As he looked across the line of scrimmage, Toronto Argonaut linebacker Trevor Hoyte knew he was about to have an unplanned reunion with an old college teammate.
He was about to block a punt.
“They had run the same play before,” Hoyte told Argonauts.ca. “I had seen that the (blocker) just half blocked me; he kind of left me. The next time they called it I knew exactly what he was going to do. I just jumped inside. I was there way faster than I thought, and I got to the ball.”
He did, laying himself out in front of Hamilton punter Michael Domagala, his teammate at Carleton. The Argo linebacker seemed to block the punt before it left Domagala’s foot. It rolled some 10 yards downfield and was picked up by Benoit Marion – Hoyte’s roommate – who ran it back 24 yards to the end zone for the eventual game-winning points in the Argos 34-20 victory over the Tiger-Cats last Saturday at BMO Field.
It was the biggest moment so far in Hoyte’s two seasons in the CFL. Doing it against his former teammate made it even sweeter.
“He sent me a message,” Hoyte said of Domagala. “He said ‘Why did you have to do me like that?’ I said I had to, but I’ll see you next game.”
But there was something even better about that night than the Raven-on-Raven crime he committed.
“The best part was that my whole family was here for the game,” explained the native of Gatineau, Quebec; located just across the river from Ottawa. “My brother couldn’t make it, but my godfather was here with his grandchild; so it was great to have the whole family there, people supporting me on the phone, the best part was having the family around to see it all happen.”
The blocked punt was the highlight to be sure, but Hoyte’s greatest contributions were mostly unnoticed by those at BMO Field that night.
Long snapper Jake Reinhart was injured and unable to perform in the second half, meaning Hoyte would be called upon to fill in on snaps to punter John Haggerty, while linebacker Brandon Calver would snap on field goals and conversions.
But then Calver was ejected from the game for taking a second misconduct penalty, meaning Hoyte would have to finish the game doing all the snaps.
It’s not unusual to see him at practice working on long snaps to the punter, but how many reps had Hoyte taken with shorter snaps?
“Almost none,” he confessed. “It’s not too difficult, I was just not used to doing it. I couldn’t get it back there as fast because I really wanted to get it on target. I was just guiding it back and hoping we didn’t fumble it.”
He was far more worried about the physical part of the snap than the mental side of coming into a situation in which he doesn’t have a ton of experience.
“I try to stay confident because I know under pressure I always do well. I just need to stay calm and just trust what I’ve been doing; I’ve been working on this since last year.”
Hoyte being mentally strong shouldn’t surprise anyone as he majored in astrophysics at Carleton.
The Argos made the OUA all-star a fourth-round draft pick in 2021; not only looking at his strength as a special teamer, but his ability to play both middle and weak-side linebacker.
“I feel comfortable on the field for sure,” he said. “I’ve just got to keep getting better because I haven’t shown my full ability out on the field yet. I’m coming in early, getting my lifts in, and doing everything I can to get better.”
The hard work has paid off. Not only are the Argos comfortable using Hoyte in either linebacker spot but they’re thrilled to have his versatility available to them on special teams.
While Hoyte’s young career has been spent in relative anonymity with the Argos, he certainly seemed comfortable stepping into the spotlight on Saturday.