Tray Blackmon News

When Gene Chizik and his freshly put-together staff hit the recruiting trail in full force just months before February's National Signing Day, time wasn't on their side.

AUBURN -- Walt McFadden doesn't see fatigue in real time. Auburn's top cornerback is too engrossed in the competi tion to monitor his teammates.

Stamps linebacker Tray Blackmon is heading home. Photograph by: Ted Rhodes, Calgary Herald The Calgary Stampeders are a first-place team in the Canadian Football League.

Tray Blackmon was a strange man in a foreign land playing a game he thought he knew when he took the field for his first exhibition in the Canadian Football League last month.

Last season 13-5-0; first in West, won Grey Cup. Head coach John Hufnagel. Newcomer to watch With the unexpected release of JoJuan Armour and the injury to Lemarcus Rowell, the spotlight is firmly focused on rookie Tray Blackmon, who's been handed the starting job by default.

Auburn's football roster took its first hit of the summer. Safety Christian Thompson, defensive tackle Jomarcus Savage and linebacker Marcus Jemison are no longer with the team and will not return, an athletic department spokesman confirmed Thursday afternoon.

Recruits hear it. Programs sell it. Fans love it. And coaches understandably hope to avoid it at all costs.

All it took to bring Tray Blackmon to the Calgary Stampeders was an eye to eye look.

Tray Blackmon is happy to be in the Great White North. Blackmon, a former LaGrange Granger and Auburn Tiger, is making his debut in the Canadian Football League today as his Calgary Stampeders take on the British Columbia Lions in a preseason game.

When Tray Blackmon came out of high school, he was the top-ranked linebacker in the college recruiting class.