Monday Morning Sentimonies: Extending Harris

The big news in Riderville this week was also the leats surprising news. Trevor Harris was signed to a one year extension. If you were surprised by this move you either haven’t been paying attention or have been willfully deluding yourself. Given Harris’ age, for him, any extension that doesn’t require the assistance of pharmaceuticals is a win.

There are a number of reasons why this happened (listed in order of importance):

1 – Trevor Harris Is Good

When healthy he was damn good in 2024. Obviously the first 2 words of that line impose a massive caveat but Harris threw 3200 yards and 20 TDs (compared to just 9 INTs) in 12 games. Over an 18 game season that would be 4800 yards and 30 TDs. He started in 7 of our 9 wins. He proved he is still a starting caliber QB.

2 – Stability and Consistency

2024 was a season of change. Purging all the stench of failure from the Dickenson era. New offensive philosophy. New defensive philosophy. New leadership amongst the players. It worked. We improved from a team that could not find the playoffs even if someone hid them in a bowling alley to hosting and winning a home playoff game and finishing as a top 4 team. The changes worked. We want to continue to build on that foundation not seek our more massive changes. A new QB is a massive change that has potential to disrupt our upward momentum.

3 – Leadership

Harris is a true professional and an unquestioned leader in that locker room. He sets a high standard on and off the field. He embodies what Coach Mace wants to see in this team. Leaders like Harris help set the culture for the team and while intangible its important to winning franchises.

4 – What else were they going to do?

Adams was off the market. Despite everyone’s pipe dreams Tre Ford was never leaving Edmonton. That left Harris as far and away the best free agent QB on the market. The only other starting options were old man Bethel-Thompson (swapping one old man for a worse old man makes no sense) and Maier (back-up maybe, starter, please no). 

There is also Cody Fajardo but that would require a trade with Montreal and is not guaranteed. The irony of a fan base that was all to happy to see Fajardo go 2 years ago pinning for him to return is not lost on me. Also, if we want to knock of Harris’ durability consider that Fajardo played just one more game in 2024. 

I fully support keeping Harris. With two conditions: 1 – I am assuming his contract has a lower base salary and is more incentive based. If he can play 18 games then he deserves to be paid like a top 3 QB… but given that he hasn’t played 18 games in a season since 2015, it’s a pretty big risk to assume that will happen and pay him big guarantees. 2 – we need a quality back-up. At a minimum I expect whoever is #2 to start 2 games in 2025, maybe more.  I still believe that Patterson has more upside (how quick we are to forget how banged up we were during his starts and how many beautifully thrown balls our receivers ineptly dropped for him). But his progression is slow enough that you may want to look at other options.

In other Rider news…

LB Coach JC Sherritt is headed back to Edmonton to be the DC. Sucks to lose a talented coach but that’s the price you pay for employing quality people. No one was lining up to poach the likes of Kelly Jeffrey… is that the quality of staff you want instead?

Last but not least DL Charbel Dabire also signed an extension. This signing will not get a ton of hype but it should. I have been on the Charbel Dabire hype train since his rookie season. He is a quality Canadian player that can make an impact along the D-line when called upon. He had 2 sacks in 4 games in 2024 before succumbing to injury. Happy to have him continue his career in Saskatchewan.

16th Annual Rider Prophet Awards

It’s the season of holidays and tradition. American Thanksgiving, Christmas, the Grey Cup ending in Bomber tears and the Rider Prophet Award. Unlike other family traditions this one has no risk of awkward political conversations, drunk uncles or high credit card bills. 

Every year we end the CFL season by honouring all things that I unilaterally deem noteworthy. This year’s award winners will receive an interception delivered by Zach Collaros (I know, it seems everyone has one of those but in this economy its all I can afford). 

Let’s get to the awards.

Best Player Name

I debated long and hard about this one but in the end there really was no other option. A younger, less mature (relatively speaking) Prophet would have awarded this name out of principle. But the older more mature (relatively speaking) Prophet is awarding this name not because I think there is anything inherently funny about the name but because of how nervous the prospect of him making the active roster and how possible a career ending Freudian-slip happening to an announcer was. The winner… Diego Fagot. 

Previous Winners: La'Akea Kaho'ohanohano-Davis, Diego Allatore-Montoya, Luther Hakunavanhu, Guillermo Villabos, Armegedon Draughns, Rakeem Cox, Akawasi Owusu-Ansah, Lirim Hajrullahu, SirVincent Rogers, Drew Willy, Bear Woods, Solomon Elimimian, Craphonso Thorpe, Charleston Hughes, Chijioke Onyenegecha

 

Quote of the Year

Referee Ben Major has always been a beloved CFL figure. Solid at his job, tough as they come, all around good guy. Well this year he added one the of the CFL’s most quotable figures to his resume.

At a game in BC Place a punt hit the jumbotron. Major proceeded to make the call of the year. “The kick hit the scoreboard…which is pretty odd. We’re going to redo everything.” . That alone wins him the award. But then it happened again later in the season and the camera panned to Major with great anticipation for his call… he just laughed and said “The kick hit the scoreboard… again”. 

Previous Winners: Craig Dickenson x2, Tom Velessi, Cody Fajardo, Dave Dickenson, Kavis Reed/Jacques Chapdelaine, Greg Quick, Solomon Elimimian, Ed Hervey, Joe Mack, Henry Burris, Eddie Johnson, Jason Clermont, Mike Abou-Mechrek x2

Play of the Year

Ben Major is so good at life he’s going to become a double award winner and the first non-football play to win this award. 

The Grey Cup is the biggest sporting event in Canada. It usually starts with a very routine coin toss. But this time around Major handed the coin to the tosser before actually getting the call from the players and had to abort the coin toss mid toss and try again. In true Ben Major fashion, he handled it like a pro.  

 

Botched Call of the Year

As much as we like to rag on them, the CFL refs do a damn good job of a very difficult task most of the time. All the controversy that erupted this year over the CFL Command Centre, just makes me more and more of the opinion that we just leave things to the refs actually on the field. They may not be perfect but honestly despite all their human limitations they are more consistent (and correct) usually than the Command Centre.

That brings us to the botched call of the year. It will come as no surprise to Rider fans that the Ottawa game that was over before the Command Centre inexplicably decided they needed to intervene to assess a penalty that never should have been assessed (just ask the onfield refs that got it right). It’s kinds like when you think you should do home plumbing renos by yourself. You shouldn’t be in that situation. You are probably going to screw it up and everyone will be worse for your efforts…. That the 2024 Command Centre.

Most Insulted Sports Figure

Going to cut right to the chase and add one more insult to the year’s tally… Nelson Lokombo sucks. The only things he excelled at were arriving late to a play, leaving the middle wide open, and managing to have the least impact of anyone I’ve seen despite being a fulltime starter. I spent the season airing my grievances and will continue to do so should he be back as starting safety in 2025. 

Previous Winners: Craig Dickenson, Riders O-line, Riders Offensive Tackles, John Ryan, Brandon Bridge, Steve McAdoo, The Riders Secondary, Any Rider QB not named Durant, Pat Neufeld, Chris Getzlaf, Ryan Dinwiddie, Jim Daley, Michael Bishop x 2, Marcel Bellefeuille

Fans’ Choice Douchebag of the Year

This is one of my favourite annual traditions on this blog. First of all an award for being a douchebag is just such a great concept. Second, I love that it’s 100% voted on by the fans. This season with a strong 60% majority, your Douchebag of the Year is Chad Kelly. To be suspended at all in the CFL means you done real bad (that or you did something marginal but you’re a Rider and there were too much online outrage for the CFL to ignore, but I digress). Kelly earned himself a 9 game suspension and lawsuit because he was a uber douchebag towards a female member of the Als’ staff. I still don’t know how the front office (Pinball, John Murphy etc…) that knew about the bad behaviour and actively threw their support behind the perpetrator as opposed to the victim have avoided any kind of consequence but Kelly is definitely a douche and worthy of the honour you have bestowed on him.

Previous Winners: Craig Reynolds/Jeremy O’Day/Craig Dickenson Garett Marino, Andrew Harris, Simoni Lawrence, Jason Maas x2, Cory Chamblin, Chris Jones, Jon Cornish x2, Henry Burris, Dwight Anderson, Mike Kelly, Jason Jimenez, Rob Murphy

Monday Morning Sentimonies: Ariba!

 

I am currently laying on a beach in Mexico, most likely with a drink in my hand. That or I'm chasing the lizard that made off with my wallet. Either way I am on vacation and my sentimonies and Rider Prophet Awards will return next week.

Fans’ Choice Douchebag of the Year 2024

Next week we will award the 16^th Annual Rider Prophet Awards. The cornerstone of those awards is the Fans’ Choice Douchebag of the Year. The annual opportunity for you the fans to cast your vote and recognize outstanding achievements in the field of Douchebaggery.

Cast your vote on Twitter @RiderProphet. I also accept write in votes in the Comments below:

Here are this year’s nominees:

Chad Kelly – There is almost nothing (short of murder) that gets a suspension of more than 2 games. Chad Kelly blew by that marker with his overly inappropriate conduct towards a female member of the training staff.

John Murphy – I maintain that as bad as Kelly’s conduct was, its just as bad that the front office knew about the concerns of the female staff member and not only did nothing but essentially told her to not create trouble. John Murphy is no stranger to douchy behaviour so should we expect anything more?

CFL Command Centre – You know things are bad when the League office has to publicly comment on the state of things. While I could point to many reasons for the this nomination, I think we can all agree that if I just mention the end of the Ottawa game that people’s boil will instantly boil.

Miles Brown – I include Brown in an effort to be inclusive and neutral. I personally don’t have any issue with him but he did injure 3 QBs in a matter of just over a month. I am guessing there are some people he won’t be getting Christmas cards from.

Monday Morning Sentimonies: Third Time’s A Charm

Don’t get me wrong, I would much rather have the season end with the Riders celebrating a Grey Cup… but get to watch Winnipeg choke has gotta be the second best ending to a season there is. Every, damn, year. And it never gets old.

To me this one is even sweeter. Unlike previous years where it was a close game down the final seconds and a blocked kick or a late TD were the difference, the Bombers just got embarrassed in this one… by Nick Arbuckle. That’s gotta hurt.

A few random thoughts on the game:

-        Ben Majors having to stop the coin toss because no one had called heads or tails yet was a delightful way to start the evening.

-        In the end Winnipeg was done in by the same thing that plagued them all season… terrible offense. The only thing the Bombers seemed to avoid more than the endzone was Grey Cup wins. Even before lacerating his finger Collaros hadn’t done anything.

-        Collaros’ pre game F-bomb filled speech featured him saying “leave no f’n doubt”. In the last 3 Grey Cups Collaros has 0 TDs and 6 INTs. I guess he lived up to his word and left no doubt that he chokes in championship.

-        I knew coming in that Toronto’s D would have the advantage over the Bombers O. But the Bombers had a legit good defense and other than Willie Jefferson lighting it up, they generally got outplayed by Nick Arbuckle. That was a surprise.

-        In the wake of the laughter being directed at the Bombers some butt hurt Bomber fans defaulted to the tired old comeback of “4 Cups in 100 years”… well be that as it may here’s a stat for my friends in blue and gold: In the last 30 years the Bombers have the same number of Cups as the Riders. In the last 20 years, the Bombers have the same number of Cups as the Riders.

-        In terms of regular season success, the last 5 years by the Bombers have been phenomenal no doubt about it. But in the last 3 years they have as many Cups as the Las Vegas Posse. That’s not really reason for bragging.

-        Despite being about 30 years older and the wrong gender than the target audience, I thought the Jonas Bothers were OK at halftime.  

-        I am almost offended that Dinwiddie won despite making so many obvious coaching errors. He should have gone for the TD from the 1 rather than taking the FG. He should have gone for 2 after the Brisset TD to make it a two score game.  

-        Mike O’Shea should have been kicked in the crotch for challenging in garbage time. 

That brings an end to another CFL season. But don’t go anywhere, we  have coverage to get you through the entire offseason, starting with the Rider Prophet Awards (voting kicks off tomorrow).

Monday Morning Sentimonies: Embarrassing Ending

Riders 22 – Bombers 38

My sentimonies today are going to be split into two distinct sections. One will be my sentimonies on the game. The other will be my sentimonies on the season. They are very different view points with very different levels of rage. 

On the game…

What an absolute utter embarrassment. Just pure shit. No one on that team showed up ready. We were outcoached, outplayed, outworked. Every single person in that locker room from the coaches to the players should be embarrassed about that effort with a chance at the Grey Cup on the line. I won’t go into detail but here are a smattering of the thoughts that were running through my head as my swearing at the TV slowly turned to silent head shaking:

-        There was overt holding on the first Winnipeg TD drive. Suitor even managed to inadvertently circle the infraction on the replay. Unreal that it was not called.

-        I also thought that Baker made that catch. Yes the ball touched the ground but he had full control at all times.

-        That said, reffing impacted the outcome of the game about as much as the moon cycle and the temperature in Fiji did.

-        We had one solitary effective offensive play… Baker on a hook over the middle. 95% of our offense was just that exact play. Honestly not sure if Mueller had a second page in his playbook.

-        Trevor Harris picked a hell of a game to suddenly suck. He was fixating on receivers, throwing into double coverage, not finding open receivers. Not at all the Harris that got us to this point.  

-        Emilus picked a hell of a game to regress to his midseason butter finger self.

-        Thank you to Korsak for giving us that one fleeting moment of joy.

-        I’m not sure where to start with the issues with our defense. Front 4 got zero pressure and running a soft zone when the QB is not pressured just leads to the easiest game of pitch and catch ever. We staunchly refused to change out approach even as the easiest TDs imaginable kept piling up.

-        Secondary compounded things by just not having a clue. Henderson sucks. Sayles had a rare bad game. It is a slight against out recruiting and coaching if Lokombo is legitimately the best option they could find at safety. He’s an adequate run stopper but is constantly lost in pass coverage. Hardrick on crutches would be more effective out there. 

-        Mace’s strategy was all over the place. I honestly did not hate the call to go for it on 3^rd on our own 24. It was desperation time. But then on the next drive with less time on the clock and in better field position he punted. Make up your mind, if you are going aggressive from the 24 you should be committed to that the rest of the way.

That was a pathetic way to end the season and I hope the memory of that loss fuels all those players and coaches in their offseason work.

But on the season…

As much as that loss hurts (and essentially handing Winnipeg a Grey Cup win over Nick Arbuckle) I have to consider this season a success and be appreciative to the whole team for what they accomplished.

What you saw on Saturday is what we were for 2 straight seasons. We couldn’t win after Labour Day. We did not make the playoffs. We sucked. For a rookie Head Coach I was realistically hoping for a 3^rd place finish and first round playoff exit (like Chamblin delivered in year 1). It may have been a very unconventional way to get there but if you had told me at this time last year that we’d have a home playoff game in 2024 and play in the West final I would have laughed at you and done my best Jim Mora impression. 

Mace raised the bar and got us back to where we should be. His job is far from done but he took some massive steps forward in 2024. He needs to improve if we want to take another step in 2025. His assistant coaches need to improve. This roster needs to be improved. But I give full credit to Mace. After 2 years of just hating Rider football, we got a season with some actual reasons to cheer. 

Saturday sucked… but for once we have reason to believe that next season won’t.

Riders vs. Bombers: West Final 2024

It’s the biggest football game for the Riders since 2021. The two top teams in the West clash on Saturday. The winner gets a plane ticket to Vancouver and a shot at the Grey Cup. The loser gets a plane ticket home and the boos and jeers of opposing fans (and possibly their own). 

Both teams took very different paths to get here. The Bombers started off 2-6 before turning things around and going 8-1 down the stretch on route to a very wind-aided first place finish. The Riders started 5-2, took 2 months of and then finished 4-1 down the stretch. At various points of the season both teams looked destined to miss the playoff completely, finish first place and everything in between. 

For all the momentum and confidence the Riders come into this game with, this will not be easy. We don’t win in Winnipeg (I mean no one in Winnipeg can be considered to be winning but I am talking literally). The last time the Riders won in Winnipeg most of the people in 8^th grade in the Manitoba school system were still in 8^th grade. I think this is the most beatable the Bombers have been since 2018 but they are still a very good team and have no intention of just handing us the game. 

There are a couple ways you could interpret the recent history between these 2 teams depending on your biases. You could rightly argue that the Bombers beat the Riders the last 2 times they played and pretty much anytime we play in Winnipeg. You could also rightly argue that the Riders lost the last 2 games by a combined 7 points and that includes a 5 point loss in Winnipeg when we were forced to start Zerr and Jones at guard. The Bombers allow an average of 20.3 points per game (best in the CFL), we have exceeded that twice. We are also the only team to hang 30 on them in the back half of the season. While the Bombers are rightly favoured, this is not as lopsided a match-up as it may have been in previous years. 

The Bombers' biggest strength is their defense. They are what has powered their turnaround. They are as stingy as they come. Trevor Harris and the offense will have their work cut out for them. I don’t think we need to overcomplicate the game plan though. For as good as that defense is they are #6 against the run. We brought AJ Ouelette in specifically for this, let’s make full use of him. Mix in some Armstead but for all the talk of a dual threat rush attack this is the AJ show with spot appearances by Armstead. We ran just 9 times in the Banjo Bowl loss. That is almost criminal and can't be repeated. But we will have to pass, against the best pass D in the CFL. We will have as good of an OL as we could hope for this time of year (minus Reid) and Harris protects the ball better than anyone. We will likely have to settle for more FGs than I would like but in this one, take the points. Best way to deal with a noisy crowd is to shut them up by scoring.  

Defensively we get to face the Most Okayest Player Nominee (4 TDs and playing on the 7^th ranked offense is not outstanding) and Zach “if you sneeze on me I will cry and drop like I was shot” Collaros. Two things are true about this Winnipeg offense. 1 – It sucks. 7^th in points scored, 8^th in passing, 5^th in sacks allowed. 2 – at any moment an offense featuring Collaros, Olivera and Lawler could go off. In the words of Toby Keith “May not be good as a I once was, but I’m as good once as I ever was”. The key comes in shutting down Olivera and putting pressure on Collaros. I am not worried about Olivera rushing. He doesn’t rush against us, no one does. But where he killed us was in check downs and dump passes. We can’t allow easy completions and first downs to him our LBs need to shut that down. We need our front 4 to get pressure. Collaros was sacked more than any QB this season. Mostly we just need to stick true to what got us here. At our core this defense exists to stop the run and force turnovers. That’s how we win Saturday. If we can force turnovers we will win. 

I do think special team could play a role in this. Sergio Catillo missed 13 FGs this season and was the least accurate kicker not named Bede (Bede being headed for the unemployment line this offseason). I have faith in Lauther. I would be curious how much fans Bombers faithful are putting in Sergio. 

At the start of this season I had this team on the Cory Chamblin (or Chamberlain as he prefers to be called) arc. Season 1 is about stabilizing and getting back to the playoffs but year 2 is where things really take off. But as this season has progressed you can’t help but wonder if we are on the Kent Austin arc  instead. 

The Riders have been very successful this fall when I pick them to lose so I am not changing things now. But I will say that I am not just picking them in this space out of superstition. As much as I hate to admit it, I do think the Bombers win. We match up well but Winnipeg has been a house of horrors for us (as it is for its residents). Until I see evidence to the contrary I will be prepping myself to open the consolation rye as opposed to the celebratory rye. Game will be a dramatic back and forth affair that will come down to the 4^th quarter but… 

Bombers by a late Lawler TD.