REGINA — Saskatchewan Roughriders' quarterback Jack Coan has found himself in a difficult situation when it comes to finding playing time in 2025.
An early-season hand injury pushed the second-year veteran to the sidelines, and it took a late-season knee injury to short yardage specialist Tommy Stevens for Coan to finally draw into the line-up for Saskatchewan’s Week 18 game against Ottawa.
With the Riders having clinched a spot in the West Final heading into Week 20, it was finally time for Coan to get a chance on the field last Friday in Winnipeg against the Blue Bombers.
First up was a short-yardage run for the Green and White's lone touchdown of the game on their first drive. Then came the fourth quarter, where Coan would sub in for starter Jake Maier and complete 2-of-8 passes for 38 yards as Winnipeg kicked a last-second field goal to win 17-16. It was a welcome return for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish product, while not completely perfect, an important opportunity nonetheless.
“I’d say the big positive for me was I got on the field, I got the experience and I got to see everything,” Coan said. “Things weren’t too fast for me. I wish I had a few more completions and could have done a little bit better, but it was fun to go out and play.”
As one might expect, stepping in off the sideline and straight into a game can be a trying task, especially when you haven’t seen many downs all season.
“It’s definitely difficult, but these past two or three years it’s something I’ve been getting used to,” said Coan, who didn’t see on-field action in his rookie 2024 regular season until the final week of the campaign, where he went 10-of-21 passing for 100 yards and a touchdown in a 27-12 loss to Calgary.
“You have to be ready whenever your moment comes and a big thing for me in these practices is taking mental reps behind every play and treating that as my practice even if I’m not getting live reps. So when I go into the game, I can cut it loose.”
Coan’s pre-game routine also sees a change when he’s in the line-up, specifically the intensity of his preparations — when not dressed, Coan goes through a full workout with offensive assistant coach Josh Donnelly, with the goal of having a feel for the game when his time does come to play.
“When I was non-active pretty much the whole year, I would go and try and treat that warm-up sort of as my game,” Coan said. “I’d go through a whole workout and I’d try and get better.”
While there’s no official word as to what the quarterback situation will look like for Saturday’s game against the B.C. Lions, with players resting and preparing for the playoffs, there’s a good chance Coan will once again see action. Should that happen, it’ll be more the same — and ideally, this time ending with a positive result in the standings.
“For me personally, it’s trying to get better every single day,” Coan said. “I want the best week I can for preparation, that goes for every other week that I’ve had this year, do the prep and help out any way I can.”
The Roughriders close out the regular season Saturday when Saskatchewan hosts the B.C. Lions at Mosaic Stadium. Teagan Witko, Justin Dunk and Wes Cates have all the pre-game action beginning at 2 p.m. on the Rider Broadcast Network, followed by the game call with Dave Thomas and Luc Mullinder at 5 p.m.
