(WARRENSBURG, Mo.) – Former Mules All-American quarterback Garrett Fugate signed a contract to play for the Montreal Alouettes in the Canadian Football League Jan. 24.
His UCM career ended with a torn ACL in the Mules’ 2016 playoff game. The injury couldn’t have come at a worse time for Fugate with the Mules dropping their playoff game against Harding and the draft only four months away. ACL injuries normally require six months of recovery, but some doctors recommend that rehab take nine months to complete.
Fugate played four seasons at UCM and spent one of them as the punter before becoming the starting quarterback. He was named a Don Hansen All-American in 2016 for his performance that season, throwing 31 touchdowns to nine interceptions and surpassing 4,000 yards of total offense. On top of that, he owns UCM records for rushing performances over a single game, season and career.
Fugate generated some buzz at the 2017 NFL Draft, some experts projected he would become a late round draft pick or a team would pick him up as an undrafted free agent. The Green Bay Packers and Kansas City Chiefs were among the teams showing interest. In the end, Fugate wasn’t picked up by a team for the upcoming season.
“I was only four months out of surgery and teams weren’t really willing to take the risk on me,” Fugate said, in a phone interview Friday.
Fugate spent the 2017 season further rehabbing his knee and training. He said he spent time at Parabolic Rehab in New Jersey before coming back home and preparing to break into the professional football scene.
“I trained about five or six days a week, just trying to stay in shape and keep my knee healthy,” Fugate said.
The Chiefs and Packers gave him another look in the fall, but the same concerns from before about his ACL injury and being from a Division II school kept them from signing a deal with him. The Alouettes arranged for a work out with Fugate, liked what they saw and offered him a contract.
“I worked out with Montreal a few weeks after the Chiefs and Packers, they have a new coaching staff and they reached out to me to offer a contract so I took it,” Fugate said.
The question now becomes whether or not Fugate can transition to the slightly different rule set that the CFL employs. Larger field dimensions, three downs to get 10 yards instead of four and a 12th man on the field will be a new challenge. Mules head coach Jim Svoboda suggests Fugate’s style will work well in the CFL landscape.
“His ability to be elusive will be important, the amount of motion they use creates a wide-open game. He does have a bit of gunslinger in him so I think it will sit well with him,” Svoboda said.
The rules of the game aren’t the only change Fugate will face during his career with the Alouettes. Located in the province of Quebec, Montreal is made up of mostly French speakers with a small population that can also speak English. Despite that he’s ready to join the team and start making an impact.
“I’ve never been to Canada before, and I don’t speak any French, but I’m really looking forward to it,” Fugate said. “The team has a good culture and history and have won a Grey Cup before. I’m ready to get there and work with this new coaching staff and compete for a starting job.”
Fugate will compete for the starting job for the remainder of the offseason on a roster full of quarterbacks, including former NFL quarterback, Josh Freeman. The Alouettes’ season kicks off June 16, but you can keep up with Fugate on his Twitter @gfugate10.