SASKATOON — Saskatchewan Roughriders running back A.J. Ouellette is ready and raring to hit the gridiron on Saturday night.
After sitting out the opening game of the Canadian Football League preseason in the Riders’ 20-15 loss to the Calgary Stampeders on Monday, Saskatchewan is expected to field as part of a much more experienced crew when the Riders host the Winnipeg Blue Bombers at Saskatoon's Griffiths Stadium.
That means, for the first time since winning the Grey Cup last November, Ouellette and many of his fellow veterans will put the pads on and take on a real opponent rather than their training camp teammates. It’ll be a welcome opportunity, especially after a week of hard-hitting work in training camp practices leading up to the contest.
“We got a lot of backs in the room so everybody's getting their reps, the body's feeling good and we got vets on the team so we know how to practice,” Ouellette said in a conversation with Roughriders radio play-by-play announcer Dave Thomas. “The mindset is how many plays can we get in the practice, so periods are timed, get as many plays as you can get in and get that cardio up as well so I don't look like a little fatty out there Week 1, Week 2.”
Ouellette and his fellow veterans are also plenty aware of the process, and that includes taking as much as you can from a game even if you weren’t on the field.
“Hustle and compete and then we got to be disciplined and have communication across the board,” Ouellette said of his takeaways from the opener. “Communicating and making sure the offensive line and running backs are on the same page as the QB and receivers. That's the biggest takeaway I got.”
As has often been discussed, a scheduling quirk will see the Roughriders off for pre-season Week 3 and then receive their first bye in Week 1 of the regular season, meaning Saskatchewan won’t play a meaningful game in 2026 until they host the B.C. Lions on June 13.
That’s a tough turn of events, especially given how much learning goes on in the earliest stages of the campaign.
“People have the most growth between Week 1 and Week 2 and we don't get that Week 1 play, so teams are growing while we're getting our first actual game,” Ouellette said. “So we got to take all that mistakes and prep work from first preseason, second preseason and just build on that for the last remainder of training camp, then bring the guys back early from the bye week and get to work.”
As one of the veterans on the team Ouellette is doing his part to help make sure the rookies are as prepared as possible for when the plays start to really matter. That especially applies to his own experience as a mid-season addition with the Toronto Argonauts in his first season in 2019.
“I came up halfway through the year, so I didn't have that first training camp, but got thrown in there,” Ouellette explained. “I knew my plays, played well. So that gave an opportunity for them to bring me back the next year and when you get the opportunity to play, play well. Then get a name and stay in the league.”
That all leads to the ultimate goal for the 2026 season — repeating as Grey Cup champions.
“It's really the mindset, right?” Ouellette said. “If you win, you can either hang it up that you guys are the best and all that, or you can take the approach that you have to come in here and beat me. We want to be the standard, so you have to be the standard for people to catch you. That's what we're trying to do, put in work every day to be the standard.”
Kickoff on Saturday night is set for 5 p.m. from Griffiths Stadium. The Riders Broadcast Network pregame show begins at 2 p.m., and you can catch Dave Thomas and Luc Mullinder with the game call at kickoff.
