While Jaelon Acklin was still trying to figure out exactly who the Hamilton Tiger-Cats were, he began hearing about Labour Day.

The Missouri native, who was on the Ticats negotiation list but not under contract, was brought to Hamilton to watch the final game of the 2018 regular season and get the feel of the CFL atmosphere, courtesy of team management.

"We were all sitting at the table eating, and they actually brought it up," the 24-year-old recalls, "Simoni Lawrence said, 'Have you ever heard about the Labour Day Classic?' The guys said it was the craziest game to come to. It was the first time I'd heard about it, so I'm looking forward to it."

Although he actually wondered if he'd even survive the first day of training camp - more on that later - Acklin's not just coming to the Monday's game, he'll be playing in it. And if recent form charts are any indication, he'll be an important part of a Hamilton offence which, to be blunt, has to start putting more points on the board.

The Ticats first noticed Acklin when he set the single-season record at Western Illinois with 84 receptions and 1,369 yards in 2017. He was signed last March and he impressed the coaching staff in person with a series of tenacious possession-receiver catches at a mini-camp in Buffalo in April.

Then he out-hustled most of the deep cattle-call field of receivers at regular training camp, showing versatility on heavy-traffic short patterns and longer routes and had more of one thing you can't teach - six-feet-two inches of height - than many of the other receivers in contention.

Acklin opened the season on the practice roster but, through injuries to others, got a chance to start in the second game of the season and has since established himself as a starter. He had eight catches and a touchdown in a losing cause at Montreal in Game 4 and over Dane Evans' last three starts as Jeremiah Masoli's replacement, he's caught a dozen passes, including six in last week's 13-10 victory in B.C. One of those is a candidate for CFL catch of the year, and helped the Ticats out of a deep hole.

He deflected Evans' pass thrown from the Ticat end zone into double coverage, did a pirouette to wheel himself into possession to dive and catch his own deflection, then hung onto the ball for a first down. Head coach Orlondo Steinauer said he took great pleasure in viewing replays of that grab, even as the game was going on, and said it's the kind of gritty play the Ticats have expected of Acklin since that workout in Buffalo.

Because they have both ascended to starting roles from second-unit status, there is a certain symbiotic relationship between Acklin and Evans that has given him a bit of a leg up. In layman's terms, they'd developed a feel for each other's tendencies.

"It helps, for sure," Acklin says. "I have chemistry with him that other players maybe don't have, because I was second string most of the camp; I was even third and fourth string at first. I got a lot of my reps with Dane and started to build a chemistry. Right now, I know where he's going to put the ball and he knows where I'm going to run my route. So it makes it that much easier to time up stuff against defensive backs."

Evans and Acklin spend off-field time together, including on the golf course, and although Brandon Banks, Bralon Addison and Luke Tasker will generally, and justifiably, be targeted more often, it was Acklin who led the receiving corps with 91 yards last week.

But after an hour in training camp, he worried whether he'd even make it to the regular season. He got into two fights with all-star cornerback Delvin Breaux, one of the Ticats' franchise players, in one-on-one drills.

"It's actually a pretty funny story I'll get to tell my kids one day," Acklin says. "I was about an hour-and-a-half from getting cut from the team I'm playing on now. I think it was my very first rep, and he kind of jammed me up, and I thought he grabbed my face mask, so I just shoved him. It was kind of on after that. We got in that scuffle and I said, 'Let's go up again' on the next play. I caught it, and then I threw the ball at him," he says.

"One of the (management) guys upstairs talked to me, as he probably should have. Thank the lord I made some plays that day or else I would have been out of here the next day. Right after that drill, Delvin and I talked about it and he was, 'I know you're just out here competing, I'm out here competing, too.' That's how Delvin is. He's cool."

Evans says when he saw the punches thrown, "I thought it was hilarious, but the more I thought about it I felt, this guy's got a bit of dog in him. Either that or he's going to be outta here pretty quick. I like that a lot."

smilton@thespec.com

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