REGINA — The Saskatchewan Roughriders have signed American defensive end Ty French, the team announced on Friday.
French (six-foot-one, 235 pounds) played collegiately at Gardner-Webb (2020-23) and West Virginia (2024) before being invited to the San Francisco 49ers’ rookie mini-camp in 2025.
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At West Virginia, French played linebacker in 13 games in 2024, registering 22 total tackles, including three for a loss, three quarterback hurries and one pass breakup.
In 41 games as a defensive end at Gardner-Webb, the Georgia-born French amassed school-record totals of 34.5 career sacks and 61 tackles for a loss. He was an All-Big South Conference selection all four of his seasons at Gardner-Webb, posting 239 total tackles. His peak single-season totals were 12.5 sacks in 2022 and 22.5 tackles for a loss in 2023. He set a Big South single-season sack record in 2022.
In 2022 and 2023, French was a finalist for the Buck Buchanan Award, presented annually to the top defensive player in the Division 1 Football Championship Subdivision (FCS). French was named the Big South’s Defensive Player of the Year in 2022, when he was also a finalist for the Ted Hendricks Award (given to college football’s Most Outstanding Defensive End).