Saskatchewan Roughriders quarterback Trevor Harris has played a lot of big games in his 14 years in the CFL, but even he isn’t immune to the excitement of taking the field at this time of the year.
With the Green and White set to face the B.C. Lions in the Western Semi-Final on Saturday afternoon at B.C. Place, Saskatchewan officially begins the defence of its 2025 Grey Cup in earnest.
And even with the tons of experience under his belt, that’s led to some somewhat sleepless nights for Harris in the lead-up to the win-or-go-home contest.
“You have dreams about it, and you wake up and your heart rate's going and you're like, ‘Oh, man, I can't wait to play,’” Harris said during the team media availability on Friday afternoon in Vancouver. “I’m 40 years old and I feel like a kid waiting on Christmas Day at this point.”
Part of that is what Saskatchewan has the opportunity to bring to the table on Saturday.
The Riders have the vast majority of their offensive weapons in place, including their three dynamic receivers in KeeSean Johnson, Kian Schaffer-Baker and Sam Emilus. That’s something that’s occurred just once since July 23.
Things haven’t looked the greatest when the Riders have had the ball due to the crippling spate of injuries they’ve dealt with much of the latter half of the campaign, but Harris is confident that’s all in the rearview mirror.
“It’s been trudging a little bit, struggling to keep those main three healthy, but they're healthy now,” Harris said. “But those are just words. We’ve got to go out and put pen to paper and make do with what we're supposed to do, and there’s no group I'd rather be taking the field with than those guys.
“I’m excited to tee this one up, and I just told them in (the dressing room), I haven’t been this excited to play a football game in quite a while.”
As Harris alluded to, the entire receiving corps will need to be on point to deal with what has been a dangerous B.C. Lions team through the second half of the campaign. With three players capable of putting up 1,000-yard seasons back catching passes, all the potential in the world is there.
“We need them to be themselves,” Harris said. “That’s what it comes down to. There’s no shortage of conviction in who we are and what we're capable of stepping into tomorrow's game. It’ll be a fun one.”
While a ton of focus will be on Saskatchewan’s aerial game, there’s little question things are going to get very tough indeed for the Lions if A.J. Ouellette gets any kind of a roll going carrying the ball.
Harris said he wouldn’t be surprised in the least to see his veteran running back go off on Saturday.
“The reason you bring in A.J. Ouellette and the reason you have him is for these games in late October, early November,” he said. “I'm excited for them to go out and establish a little physicality, play downhill, and do what they love to do, which is play physical football and just be the bully.”
If both facets of the offence are rolling, that could go a long way to keeping B.C. quarterback Nathan Rourke off the field and limit the Lions’ chances to put up points. Riders head coach Corey Mace said that could be an important factor in the result, going both ways.
“If they’re able to control the ball and keep our offence off the field, obviously that’s not ideal,” Mace said. “It’s just about execution and however the game plays out, it plays out. But generally if you can get out of the game with the time of possession on our side and keep their offense off the field, that definitely would bode well.”
The entire offence has spent a ton of time in the film room reviewing what the Lions might throw at them on defence. While that might help getting some basic ideas down, Harris expects there will plenty of new looks, even in the fourth meeting of the season between the teams.
The key will be how the Riders deal with them.
“That’s been part of the course every week this season,” Harris said. “Defensive coordinators are going to play me a little bit different than what they show on film obviously. But we are who we are offensively.
“We’re not going to run 85 new brand-new plays. They’re not going to run 85 brand-new defensive plays. You’re going to do a decent amount of what you are, because if you don’t, then what’s your identity? This just comes down to who can execute. If we go and execute tomorrow, I like us. It just comes down to who’s going to play better.”
The Rider Broadcast Network will have all the action from the Western Semi-Final beginning with the pregame show at 11:30 a.m. Dave Thomas and crew will get listeners set up for the game, and he’ll then join Luc Mullinder with the game call at kickoff at 2:30 p.m.
