Speed, Hits, and Horsepower: TyJuan Garbutt Embraces Tiger-Cats’ Physical Style — and His Passion for NASCAR

The Tiger-Cats weren’t on the practice field on Thursday but that doesn’t mean they weren’t busy.

The coaching staff held meetings with each other and the players, many of the players did some weight training on their own, and all of them were required to spend time at the annual Media Day. That involved rotating through five stations where they posed for head-shot and full-body photos; made social media videos and did promotional shots.

And new defensive end TyJuan Garbutt, took the time to explain to Ticats.ca why he opted to come to Hamilton and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers as a free agent. As a promising 25-year-old player who excelled at a major U.S. college program (Virginia Tech), he has promising upside and could have returned to the team to where he’d spent his first two pro seasons, reaching the Grey Cup game each year. There was also interest from other teams around the league.

Ticat General Manager Ted Goveia had scouted Garbutt for the Bombers and the fact Goveia recognized his inherent value as a player was important to the 6-foot-1, 268-pounder.

“When the (free agency negotiating) window opened, the Ticats reached out 30 to 40 minutes later, kind of showing me how much of a priority I was to them” Garbutt said. “And  that speaks volumes. Having Ted is a big advantage;  someone who scouted you and helped get you get to Winnipeg. Then I talked to Coach Scott and I got to talk to (defensive coordinator) Brent Monson. For the head coach to give me a call and the defensive coordinator to give me a call, it just felt completely right.”

In Winnipeg, Garbutt learned from watching and listening to two of the greatest defensive ends in recent CFL history: Jackson Jeffcoat and Hall of Fame shoo-in Willie Jefferson. He got into one game in his rookie year in 2023, and after recovering from a fractured ankle he incurred in last year’s season opener became a starter, replacing the retired Jeffcoat.

He describes his game as relentless, based on power rushes, a skill he’s had and developed since he was a two-way player—a conference all-star as a defensive lineman and as a running back— for his Virginia high school. He tries to get under the defensive lineman’s arms, to establish better angles to get to the chest faster so he can knock the blocker’s hands away.

So he loves Monson’s schemes to amplify the speed at which the Front Four attacks the quarterback, subsequently allowing the defensive secondary to feel confident playing tighter coverage.

“Oh yeah, exactly,” Garbutt enthuses. “This is a defensive lineman’s dream. I remember immediately going over it in talks in the offseason with Brent Monson and [defensive line coach] Casey Creehan and then getting here and actually seeing; ‘Just turn it up a notch and go!’ That’s something as a defensive lineman, you can only dream of.”

It was while starring on both sides of the ball as a teenager that he decided that he’d rather be the hammer than the nail, after “I got hit a little bit too hard on some plays on offence, even in high school”. So after that it was defence only and he ended up on a very tough defensive front at Virginia Tech nicknamed the “Dirty Dawgs.”

“I like hitting people, I like being able to tackle people,” he says. “I want to be physical.”

While football is his game, basketball is another favourite sport. He gravitates toward the Los Angeles Lakers of the NBA, stimulated by the fierce competitiveness of the late Kobe Bryant. But as he’s learned more about football with every rung of the ladder he’s climbed, it’s helped him appreciate the requirements of every sport; the hand-eye co-ordination and powerful throwing arms of baseball, soccer reflexes, and the footwork of basketball.

Even more so, he’s a big fan of NASCAR, and drivers Chase Elliott, Kyle Larson and Denny Hamlin. The muscular output of the V-8 engines serves as an inspiration for what he feels like is what he wants—and expects—from his own game out on the field.

Just like the power rushes in football’s trenches.