Jake Ceresna made a great first impression with Blue Bombers fans, but it wasn’t in person.
Now the defensive tackle will try for a memorable debut in front of what’s expected to be Winnipeg’s 15th consecutive capacity crowd at Princess Auto Stadium for Thursday’s home opener against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.
“I just want to have a good game, more importantly just have a team win (Thursday) would be great,” Ceresna said after Wednesday’s walk-through practice.
“We’ll see what happens. I’m just going to go out there and give everything I’ve got like every other game. Sometimes you make big plays, sometimes it doesn’t come to you, but you’ve just got to keep swinging.”
Ceresna set a single-game career high of three sacks and added five tackles to help the Bombers (1-0) pick up a 30-28 win in Calgary last week with Sergio Castillo’s 38-yard walk-off field goal.
It earned the six-foot-five, 290-pound native of Connecticut one of the CFL’s three player of the week honours.
Winnipeg signed the eight-year veteran to a two-year contract worth reportedly $490,000.
So far, Ceresna’s teammates and head coach Mike O’Shea think the commitment is paying off.
“He’s the right kind of guy that you bank on,” O’Shea said. “He firmly believes that — and I don’t want to put words in his mouth — the idea of getting a big contract is about what you’re going to do, not what you’ve done in the past.
“And he believes that it’s up to him to do it, which is really good.”
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A two-time All-CFL defensive lineman (2022, 2024), Ceresna began his career with Ottawa in 2017. He moved to Edmonton for four seasons and had a pit stop with Toronto for one year. He returned to the Elks last season, but a knee injury shut him down in September.
Winnipeg quarterback Zach Collaros called Ceresna when he knew he was one of the team’s free-agent targets.
“I’ve been saying it to him after games for however long he’s been in the league, like, ‘Hey man, come to Winnipeg, you’re a great player. Sick of getting hit by you,’” Collaros said.
He also told Ceresna it’s fun playing in front of huge crowds more than once as a visiting team.
Ceresna is looking forward to being the good guys in the stadium.
“I’ve never had this many fans with the crowd noise and stuff so I’m super excited for that,” he said.
He’s well aware Ticats quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell might escape his clutches, but he’ll try to disrupt his rhythm.
“Any time you go against Bo Levi, he gets the ball out quick,” Ceresna said. “He’s going to make all the right reads, he’s not going to make a lot of mistakes, so we’ve got to be on point. We’ve got to try to get some pressure on him as much as we can, help our backend out and see what happens.”
Hamilton (0-1) is coming off a 30-27 overtime loss in their season opener at home against the Montreal Alouettes last week.
Ticats head coach Scott Milanovich said he “may have reminded” his players this week about the team’s last trip to Winnipeg — a 40-3 beatdown by the Bombers in September.
“We had just made the playoffs, kind of felt good about ourselves, and went out there and got it handed to us, so there’s certainly plenty to play for,” Milanovich told reporters after a practice this week.
He said the “priority” on Thursday is stopping Winnipeg’s run game.
Brady Oliveira led all running backs in the league last week with 113 yards and one touchdown off 15 carries against the Stampeders.
Hamilton will field rookie tailback Larry Rountree III. He rushed eight times for 23 yards against Montreal and had five catches for 17 yards.
Winnipeg did give up 171 yards on the ground against Calgary, Ceresna noted.
“I’m sure (Hamilton is) going to try to run the ball on us and we have to be prepared,” he said.
Bombers safety Redha Kramdi is confident having Ceresna beside veteran star rush end Willie Jefferson will continue to be a daunting duo for offences to handle. Jefferson had one sack, two pass knockdowns and two tackles against the Stampeders.
“Seeing him and Willie work together is outstanding,” Kramdi said. “We haven’t had two elite pass rushers since Jackson (Jeffcoat) and having (Ceresna), it’s amazing.
“He’s a hard-working guy. He’s hard to block one-on-one, and Willie as well. Other offences will have problems.”
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