Mark Korte was sitting in class, sneaking peeks at Instagram to keep up with the comings and goings once CFL free agency opened last month.

Back in his hometown to finish up his business studies at the University of Alberta, it wasn’t long before the Ottawa Redblacks offensive lineman, coming off his rookie season, had seen more than enough news for one day.

Some big dominoes started to fall, one after another, as the Golden Bears product out of Spruce Grove watched the Edmonton Eskimos lay claim to a trio of his Redblacks teammates.

An Eskimos squad that had lost the biggest free-agent fish on the market this off-season — three-time reigning league-leading passer Mike Reilly — refilled its net at Ottawa’s expense with left tackle tackle SirVincent Rogers, receiver Greg Ellingson and quarterback Trevor Harris.

“It was a pretty big shakeup, honestly,” said Korte, 22, who was chosen fourth overall in the 2018 CFL draft. “Obviously some guys that played pretty significant leadership roles on our team going elsewhere, but that’s just kind of the nature of the CFL. Guys have such a limited window of time to play that you really have to take the best opportunities that come to you.

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“It was tough to see some of those guys go, but I know they’ll do great. Especially the guys that have come to Edmonton, I think they’ll be awesome for the Eskimos and they’re good community guys, too.”

And Ottawa’s loss is certainly Edmonton’s gain, as the trio ended up following former Redblacks general manager Brock Sunderland to the Eskimos at the same time a bit of a mass exodus out of Commonwealth Stadium saw free agents such as Reilly and Aaron Grymes trade in their green-and-gold colours to be reunited with former Eskimos GM Ed Hervey in Vancouver.

“I think Eskimos fans will have some great things to look forward to with Harris and with Ellingson, and SirV, as well,” Korte said. “They’re all good leadership figures and also excellent players as well. I think they’re all as good as anybody else in the league, they’re all elite players that have been all-stars in the past, and I think they still can be.

“So I think Eskimos fans have a lot to look forward to.”

What fans don’t typically get to see is the locker-room chemistry that goes on, something Korte doesn’t expect will be a problem considering the former Redblacks offensive players are coming in as a group.

“It was awesome as a rookie to have those guys around in Ottawa and to just pick up on some of their leadership traits, especially being an offensive lineman, from a guy like SirVincent Rogers,” Korte said. “We were locker buddies next to each other, so I learned a lot from him about just coming into my own as a player in the league.”

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In his rookie season in 2018, Korte was part of a Redblacks crew that made it all the way to the Grey Cup, which just so happened to be played in his own backyard in Commonwealth Stadium.

“It was a great first year, especially from a team point of view. I really enjoyed it out there and we had a great team,” said Korte, whose team ran into a Calgary Stampeders squad that finally managed to put it all together in the big game, winning 27-16 to avoid striking out in a third-straight Grey Cup final. “It was great to get to the Grey Cup. It would have been nice to win it, obviously, especially on a personal level, to be able to do that in Edmonton was amazing as a kid that’s from here.

“It was awesome to do that with family and friends.”

Back home for the off-season, Korte has been making his rounds of some area schools, since his brother teaches at M.E. Lazerte and their mother teaches at a school in Spruce Grove.

On Friday, Korte stopped in to speak with elementary students from Gold Bar school, even if it doesn’t count toward any credit with his club back in Ottawa.

“We’re not under an obligation, it’s just fun to do, honestly,” said Korte, adding he attended similar talks back when he was in elementary school. “I don’t remember who, exactly, but I remember we had some guys from the Eskimos come out and some guys from the Oilers, too.

“It was always a cool moment as a kid to have something to think about when you go home and talk to your parents about. And it just makes it fun for the kids to see someone that they see on TV and now they’re in their classroom, so it makes it a little more relatable for them.”