Johany Jutras/Argonauts.ca
On Friday, a controlled collapse of the old Mosaic Stadium will erase any semblance of the Riders’ former home from the Regina skyline.
Fittingly, Darian Durant, who started the last game there, will play his first as an opponent in the city he called home for a decade and complete the remaining storyline to his failed season in Montreal.
However, a meaningless game for the Montreal Alouettes is full of meaning.
When the schedule was released, many looked for the first time Darian Durant would play his first game in Saskatchewan as an opponent.
That day has come.
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Alouettes quarterback Darian Durant surveys the field during his first season in Montreal (Dominick Gravel/Montreal Alouettes)
Durant and his former team have already met. The Alouettes won. Durant wore his emotion on his sleeve in his victory celebration. He cited ‘football gods’. He got to taste some sweetness of revenge that he was able to beat a team led by Chris Jones, who he felt disrespected him.
That day seems like a long time ago. It was the first win of the season for the Alouettes of their measly three.
Now Durant comes into Mosaic Stadium staring down the reality that, in the end, Chris Jones was right to move on from the franchise quarterback.
Jones has led the Roughriders back to the playoffs with a tandem at quarterback of veteran Kevin Glenn and Durant’s former back-up Brandon Bridge.
While Friday is as much a chance for Rider Nation to once again give Durant the ovation he deserves, it’s as much a sign of Jones’ plan and execution of the plan paying off.
Chris Jones took a risk moving on from Durant, just as Durant did by not accepting the Roughriders’ final offer.
Now, I’m looking at the need for the Roughriders to extend the contract of Jones that runs out at the end of 2018.
There is no reason for Jones not to get signed through 2019, if not 2020.
Everything he’s done this season has paid off. He’s been able to control Duron Carter, who is on his way to becoming the Roughriders’ Most Outstanding Player. He’s made the right call at quarterback in pulling Glenn early enough in games to allow Brandon Bridge to bring the team back for victories.
The people who were most upset that Jones disregarded Durant’s talent and moved him to Montreal, or criticized him for moving on from Weston Dressler or John Chick, have conceded defeat. If they haven’t, they’re clearly too stubborn to admit reality.
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The Alouettes, meanwhile, are in rebuild mode. General Manager Kavis Reed was hoping to get a veteran team to the playoffs to start his tenure and do so with a proven quarterback.
Durant was a no doubter pick to try to execute Reed’s plan.
Whether it was Durant’s play, the offensive line’s inability to protect Durant, dropped passes, poor managerial decisions or football gods, Reed acknowledges the plan now is to go young.
Durant’s last start as a Roughrider was at the old Mosaic Stadium and his last start as an Alouette could come in the stadium just down the road.
The future is very much cloudy in Montreal with Durant as the leader of the offence. Although Kavis Reed told me Wednesday that the analytics show him Durant is not as bad as what is perceived.
It seemed like a vote of confidence that Durant could very well be a part of the new plan in Montreal in the midst of a rebuild. Or it’s Reed doing what Jones was doing last year at this time, saying nice things in the final weeks of the season without having made a final decision what Durant’s future will be in the organization.
Friday is symbolic of all this. It will give some closure to a bitter breakup.
And as the final pieces of the stadium Durant starred in get torn down, Rider fans will give Durant a final standing ovation in their new home.
