Riders work on establishing a fresh identity for the upcoming season
Building a team identity can takes weeks or months for a football team, but it’s vital to a team’s success.
Throw in a 20-month break and no preseason, it’s understandable that the Saskatchewan Roughriders are still finding their groove.
"It’s too tough to tell right now," Riders’ quarterback Cody Fajardo said. "The only way you can find out your true identity is what you do in the first couple of games, it’s not going to be you play one game and that’s your identity."
The Riders’ players arrived in Regina about a month ago, they’ve been on the field together for three weeks and now will play their first game that counts in almost two years coming up on Friday.
Head coach Craig Dickenson said the Riders are in the process of figuring out what kind of team they want to be.
"We’ve got a team that likes to work hard, we’ve got a team that likes to be around each other and then we’ll just see how it plays out over the next month or so," he said. "We’ll figure out who we are sooner or later, hopefully, it’s the best version of ourselves."
When the Riders’ last hit the field in 2019, it had established a stellar offence led by Fajardo. Many of the key pieces from that offence are back from 2021.
Fajardo will be back at quarterback, he’ll have Shaq Evans to throw to and William Powell steps back in at running back.
"We got a lot of guys back and we got a lot of new pieces that are going to be big contributors to us," said Powell, who finished with 1,093 rushing yards and 12 touchdowns in 2019. "We’ve seen flashes in camp from a multitude of different people, like newcomers that are joining our starting offence and I’m excited to see them play.
"We’ve just got to continue to get better. I’m excited to see everybody building our chemistry and getting into it."
Jason Maas takes over at offensive coordinator for the Riders after being hired prior to COVID-19 shutting down the Canadian Football League for 20 months.
Fajardo can’t wait to see Saskatchewan’s new offence in action.
"It’s incredibly exciting and I really can’t put it into words," he said. "We’ve grinded really hard for two years, just non-stop getting ready for this moment."
Fajardo, the West Division’s Most Outstanding Player in 2019, admitted that while he’s excited, he’s also a little nervous to hit the field against the B.C. Lions on Friday.
"I’m going to be super nervous, I might sail my first couple of passes because I’ll be so amped up with a sold out stadium, but we’ve got to put our emotions in check and we’ve got to go out there and play football like we’ve been doing all of our lives," he said.
The Riders host the Lions on Friday night at Mosaic Stadium. Kick-off is at 7:30 p.m.
HARKER WINS BACKUP QUARTERBACK JOB
Coach Dickenson revealed on Tuesday that Fajardo’s backup for Week 1 will be Isaac Harker. The second-year quarterback put together a strong showing over the past three weeks during training camp to beat out former NFL first round pick Paxton Lynch.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Indian envoy warns of 'big red line,' days after charges laid in Nijjar case
India's envoy to Canada insists relations between the two countries are positive overall, despite what he describes as 'a lot of noise.'
Former homicide detective explains how police will investigate shooting outside Drake's Bridle Path mansion
Footage from dozens of security cameras in the area of Drake’s Bridle Path mansion could be the key to identifying the suspect responsible for shooting and seriously injuring a security guard outside the rapper’s sprawling home early Tuesday morning, a former Toronto homicide detective says.
Stormy Daniels describes meeting Trump during occasionally graphic testimony in hush money trial
With Donald Trump sitting just feet away, Stormy Daniels testified Tuesday at the former president's hush money trial about a sexual encounter the porn actor says they had in 2006 that resulted in her being paid to keep silent during the presidential race 10 years later.
Alcohol believed to be a factor in boating incident after 2 men die: N.S. RCMP
Two Nova Scotia men are dead after a boat they were travelling in sank in the Annapolis River in Granville Centre, N.S., on Monday.
Northern Ont. woman makes 'eggstraordinary' find
A chicken farmer near Mattawa made an 'eggstraordinary' find Friday morning when she discovered one of her hens laid an egg close to three times the size of an average large chicken egg.
Susan Buckner, who played spirited cheerleader Patty Simcox in 'Grease,' dead at 72
Susan Buckner, best known for playing peppy Rydell High School cheerleader Patty Simcox in the 1978 classic movie musical 'Grease,' has died. She was 72.
Jeremy Skibicki has 'uphill battle' to prove he's not criminally responsible in Winnipeg killings: legal analysts
Accused killer Jeremy Skibicki could have a challenging time convincing a judge that he is not criminally responsible for the deaths of four Indigenous women, a legal analyst says.
Bye-bye bag fee: Calgary repeals single-use bylaw
A Calgary bylaw requiring businesses to charge a minimum bag fee and only provide single-use items when requested has officially been tossed.
CFL suspends Argos QB Chad Kelly at least nine games following investigation
The CFL suspended Toronto Argonauts quarterback Chad Kelly for at least nine regular-season games Tuesday following its investigation into a lawsuit filed by a former strength-and-conditioning coach against both the player and club.