CALGARY — The Calgary Stampeders have signed American defensive end Cedric Wilcots II and American offensive lineman Khadere Kounta, the team announced on Monday.
Wilcots II has Canadian Football League experience with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and Hamilton Tiger-Cats and most recently was with the Houston Roughnecks of the United Football League.
Wilcots started his CFL career with Winnipeg in 2022 and, after playing 10 games for the Blue Bombers, was traded to Hamilton. In 15 career regular season contests, he has four defensive tackles, one sack, one forced fumble and one fumble recovery.
RELATED
» MMQB: Ranking the top 3 defensive ends
» MMQB: Ranking the top 3 running backs
» 1 under the radar Canadian on every CFL team
» 3 high-impact Canadian players from every CFL team
» 5 comeback stories waiting to be written in 2025
» Subscribe to the CFL’s official YouTube channel
» Subscribe to the CFL’s newsletter for exclusive offers and league updates
Wilcots also was in uniform for the Ticats’ Eastern Semi-Final game against Montreal in 2022.
In college, Wilcots played 47 games and made 32 starts over five years at New Mexico State. He had 109 career tackles and 20.5 sacks as a member of the Aggies.
Wilcots earned all-Sun Belt Conference honours in 2017 after recording 29 tackles including 12 tackles for loss and 8.5 sacks in 13 games. He finished his New Mexico State career with the fourth-most sacks in program history.
Kounta played his senior season at UCLA and saw action in 10 games as a backup offensive lineman and special-teamer for the Bruins.
He started his collegiate career with three seasons at Old Dominion. He played 33 career games for the Monarchs and made 27 starts including 26 at left tackle and one at right tackle.
Kounta was just the third offensive lineman in Old Dominion history to make starts as a true freshman. In 2022, Kounta was part of an offensive line that helped Blake Watson rush for a school-record 259 yards in a win over Coastal Carolina.