Next man up: When injuries cut down the starters in front of them, Ace Eley and Ryder Varga stepped in and filled the void at linebacker for the B.C. Lions.
The accents were a bit strange, the people were uncommonly friendly and the weather was a lot nicer than he expected, but Ayinde Eley — call him Ace — fell in love with Vancouver when he was introduced to the CFL this year.
And the city is starting to love him back.
The B.C. Lions’ linebacker was a rookie to both the league and the country when he signed just before training camp, and given the talent and experience in front of him in the position group, he didn’t expect to be much more than a special teams and depth contributor.
Then the injuries began to pile up.
Josh Woods suffered a season-ending knee injury four games into 2024; Ben Hladik broke a thumb, then had a calf injury that’s kept him out for the past three games. Bo Lokombo came in and out of the lineup, and has been ruled out of Friday’s game with a shoulder injury.
Enter Eley — and no self-respecting scribe can resist making the ‘Ace in the hole’ pun — for the Lions. He has 48 defensive tackles and a forced fumble on the season, 26 of those coming in the four games since being thrust into a starting role.
“I was expecting just to earn my role, whatever that was,” said the 25-year-old. “Special teams, rotational guy, whatever. Whatever that looked like, I just wanted to make a role for myself, and be great in that role.”
So far, so good.
Ryder Varga is another depth player who hasn’t sunk when tossed into the deep end. The former Regina Rams standout now leads the team in tackles with 55 — 48 coming in the last five games since moving to the top of the depth chart.
Hladik is back this week, listed behind Eley, while Varga will also start ahead of Terrence Ganyi, whom the Lions took in the sixth round of this year’s draft.
“They’ve stepped in, and we haven’t missed a beat,” Lions head coach Rick Campbell said. “Ace has turned into a really good player … He’s done a good job. And Ryder, we’ve always had high hopes for. He missed basically all the training camp, so he’s kind of playing catchup, but he’s a super-smart player. We like ’em both.
“Credit to our defensive coaches, especially Travis (Brown, linebackers coach) and obviously the players, for being able to go through some injuries and shuffling some guys in and out.”
On Friday, the Lions (7-7) face a Hamilton Tiger-Cats (5-9) team that leads the league in offensive yardage (397.6 yards), yards per play (6.99) and scored more touchdowns than any team save Edmonton (36). Quarterback Bo-Levi Mitchell leads the CFL in passing yardage (4,044), TDs (24), 30-yard passing plays (19) and 300-yard games (seven).
It’s been a baptism by fire for the 6-foot-3, 235 pound Eley. He spent time on the Carolina Panthers and Houston Texans practice squad, and started the season on B.C.’s as he got his feet wet in the Canadian game.
“It’s football, but it is a different game. So I’m still learning the game, getting used to it. It’s a wider field, and you’ve got to see a lot,” he said. “When I first got here, I had a real bad habit of seeing the first formation and, ‘OK, I’m locking into here.’ Then they start moving, and you look to this side and it’s like, ‘Oh, where did the three receivers go? They on this side now.’
“The waggles were definitely getting me, but playing more reps, more repetition, it started to slow down. Now I’m seeing the whole field, and it’s not really giving me as much trouble as it was.”
Against Ottawa at Touchdown Pacific, he sniffed out a pass play that had bedevilled him in Kamloops.
“They ran a little like hitch dig concept. In training camp, that was always getting me. I would bite the low one, and they’ll throw the one behind,” he said. “I recognized it, and then I fell back into it.”
It was a near interception that he dropped, earning a baleful glare from defensive coordinator Ryan Phillips, but it was a progression, a step forward.
“He’s a big preacher of, ‘When we get our opportunities, make the most of them. So go make the great play. Don’t just be happy with being there, go make the play and dominating play, dominate the opportunity.’
“It feels good definitely to see the benefits of hard work and stuff like that,” he added, saying consistency is his main goal.
“I don’t want to have three good games, then have a bad fourth one. No, I want to have three good ones, then a fourth one, then a fifth one. Keep moving forward, not being complacent where I am.
“There are still some things I got to learn about the game, there’s still some things that I got to sharpen up about, technique and stuff like that. So just, that’s that steady edge of just trying to keep getting better.”