Unamba a man whose stock is rising

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This article was published 06/06/2015 (4084 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

HEAD football coach and stockbroker share many of the same goals — invest in assets and try to maximize value.

Winnipeg Blue Bombers field boss Mike O’Shea sounds like he’s very invested in 26-year-old defender Don Unamba.

Last season, O’Shea bought into the CFL newcomer from Arlington, Texas, dressing the linebacker and special-teams player for all 18 regular-season games.

This spring, with training camp a week old, O’Shea is now into the maximizing — he’s got Unamba also trying his hand at the corner position as well.

“I’m a little bit of everything,” Unamba grinned after Friday’s sessions at the University of Manitoba. “We’re just trying to figure out where they want to fit me in right now. It’s fun right now, learning different positions. That allows me to learn the playbook better, learn what everybody’s doing.

“I take pride in being a versatile player they can put everywhere. That’s fun. It’s the coach’s idea, but I don’t have any problem with it. I love it.”

It’s no wonder O’Shea is willing to see if Unamba can expand his horizons.

“I think Unamba is a good athlete,” the coach said Friday. “He’s a bigger guy at those positions. I think in my mind he’s probably best-suited to work out in the box (as a linebacker).

“But once again, Don Unamba was our leading special-teams tackler last year and he deserves every opportunity at a number of positions to see where it’s all going to fit for him.”

O’Shea might still be leaning in the linebacker direction, but it’s far from settled.

“His style of game as a DB is to get his hands on guys and break them off,” O’Shea said. “So it’s different, that the rules are also different for him, too.”

New CFL rules prohibiting contact between receiver and defender beyond five yards from the line of scrimmage are now in place.

Unamba, though, has experience as a corner and safety in his career, including at college and his brief stops with NFL teams in St. Louis and Buffalo.

“I’m in the box at linebacker,” he said. “I’m down in the trenches sometimes, holding them back, dropping. It’s dirty and grimy down there. I’m getting after the ball, there are more tackles. I can be an aggressive player, that’s good for my aggressive nature.

“In the back end as safety and corner, I’m reading, reading, stepping, making breaks on routes and covering guys, covering speed and being everywhere, flying around.”

Unamba’s athleticism and his adaptability — he’d never been near the Canadian game before last spring — paid some dividends later in the season when he got some starts at linebacker.

“That was real important for me mentally, everything I went through and just working hard,” he said.

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca