Montreal could very well be where Former Clemson quarterback Tajh Boyd spends his future career. Signed by the Canadian Football League team last November, Clemson’s all-time passing leader is eager to make a mark with the club. Boyd will report to an Alouettes mini-camp in West Palm Beach, Florida, then head to Montreal for training camp. The team’s season opener is set for June 30th. Boyd has been training with fellow former Clemson player Joe Don Reames. “He’s been getting me ready and I think I’m very well prepared to go up there and make a statement,” Boyd said. “I’m planning on contributing as much as I can.”
Boyd was cut in training camp after being selected by the New York Jets in the sixth round of the 2014 NFL Draft, and stayed with the Pittsburgh Steelers for a cup of coffee in 2015 before spending about five weeks on the roster of the CFL’s Winnipeg Blue Bombers last year. He was let go last October, then signed a contract with the Alouettes in November. The team has five other QBs on its payroll, which is par for the course in the CFL, such as former Duke Anthony Boone, Tennessee’s own Jonathan Crompton, and erstwhile Marshall quarterback Rakeem Cato, the team’s leading passer in 2015.
But Boyd is confident that he has found his niche. “I’m excited about it much more this time around than I was going up there at the beginning, to be honest,” Boyd said. “He feels good about the situation – he knows the franchise is committed to him,” Boyd’s Greenville-based marketing agent Andy Sink said. “He’s not worried about who’s there; he’s just focused on performing to the best of his ability.” Boyd was the Atlantic Coast Conference Player of the Year in 2012, and has busied himself with a variety of endeavors during the offseason. He held his fourth annual Youth Football Fundamentals Camp in Greenville and will host a Tajh Boyd Foundation Gala at The Loom in Simpsonville.
His foundation works to “empowering and enabling youth in South Carolina to overcome adversity through education, mentoring and character development for the long-term betterment of their lives and our communities.” Boyd also provided color commentator for Clemson’s Orange & White spring game on. So could French lessons be in the cards? “Maybe,” Boyd said. “I need to brush up. Google translate just doesn’t do it for me, so I need to take French 101 or something like that before I head back up there to Montreal.” If his football career lives up to the expectations of CLF betting experts, Alouettes fans will be as thrilled as he is.