Flashback, May 6th, 2013: Ottawa takes OL Nolan MacMillan with first ever college draft pick

The CFL press release about the first college draft pick in RedBlacks history was pretty underwhelming.  Here is a portion of it.  Emphasis on the spelling error is mine, of course.

TORONTO -- The new Ottawa franchise has made their first ever draft selection, taking Iowa offensive lineman Nolan MacMillan.  He was selected in the first round, 8th overall in the 2013 CFL Draft.

MacMillan, 22, joins the Ottawa after starring on the Hawkeyes' offensive line for four seasons. He missed the entire 2011 campaign with an injury.

The six-foot-six, 290-pound Toornto, ON native ranked sixth on April's CFL Scouting Bureau rankings, jumping up four spots from December's Top 15.

The rest of it was about how GM Marcel Desjardins is honoured to represent Ottawa and what other draft choices the team had remaining.  They had selections at the end of the next three rounds, if they chose to make use of them, and I'm going to have a post for each pick separately.

Oh, and MacMillan was 9th overall, not 8th.  Leave it to the CFL to forget how many teams are in its league.  I'm still going use the picture from their article below though, because it at least appears as though they got the right guy.

Aside from what we're told above, what do we know about MacMillan?  Not an awful lot, so I located the article below which goes over his career at Iowa.

No doubt he's talented, but you may find that the CFL's claim that he "starred" on the Iowa line is a touch overblown in light of time lost to injury.  The article was posted on Hawk Central in October of last year and written by Ryan Suchomel.

UI CMP Photo Services

Offensive lineman Nolan MacMillan knows about injuries and setbacks.

The junior started the first six games as a redshirt freshman in 2010, then went down with injury.

Now the 6-foot-6, 290-pound lineman is slated to make his seventh career start Saturday at Northwestern, almost two years after his last one.

“It was a long time,” MacMillan said. “It was a tough wait. You’ve got to focus on each day, taking care of what you can.”

MacMillan earned freshman all-American honors for his half-season of work in 2010.

The hope was MacMillan would put his shoulder injury behind him and become a starter again last fall.

But a sports hernia in the spring lingered and he missed all of 2011.

“It’s been a bit of a long process,” MacMillan said. “You come to a place like this, you want to play. Playing early is great, but obviously I wasn’t able to stay healthy.”

On Saturday, MacMillan was put in the game when sophomore Brandon Scherff went down with a season-ending injury against Penn State.

“I think he did a good job,” Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz said. “He went in there. He was ready. He was mentally ready for it, and he’s practiced well.

“He’s missed some time but he’s practiced well when he’s been out there. Now hopefully we can keep him healthy and keep him advancing, because we’re going to need everybody’s best effort now.”

...

MacMillan said he is a lot different than that redshirt freshman that enjoyed a 5-1 record as a starter.

“I think I’m a lot more confident in the offense scheme and what I’m doing,” MacMillan said. “And I think I’m more physically mature.”

The junior from Toronto, Ontario, is not given to long-winded proclamations. But he’s sat in the offensive line meetings while hurt and lately even when he was passed up by younger players.

“He’s a tough guy,” junior lineman Brett Van Sloten said. “I think everyone on the team can contest to that. He’s a fighter.

“He’s persevered through a lot. It’s nice to see him progress through all those injuries.”

...

“He’s got the right mindset,” (redshirt freshman Austin) Blythe said. “Coming back for him is just like getting back on a bike. It’s just about getting the reps, getting the confidence back. He’ll be just fine.”

The Ottawa Sun got a hold of MacMillan that day and had the following quote in its article about his selection:

“I’m really happy, totally excited that Ottawa picked me. It’s a great feeling,” said MacMillan, who was born in Arnprior and lived (with parents Paul and Janet) in Renfrew as a kid. “I was tracking the draft (online) and I had to do a double take when my name came up.”

MacMillan doesn't seem to be drawing much NFL attention, at least for the moment, so chances that he'll be in RedBlacks camp next spring appear to be quite good.