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“This is what you work all those months for, to see these guys come out and compete,” Buono says. “Whether you’re 47, 57, 67 (the coach’s age if you must know), this is who you are. This is what excites you.”

Buono is asked if he’s concerned about the rust factor on Foucault, who sat out most of the last two years after making the Carolina Panthers as a rookie.

“We’re all rusty,” he says. “I am. You are. My back’s killing me.”

Funny. It didn’t show.

This week, Buono started what figures to be his last season as a CFL coach but if he’s preoccupied with his impending retirement he does a good job of hiding it. His priority, as always, is the Lions and with the main training camp now just a month away, there is work to be done.

OK, Buono doesn’t know the names of most of the players at the mini-camp and only a handful figure to be around when the season starts. But he has big plans for a couple of them and hopes to be surprised by a couple more, which explains why he’s so invested in this process.

“It’s been a good two days,” he says. “It helps you evaluate players you haven’t seen much and it gives them a feel for what you’re all about. It starts the process of integrating the team.”

So what’s he looking for at this camp?

“It doesn’t change,” he says. “The guys who jump out at you are good athletes. Now you hope they’re good football players.”

And there’s a couple of athletes at this camp.

Foucault, for example, is a 6-foot-8, 315-pound offensive lineman who the Lions acquired from the Alouettes for Jovan Olafioye. Taken fifth overall by the Als in the 2014 draft, the Montrealer instead headed to the NFL where, against all odds, he made the Panthers’ 53-man roster, dressed for five games and started one playing left tackle in front of Cam Newton.