EDMONTON — It’s safe to say the Edmonton Elks have had enough when it comes to being unable to find success in the Canadian Football League.
As was the case last season, and the season before that, and the season before that.
In fact, you have to go all the way back to the pre-COVID days of 2019 to find a campaign where the Elks made the playoffs — and even then they finished with an 8-10 record before crossing over and losing to Hamilton in the East semifinal.
Head coach Mark Killam and crew hope those days are now long in the rearview mirror as they prepare for their season opener on Saturday night in Ottawa against the Redblacks.
The Voice of the Elks Morley Scott joined The SportsCage recently to go over how training camp turned out and the outlook for the upcoming campaign, and like every team at this time of the year, hopes are high that there will be some special times at Commonwealth Stadium this summer.
“I think they're pretty happy with the way camp went,” Scott said. “The veterans on the Elks, like the veterans on every CFL team, are looking forward to turning the page and playing real games now. Preseason is for the prospects, regular season is for the veterans and they’re really looking forward to playing some games that matter.”
Former Roughriders quarterback Cody Farjardo is back behind centre after a season where he passed for 3,408 yards, 14 touchdowns and seven interceptions. You can count him among the many that want to see a quick change of fortunes for the team.
“He was just saying, let's turn the page, let's get after it,” Scott said of Farjardo, who saw a total of two series in each of Edmonton’s preseason games. “The thing he's looking forward to most is just getting in a rhythm, getting in a groove and playing the entire football game on Saturday.”
There’s little question that Fajardo will be a major key to Edmonton’s success, with one of the major focuses right off the hop being a better start than they’ve had in recent campaigns. Not only have the Elks not won a season opener since 2019, they’ve gone winless in 25 games to start the last five seasons, putting themselves behind the eight ball every year.
Interestingly enough, the Redblacks haven’t fared much better over the years, making Saturday’s contest a big one for both teams.
Should Edmonton conquer their early season demons, a handful of former Saskatchewan Roughriders will most certainly play a role. Leading the way in that category is defensive tackle Malik Carney, who has worked so well with Jared Brinkman on the right side of the line that he’s expecting big things when it comes to making life miserable for the opposition.
“He says ‘we're going to dominate’,” Scott said. “He gets to the quarterback, he can drop back and be athletic, he can do so many things. Even if he's not getting sacks or tackles, he's causing problems and he's opening it up for the guys at the other end of the defensive line to do something.”
Little has changed on the defence in general, with the corps of defensive backs having seen little alteration. The linebacker crew has seen a handful of minor switch-ups, as middle linebacker Nick Anderson is back from injury, Joel Dublanko is set to become a starter for the first time in his career and Kenny Logan moves up from the backfield into the strong side spot.
That means the defence will have a lot of familiarity with one another, which is never a bad thing.
“They were all here last year and played a lot last year,” Scott said. “They had a tough start last season, gave up a ton of points early, but got much better as the season went along.”
The offence was the area that needed the most improvement in Scott’s evaluation, and to that end, the Elks did their part to shore things up.
The offensive line not only added three players, but three players who are familiar with one another, as Coulter Woodmansey, Brendan Bordner and Jordan Murray all came over from the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. Edmonton also added back-up quarterback Taylor Powell and receiver Brendan O’Leary-Orange from Hamilton, in addition to receiver Austin Mack from the Montreal Alouettes.
Kalon Julien-Grant will be one of Fajardo’s top pass-catching targets after putting up 820 yards receiving last season.
There’s little question who the Edmonton offence will mostly go through, though — running back Justin Rankin was one of the CFL’s top dual threats last season with 1,013 yards on the ground and another 713 yards through the air.
The key will be seeing how things come together in the early going as all the parts mesh in a real-game situation.
“I think they went out and they handled their business, so we’ll see how long it takes them to kind of gel together and become a real good offence,” Scott said. “Till then, let's hope the defence holds them in there in every game.”
One former Roughrider fans will have to wait to see in the Green and Gold is receiver Joe Robustelli. After putting up 544 yards with the Riders in his rookie season, Robustelli was injured in the second game of the preseason and has been ruled out for the opener.
“He's a big guy and he's got a chance to have that pop season where he kind of has a breakout year and becomes a true threat,” Scott said. “So I'm looking forward to seeing him get it in the lineup.”
Scott had much more to talk about with Barney Shynkaruk and The SportsCage crew, and you can check out the complete interview below.
