't had as many opportunities to play on defence because Rey (Williams) is our Mac 'backer and that's where (Freeman) is backing up," noted linebackers coach Alex Smith. "If he got the reps, he could be an outstanding Mac 'backer, too. But you see him on special teams, he does a lot of special things for us."

Smith predicted Freeman and another Roughriders rookie, Kye Stewart, will be "really good linebackers in this league" someday. They're also roommates who have a friendly rivalry.

"The only thing I can say is a competition is being the first one to the ball on special teams," Freeman said. "Whoever gets there first will say, 'I got here first. Where were you at?' That's the only kind of competition we're going to have."

ihamilton@leaderpost.canwest.com
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