Saskatchewan Roughriders' offensive lineman Trevon Tate is always eager to learn, especially if it helps his team.
“I'd play quarterback if I got to. I'm from Texas, we always played football with our cousins, our friends, and we always played seven-on-seven. It sounds crazy, I was always an all-time quarterback because I'm not running down the field. That's not happening,” Tate told voice of the Riders Dave Thomas.
“I like centre, I like guard, I love tackle, if I got to play tight end, defensive line, safety — it doesn't matter. Whatever I gotta do to get us a dub, that's all that really matters. I'm good with being uncomfortable, you got to get comfortable with being uncomfortable if you consider yourself to be one of the top guys in anything you do.”
The six-foot-four, 295-pound offensive lineman enters his second season with the Green and White. He played four games with the Calgary Stampeders then joined the Riders in 2024. According to Tate, even with injuries to Sean McEwen and Philippe Gagnon, morale remains high for Saskatchewan's offensive line.
“For me, I tore my ACL in Toronto in 2022. When I see any guy have a knee injury, I really sympathize with it. I also know that Sean doesn't want guys sitting around thinking about that, taking their mind away from the objective. Sean wants us to go out there and put our best foot forward. The same thing with Gag,” Tate said.
“He wants us to go out there and put our best foot forward. He's still here, so he's still part of the group. Those guys' spirits are high. As far as the fans, you can't panic when things seem like they're going to be bad. Just because something seems like it's bad, it can actually end up being a very good thing. No one getting hurt is ever good, but it can give somebody a chance to put their best foot forward and possibly have a prolonged career.”
Riders head coach Corey Mace is proud of Tate's abilities to play different positions along the offensive line.
“I've seen the guy play pretty much every position on the offensive line with my time with him over the last few years. He is similar to Yoshi where he's going to hold guys accountable to the standard. If it's not done the right way, he's going to let you know and he holds himself to a high standard. If he messes up, people can jump on him and he already knows it,” Mace said
“The experience that I've had with him and the expectations, it was quite clear with him of what we expect, he's taken the keys and he's driven off with it.”
The current offensive line group's work ethic stands out to the 29-year-old Tate.
“We kept in touch throughout the offseason. There's a lot of first times with this group. It was the first time I kept up with a group in the offseason. It was the first time I showed up a week before camp to work with the guys,” Tate said.
“It was the first time that on the first day of camp, I felt like we were almost as good as we were in the West Final. I know it's camp, everybody's working out the kinks, but usually as an offensive lineman, you see that the start is a little bit lower and I felt like we had a great start.”
The Green and White begin the regular season on Thursday. Catch the pre-game show with Teagan Witko, Justin Dunk and Wes Cates at 4 p.m. while Dave Thomas and Luc Mullinder have the game call at 7 p.m. You can hear everything on the 620 CKRM Co-operators Rider Broadcast Network.