CFL.ca
REGINA — The Saskatchewan Roughriders made a splash in Corey Mace’s first season as head coach by finishing 9-8-1 and reaching the Western Final.
Trevor Harris, who played through a partially torn ACL and missed six games with a knee injury, threw for over 3,200 yards with 20 touchdowns and nine interceptions while going 7-5. His health is crucial to the Riders’ success and is one of his main targets for 2025.
“The first goal I put on my board – I have a board that I repeat every day – and the first goal on my board was to play all 18 games,” said Harris in a conversation with CFL.ca. “To me, that’s the most important thing that we can do, is be available for our teammates. If I’m available for all 18 then I know that I give myself a better chance to be the best leader I can be and develop more cohesion, more teamwork with my teammates.
“Obviously you have ambitious goals, whether it be numbers or certain records, but being able to play all 18 games and pour into my teammates and love them every day are basically the two things that I have written down at the top of my board. If you’re pouring into your teammates and loving your teammates, I feel like everything else takes care of itself.”
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Harris’ health also impacts a crop of stellar receivers for the Riders. Samuel Emilus is coming off back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons, KeeSean Johnson finished 2024 with over 740 yards, including 16 receptions for 262 yards and a touchdown in the team’s final four games, and Kian Schaffer-Baker added 700 yards in only 14 games. That’s not to mention Shawn Bane Jr., who was coming off a 1,000-yard season of his own in 2023 before also having to deal with injury last season.
On top of a strong receiving room, the Riders also have talent in their ground game with AJ Ouellette returning for a second season in Green and White. While he missed 10 games in his debut season as a Rider, he’s ready to make a push to lead the league on the ground in 2025.
“Individually, I need to be more impactful in the run game, be more voiceful on what plays I think are working for us and that I feel more comfortable playing,” said Ouellette in a conversation with CFL.ca. “I just felt like we weren’t meshing as well as we could have.
“There were some games where running backs and o-line were clicking very well, and others that we weren’t. Now with another coach that I’ve worked with before in the room, I think the communication will be better.”
The coach he has been reunited with is legendary running back Andrew Harris, Saskatchewan’s new running backs coach who was once a backfield teammate to Ouellette with the Toronto Argonauts.
On top of having that chemistry in the run game leadership, the Riders have also addressed concerns at offensive line, filling in a gap from 2024 and hoping to improve their record and cohesion from last season to make a second straight appearance in the Western Final.
“Love can conquer everything, and the closer teams are going to be, the better teams [will be],” said Harris. “Those are the teams that, the closer you are with people, the more you can push them, the more that you can talk to them and have tough conversations when things aren’t going well, and then during those tough times, that’s when teams become the best teams.
“People that can withstand those storms and become better through them, if you’re not close enough, that’s when tensions arise where, if you know that you love each other, you have each others best interest at heart, you can have those tough conversations and grow through those moments.”
QB Trevor Harris threw for 3,264 yards and 20 touchdowns in 11 starts in 2024 (CFL.ca)
The mentality of stronger together applies to the Riders from top to bottom – whether it’s coaching, offence, defence or special teams. Hard times are hard to avoid as a team, but Harris believes that as long as everyone continues to focus on their biggest goal and trusts in each other, it’s more than achievable.
“Inevitably, every team in this league is probably going to lose a game this year, maybe except for us,” said Harris with a smile. “But everybody’s going to lose a game this year, and you’re going to have times where you have to reconvene and see what went wrong. And for us, that’s what we want to be able to do is be better, but be available for all 18 (games).”
For Ouellette, a force himself, he knows that the talent around him on both sides of the ball speaks for itself, and that the Riders will do the most talking with their results on the field.
“We want to be the force that teams are worried about, our defence is solid, and we knew last year that’s what people had to worry about,” said Ouellette.
“We want to be well rounded as an offence and make it to where teams can’t just shut down one aspect of our game.”
