The Ted Laurent story

Ted Laurent’s story starts in Montreal, but his football story begins over 1,200 miles Southwest in Powder Springs, Georgia.
Laurent grew up in Montreal and lived there until he was 12, when his mother Yvette sent him to Georgia to live with his aunts. It was there, with the aunts who were like mothers to him, that Laurent began playing football.
“I was in the backyard with my cousin, who goes by the name of ‘Chuck’,” explained Laurent, “he told me that I should play football, and I figured ‘why not’.”
That’s all it took for Laurent to get himself a pair of cleats and begin to play the game with which he’s now made a career. Because he’d just moved from Montreal, Laurent was not fluent in English and did not know the terminology of the game, but that did not slow him down.
“I couldn’t really speak English well, so it was hard for me,” said Laurent, “but I could play. I could hit somebody, so I was good for that.”

The French-Canadian played defensive tackle from the beginning, starting in grade seven and never looking back.

In four years at McEachern High School in Powder Springs, Laurent established himself as a four-star prospect, earning attention and scholarship offers from Georgia, Georgia Tech, Mississippi State and Ole Miss.

A childhood fan of legendary Miami University defensive tackle Warren Sapp, Laurent wanted nothing more than to go to “The U” himself.

“I always wanted to go to Miami, because when I started playing football, I was a Warren Sapp fan, still am,” said Laurent.

The offer to Miami came eventually, but it was late in the recruitment process; it came down to a decision between going to Ole Miss or playing for the Hurricanes, but a wildcard came into play.

“I found out the head coach that recruited me, Ed Orgeron, coached Warren Sapp when he was back in college,” explained Laurent. “That really helped my decision, that’s how I ended up at Ole Miss.”

At Ole Miss, Laurent recorded 57 total tackles, including 13 tackles for losses and 3.5 tackles over four seasons (2007-10), three of which he spent as the starting nose tackle.

In his second season with the Rebels, the coaching staff went through a massive changeover in which the new offensive coordinator, and current Ticats head coach, Kent Austin arrived.

As a defensive tackle, Laurent did not work directly with Austin during their three seasons together at Ole Miss, but he was able to appreciate the talent of Austin as a coach and leader.

“I knew he was a good offensive coordinator,” explained Laurent, “I would say he had a pretty good offensive mindset, and you can see it here too, we score a lot of points up here.”

After four seasons as a Rebel, Laurent was taken in the second round of the 2011 CFL Supplemental Draft by the Edmonton Eskimos. In Edmonton, the defensive tackle made the rest of the CFL take notice of him, earning nomination as the Eskimos’ Most Outstanding Canadian Player in his second season.

Despite the success he found in Edmonton, though, Laurent chose to explore free agency following the 2013 season, his third in Edmonton, eventually landing in Hamilton. The fact that Kent Austin had just arrived as the head coach of the team in 2013 played no small part in his decision.

“It helped my decision because he knew me really well, and I knew him pretty well,” said Laurent. “It made my decision to come here really easy.”

Since joining the Black and Gold, Laurent has been a steady anchor at the core of the Ticats aggressive defence, and he was rewarded in his decision to join the team with his first taste of the Grey Cup.

“My first three years, I never got past the second round,” started Laurent, “you want the Grey Cup, but just experiencing the Grey Cup at such an early stage in my career was a blessing.”
His first season with the Ticats was one of individual recognition as well, as Laurent was nominated for the second time in his career as his team’s Most Outstanding Canadian Player award. This time, Laurent finished as the runner-up for the league’s overall Most Outstanding Canadian recognition, losing out to Jon Cornish.
Yet despite the recognition as the East Division’s Most Outstanding Canadian, the attention paid to Laurent remains unjustifiably underwhelming considering his contributions to the Ticats defence.
Through seven games, the Ticats defensive tackle has recorded three sacks and is on pace to match his career-high of nine sacks. He has generated consistent gut pressure on opposing quarterbacks and has played no small part in the defence’s 22 total sacks and the short-yardage stops that have led to the team’s league-leading eight turnovers on downs.

“Ted has been a tremendous asset to our defensive front, he just gets a little better every week,” said defensive line coach Dennis McPhee, who explained that the pressure up the middle created by Laurent is the best kind of pressure.
“Any quarterback can step up into the pocket, let the rush surround him and still distribute the ball,” he explained. “Gut pressure, when people are being pushed back into their face, it makes them uncomfortable.”
That kind of pressure is not always something that the casual fan notices, but it’s something opposing teams take note of because it can have a significant impact on how an offence operates.
“I think he gets the recognition with other teams, which is the biggest compliment,” said Coach Austin.
Other teams take notice, and so do Laurent’s teammates, who all know how integral he is to their success as a unit, and that’s all that the five-year veteran cares about.
“My teammates and my coaches know what I’m about,” explained Laurent, “as long as my teammates recognize it and my coaches recognize it…I’m fine with that.”