Bo Knows Special Teams

The Place for BC Lion Discussion. A forum for Lions fans to talk and chat about our team.
Discussion, News, Information and Speculation regarding the BC Lions and the CFL.
Prowl, Growl and Roar!

Moderator: Team Captains

Post Reply
Blitz
Team Captain
Posts: 9094
Joined: Fri Jul 22, 2005 8:44 am

With the focus for this week on whether we will go with Fera against Calgary and the focus most of this season on our poor preparation on special teams by Chuck McMann, Bo Lokombo has quietly had a great season as a downfield tackler.

Lokombo, who practiced as a safety last season and began this season as a rotational linebacker has had a lot more reps at linebacker since Sol E. went down (and played well)
Leo's linebacker Boseko Lokombo has one game to reach his special-teams goal

By Howard Tsumura, The Province November 5, 2015 4:22 PM

When it came time to doing some personal goal-setting before the start of the current CFL season, B.C. Lions’ linebacker Boseko Lokombo decided he needed a target to chase — the number of special teams tackles he wanted to achieve.

“I decided on 25, because that was my college number,” the Abbotsford native and W.J. Mouat Secondary grad said of the digits he wore over a productive career in the Pac 12 with the Oregon Ducks. “That’s what I said. I want to get 25 special teams tackles this season.”

Well, heading into B.C.’s final game of the regular season, Lokombo finds himself tied with fellow CFL sophomore Deon Lacey of the Edmonton Eskimos for the league’s most special teams stops, at 23.

“I’m two shy and I’ve got one game left,” Lokombo said after practice Wednesday, recalibrating his calculations as the Leos continued to prepare for Saturday’s regular-season finale against the Calgary Stampeders at B.C. Place. “I am going to get it done.”

At the professional level, football’s version of entry-level employment for so many has been the special teams unit, and that’s because it’s a canvas on which a coach can gauge any number of player traits in a more simplified, one-on-one environment.

To that end, Lokombo has been able to showcase his blend of speed, lateral adaptability, hustle and instinct, to fantastic effect.

“For one thing, on the coverage teams you have to be tough,” said B.C. linebackers coach Johnny Holland, who has watched Lokombo bring the same skills he’s shown on specials into the Leos’ defensive unit as a situational linebacker. “He has the instincts to go find the ball and make tackles. To have that many tackles on specials teams, that’s very hard to do.”

Before playing the majority of his career as the Ducks’ starting weak-side linebacker, Lokombo announced himself as a special teams fiend at Oregon, and if you bring up the 25-yard touchdown he scored after scooping up a fumbled punt in 2011 against Washington State, he’ll talk about his craft with an even bigger smile.

“What you learn to do is win one-on-one battles,” said the 6-foot-2, 226-pound Lokombo, who as a high school senior at Mouat in 2008, rushed for 1,558 yards and 22 touchdowns. “You can’t coach effort, and that’s what it’s all about.”

When the CFL’s reigning Most Outstanding Player, linebacker Solomon Elimimian, suffered a season-ending injury midseason, Lokombo’s snap count on the defence increased. Ever since, he’s undergone some accelerated learning, especially considering he spent his rookie season being schooled as a safety.

“I have learned a lot from Biggie this whole year,” Lokombo said of teammate and star middle linebacker Adam Bighill, who leads the league in tackles with 117. “I’m just a young guy trying to understand the defence, and I see him coming to work every day just wanting to get better and being hungry.”

That’s the appetite Lokombo will bring Saturday as he tries to meet a preseason goal that may well end up giving him the CFL’s special teams tackling crown.

“I’m in a great position with this team,” he said. “I feel like I have put myself in a position to show that I belong.”

htsumura@theprovince.com

twitter.com/htsumura
"When I went to Catholic high school in Philadelphia, we just had one coach for football and basketball. He took all of us who turned out and had us run through a forest. The ones who ran into the trees were on the football team". (George Raveling)
Post Reply