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EDMONTON – With the Labour Day Classic looming, the Elks just added an important weapon to their arsenal.
The club announced the signing and extension of All-CFL punter Jake Julien on Wednesday, with the Canadian kicker returning from a stint with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The 26-year-old punter had spent the previous two seasons with the Green and Gold, earning a look in the National Football League after a record-setting season in Canada.
Still, football can be difficult business, and the addition of a 10-year NFL vet left Julien on the outside looking in. The Barrie, Ontario native had six NFL workouts when he initially began the process of NFL courtship, and Julien certainly could have waited to see how NFL cutdown day shook down before making the decision to come back to Edmonton, but the allure of Labour Day was just too difficult to resist.
“This is a great time to come back,” Julien said. “We were going to wait out for a little bit longer, wait for the first couple weeks of the NFL to progress, but I wanted to come back for this game. This game means something and it’s exciting to be a part of it.”
The Canadian was back to booming kicks at a light Elks practice on Wednesday as the team aims to repeat last season’s Labour Day sweep. The Elks will be in tough against a physical Stampeders squad who just knocked off the West Division leading Saskatchewan Roughriders for a second time last week, but Edmonton is also surging with three straight wins of their own.
The club wanted to ensure they were at full strength with such a pivotal matchup against their Alberta rivals on the horizon, thus the pursuit of Julien. Place kicker Vincent Blanchard had done an admirable job filling in over the previous two weeks, but a chance to add a leg like Julien’s which can literally flip a field for the Elks was too enticing to add. In last season’s Labour Day contest, the punter did just that with a season best 87-yard kick.
He joins a locker room with a lot of familiar faces and even more new ones, but Julien can already see the improvements in the new look Elks.
“It’s two sided. It’s like I never left and it’s a completely different place,” Julien said. “All signs point towards great change. First thing I notice, everyone’s smiling, everybody’s happy to be here. It’s a great place to work.
“Then obviously I love Edmonton. It’s like being at home.”
One of the biggest changes he noticed was at the head coaching position, where long-time special teams coordinator Mark Kilam has taken over the reigns of the Double E. If there is anyone who can appreciate the talents of Julien, it is a coach like Kilam.
“We had about a 20-minute special teams meeting. He’s going to be a fun coach,” Julien said. “Great man. He knows what he’s talking about. He has so much knowledge and experience in the field and it’s a really, really exciting change.”