Don Landry | Argonauts.ca Insider
Greg Van Roten’s life on the line has had him moving like fingers on the frets of a guitar neck.
That’s no haphazard analogy, by the way. The first year Argos’ offensive lineman likes to play some guitar in his down time.
“I wouldn’t say I’m very good at it but I like to distract myself with it from time to time,” he says, adding that his preferred six string workout would be something from the Led Zeppelin catalogue. “I try my best.”
The guy likes a challenge. No problem, just have him play three different positions on the offensive line, which is something the Argos have asked him to do in 2015.
Beginning the season at right guard, an injury to stalwart centre Jeff Keeping meant a shift to centre for the 25-year-old Van Roten, who hails from Rockville Centre, New York (yes, it’s Centre, not Center, even though it’s in the U.S.). When Keeping returned, Van Roten jumped back to guard. Now, an injury to veteran Chris Van Zeyl has meant a shift to the right tackle spot, a position Van Roten played in the Argos’ win in Montreal on Thanksgiving Monday.
“Me and coach (Jonathan) Himebauch joke that I’m going for the cycle this year as far as playing all the positions on the line.”
Van Roten could do it, too. Himebauch must love having what amounts to a Swiss Army Knife of a player at his disposal, ready for any offensive line eventuality. Van Roten played left guard and left tackle in high school and then centre in his first year of college. After that, he finished his post-secondary career as a left tackle for the University of Pennsylvania, where he was part of teams that won two Ivy League Championships. He played a tiny bit of right tackle (ten reps in a pre-season game) when he was with the Green Bay Packers.
“It doesn’t take me too long to get comfortable,” says Van Roten of the shifting around before adding that “for an offensive lineman, there’s a credo: You just have to get comfortable being uncomfortable.”
I’m sure a number of lineman would agree with that. Most, if not all, of the Argos’ offensive linemen have shifted slots during their careers at some point. Wayne Smith, who played right guard against Montreal, has hopped around as a jack of all trades often in his four seasons in double blue. Matt Sewell has played both left and right tackle when asked.
While many of us have been led to believe there is a huge difference in playing on the right side of the line as opposed to the left – and that is true, Van Roten agrees – there is also a very big difference in shifting from guard to the tackle position right beside it, which is something he is doing right now in the absence of Van Zeyl.
“You get comfortable taking the set every time,” Van Roten says. “You get used to that muscle memory of your foot stagger, your hip placement, where you rest your hands in your stance, how you punch and how you see things. So, when you have to change that, there’s always an adjustment period. Thankfully, I’ve been playing the game since I was a little kid, so I’ve been used to seeing the field from different places.”
Explaining further, Van Roten described the things that change for a lineman in a big way, even if he’s kicking just one spot over. Some of those things are small considerations, others are large. And they all add up.
“When you’re a guard or a centre, you kinda try and get (opposing defensive linemen) into… we call it a phone booth. Get ’em into your area and you can control ’em. When you move to tackle, you’re going against lighter, longer, more athletic linemen who move around better. So, you have to be a good athlete out there too. You have to be able to handle lots of different body types at tackle and at guard.”
Van Roten – along with left tackle Bruce Campbell – will face a big test when the Argos meet Calgary on Saturday. With the likes of Charleston Hughes and Freddie Bishop coming off the edges and flipping sides on occasion. Van Roten feels he’ll be able to step up from his performance in Montreal, which he self-graded as merely okay.
“Their front seven does a lot of things, schematically, to get you uncomfortable so it was definitely not a comfort game for me,” he said of the game against the Alouettes. “Coming off a short week, too, made it that much worse. But I did my best and I felt like I played a decent game. Not my best game but, definitely, held my own.”
If Van Roten’s solid play in the face of positional uncertainty is reason to celebrate his individual accomplishments, he shrugs it off a little. Like so many offensive linemen, he takes more pride in the unit’s accomplishments than his own. It’s a value that was long ago instilled in him as a team captain at Chaminade High School.
“One of my high school coaches said ‘you guys are a fist. You have to work together. Individually, you’re just five fingers but together you’re a fist.’”
“All the veteran linemen have been great,” says Van Roten when asked who has helped him settle down as an Argo. “Jeff (Keeping), Tyler (Holmes), Chris (Van Zeyl), Wayne (Smith), they’ve all been awesome guys to have play next to you. They’re good guys and they’re good guys to play with.
“I’ve been very lucky to be here with them,” he says.