The Saskatchewan Roughriders had a storybook season in 2025, beating the Montreal Alouettes in Winnipeg to capture their fifth Grey Cup victory in franchise history.
While the team didn’t secure a CFL championship until mid-November, it was an earlier trip to Princess Auto Stadium that made them believe it was all possible.
“We’ve lost to Winnipeg quite often in big games and so to say that wasn’t important for us to win the series versus Winnipeg, I’d be lying,” O’Day told the media in Regina.
“Winning (the) Labour Day (Classic) and then going and winning the Banjo Bowl in Winnipeg, I think that’s kind of when we had the feeling of, ‘We’re going to take a run at this.’ Then it was just a matter of winning enough games to get first place and being able to do that a couple of weeks before the playoffs was huge.”
The Blue Bombers reached their first of five-straight Grey Cup appearances after knocking off Saskatchewan in the West Final at Mosaic Stadium in 2019. The Roughriders then went 2-11 in regular-season and playoff action against Winnipeg from 2021 to 2024, including two losses in the West Final.
Saskatchewan flipped the script in 2025, however, holding on to win the Labour Day Classic after momentarily coughing up a 14-point lead in the fourth quarter. Tevaughn Campbell sealed the 34-30 win when he intercepted Zach Collaros on a two-point convert attempt and returned the ball for a score with 30 second remaining.
Campbell had another monster performance in the Banjo Bowl the following week when he recorded two of four Saskatchewan interceptions off Zach Collaros and Chris Streveler to help secure a 21-13 victory.
It wasn’t the prettiest win — the Roughriders settled for five field goals — but that didn’t matter. It was Saskatchewan’s first Banjo Bowl victory since 2018 and it clinched the season series in favour of the Green and White, all but ensuring they wouldn’t have to return to Princess Auto Stadium in the postseason unless it was for the Grey Cup.
This is exactly what ended up transpiring after the Roughriders beat the B.C. Lions in the West Final. After many disappointing trips to the Manitoba capital, O’Day will always remember his team’s 25-17 championship win in Winnipeg over the Alouettes.
“After we knocked down that last pass, I don’t want to say I blacked out but it was chaos. We wanted to get down on the field as soon as possible because we were upstairs. You realize that the season’s over but you realize that you’ve just won the championship and so it’s elation, it’s excitement, a little bit of relief, lots of happiness,” he said.
“Then there’s some celebration, which I think everyone is well aware is important. These guys work so hard in what they do and to get the opportunity to celebrate a championship, it just doesn’t come around very often.”
For most of the past decade, the Blue Bombers have been the measuring stick for all other teams in the CFL, Saskatchewan included.
After posting the league’s best regular-season record and winning the 112th Grey Cup, the Roughriders have now taken over that role as top dogs.
The Saskatchewan Roughriders finished first in the West Division standings in 2025 with a 12-6 record, finishing first in the West Division for the first time since 2019. The team went on to defeat the Montreal Alouettes in the 112th Grey Cup in Winnipeg, marking the team’s first championship in 12 years. Trevor Harris went 11-5 as a starter, throwing for 4,549 yards, 24 touchdowns, and 11 interceptions.
The Roughriders ranked second in net offence, second in net defence, and tied for third with a turnover differential of plus-eight. The club’s leading rusher was A.J. Ouellette with 1,222 yards, leading receiver was KeeSean Johnson with 1,159 yards, and leading tackler was A.J. Allen with 91 tackles. Saskatchewan finished second in attendance with average crowds of 28,427, which was a 2.7 percent increase from the previous year.
