The Canadian Press
WINNIPEG — The Saskatchewan Roughriders are hoping that their coach never stops wearing his green Diversity is Strength t-shirt.
After all, the game that Chris Jones first wore the shirt kickstarted the Riders three-game winning streak.
“I don’t know how everybody else feels but for me, to actually see Coach Jones in any other colour besides black is breathtaking,” defensive end Willie Jefferson said during the league’s media conference call ahead of the Banjo Bowl. “And then for him to wear it three games in a row, that’s the most he’s wearing any other colour besides black since he’s been my coach since 2014.”
“The fans like it. The organization likes it. The players like it,” Jefferson continued. “Just to see him in another colour besides black on game day is big for everybody in the community and the organization. When it comes to practice he goes back to his old stuff and he’s always in all black.”
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NIc Demski will play for his hometown crowd in the Banjo Bowl this weekend (Matt Smith/CFL.ca)
Not only has the Riders bench boss rocked a colour other than his usual black during the team’s three-game winning streak, they’ve also done their walkthrough in a different place.
“We haven’t been outside to do walkthrough in the last three weeks,” admitted Jefferson. “Since the Calgary game we’ve done walkthrough inside in the locker room and then gone on from there.”
Superstitions aside, the Riders are looking to make it four in a row this weekend against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in the annual Banjo Bowl.
Blue Bomber Nic Demski, the Winnipeg native who attended a few Banjo Bowls growing up, knows that getting a win against Saskatchewan won’t be easy but he’s looking forward to playing in the second of the home-and-home.
“You’ve got to treat every game the same but obviously these are two big games, this game and the past game,” said Demski, who joined Jefferson, Zach Collaros and Taylor Loffler on the call. “Playing against your old team is always a lot of fun. It’s always something you look forward to but at the end of the day you have to treat every game the same.”
“That it was crazy, that it was loud,” Demski said, remembering the atmosphere of the Banjo Bowls he attended growing up. “Every fan was having a good time. Every fan always has a good time at the day games when they get to tailgate and stuff like that. It’s all about the experience for the fans and these games definitely live up to the hype.”
Investors Group Field is known for being a loud stadium – as is Mosaic, where last week’s game occurred – and the Bombers defence was practicing with crowd noise this week.
“You’ve got a lot of verbal communication out there so when there is the crowd noise it makes it difficult to communicate so you have to have hand signals,” said Loffler. “We’ve been working on that and having that in practice has just been helping us get those hand signals down.”
“Those two games are always the highest energy games,” Demski added of the Bombers’ home-and-home with the Riders. “It’s going to be a lot of fun. It’s going to be fun to play in the hometown on the good side now. I’m excited to see what’s going on.”
