A stellar career at Hillsdale College won't be the end of recent graduate Zach Herzog's football journey.
The 5-foot-9 safety and three-time first-team All-G-MAC player became the first Charger in the 69-year history of the Canadian Football League Draft to be selected on Tuesday night. Herzog was selected in the seventh round by the Saskatchewan Roughriders with the 63rd overall pick in the draft.
The Chargers' leading tackler in two of the past three seasons, Herzog made 244 tackles in a four-year career at Hillsdale, averaging 8.1 tackles per game and twice going over 100 tackles for a season while also adding 6.5 tackles for loss, three forced fumbles, three interceptions and eight pass breakups. The Windsor, Ontario native was a playmaker for the Chargers who greatly strengthened Hillsdale's run defense as an extra safety in the box, while also holding up well in coverage against spread passing attacks.
Herzog is one of just six players since 1960 at Hillsdale College to earn first-team All-G-MAC honors in three consecutive seasons, and also earned All-Super Region 1 second team honors as a senior from the Division II Conference Commissioners Association.
He'll join a Roughriders organization whose history dates back to the founding days of Canadian football in 1910 and exists as the fourth-oldest continuously operating professional football team in the world.
Based in the CFL's West Division, the Roughriders have won four Grey Cup titles, in 1966, 1989, 2007 and 2013 and fell just short of making the Grey Cup in 2021, reaching the West Division final with a 9-5 record before coming up short against the eventual CFL Champion Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
If Herzog makes Saskatchewan's roster and appears in a CFL game this summer, he'll be the seventh Charger, and the first since 1984, to play in the CFL. The most recent was wide receiver standout and NFL Draft pick Nate Johnson, who played for three CFL teams from 1982-84, including a one-year stint in Saskatchewan.
Other notable former Chargers in the CFL include two-time All-American Joe Vijuk, who played defensive end for the Toronto Argos for three years from 1970-72 and helped his team make the Grey Cup, Jim Reynolds, who had a seven-year stint as a receiver from 1960-67, and Chuck Liebrouck, who played guard from 1968-1977 for a variety of CFL teams.
Herzog is the first Hillsdale football player to be drafted by a professional league since offensive lineman Jared Veldheer was selected in the third round of the 2010 NFL Draft by the then-Oakland Raiders.
The Roughriders open the 2022 season on June 11 at home against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats at 7 p.m. ET. To find out more about Saskatchewan and the CFL, click here.
CFL Draft Logo and Roughriders team logo courtesy of the CFL and the Saskatchewan Roughriders