Article content continued

“Everyone kept sending (the highlight) to me, then when Sports Center put it out, it blew up even more,” said Dedmon. “My Instagram, I had more than 80 requests. I was thinking, ‘This is cool, I’ve never had anything like this.’ I have to move on to the next week and keep pushing. I’m just excited we won the game.”

One of Dedmon’s teammates who was helping set up the heroics was JP Bolduc, who correctly predicted before the game that the 23-year-old was going to do something special.

“I told him, ‘You have the ability to make a great play today.’ I told him, ‘I think I feel it, I’m in Montreal and I have a lot of friends and family, please make me look good.’ ”

Said Dedmon: “The guys told me all week long, ‘We’ll get you in the end zone — on a kick return or a punt return.’ Before we went out, JP came up to me and he was like, ‘I got you, I’m going to block for you.’ When I hear stuff like that, it makes me want to keep going. I was thinking, ‘I can’t go down for the team, I have to score.’ All that balance stuff I worked on in the off-season helped. You have to have the confidence going in. But the guys are boosting my confidence even more when they tell me, ‘I’ve got it man, I’m going to block for you.’ Hearing that, it motivates me even more.”

Photo by Errol McGihon / Postmedia

Dedmon was on track to be the team’s punt/kickoff returner during the pre-season. He had a 100-yard kickoff return for a touchdown against Hamilton, but was injured (strained hamstring) against Montreal in the team’s final tuneup for the regular season. With doctors telling Dedmon he’d be out 4-6 weeks, the Redblacks “suspended” him. Dedmon went home to Williamsburg, Va., and worked hard, hoping he’d get another shot with Ottawa. Sure enough, the Redblacks came calling three weeks ago.