The Montreal Alouettes’ improbable run to a Grey Cup championship seems to have inspired other downtrodden franchises to believe that they can also go on a magical run.
Trevor Harris, the franchise quarterback of the Saskatchewan Roughriders, believes that what we saw with his old team can be replicated with his new one and in short order.
“I absolutely know that we can win a championship in Saskatchewan,” Harris told 620 CKRM’s Sportscage. “365 days from now we’re going to be looking at green and white confetti coming down on us and we’re going to be celebrating.”
The 2023 season was one to forget for both Harris and the Riders. The team let another good start go to waste, finishing 6-12 after winning three of their first four games and missing the playoffs for the second consecutive season. Part of the reason for the collapse was the tibial plateau fracture Harris suffered in July, which caused him to miss the final 13 games of the season.
That collapse also led to Craig Dickenson being relieved of his duties as head coach in October after four seasons leading the Riders.
The team is now deep into a head coaching search with many candidates being linked to the job, including Hamilton Tiger-Cats’ senior assistant coach Scott Milanovich, who Harris seems keen to work with again.
“That would be a dream come true,” Harris said about Milanovich becoming the new head coach for the Roughriders. “But I have full faith in what (Riders’ general manager Jeremy O’Day) is going to do. I firmly believe they’ll get the right guy in the room.”
That right guy might be Milanvoich, who spent last year on-staff with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and took over as offensive play-caller when the team let go of Tommy Condell in August. The Ticats improved under Milanovich but fell to the eventual Grey Cup champion Alouettes in the East Semi-Final for the second straight year, failing to score a touchdown in the game.
The 50-year-old coached Harris for four seasons in Toronto from 2012 to 2015 and would help upgrade a Riders’ offence that struggled under first-year coordinator Kelly Jeffrey.
While Harris spent the majority of his time in Toronto as a backup to Hall of Famer Ricky Ray, it was under Milanovich that Harris became a household name, starting 13 games in 2015 in place of Ray, completing 71 percent of his passes for 4,354 yards, a career-high 33 touchdowns and 19 interceptions.
“I think I’d be in his plans but that’s going to be up to the head coach and (Jeremy O’Day),” said Harris. “It’s going to be a health question and a situation question.”
The 37-year-old signed a lucrative two-year contract with the Riders this past winter but has bounced around the league with stops not just in Toronto, but also in Ottawa (2016-18), Edmonton (2019-22), and Montreal (2022) during his 12-year CFL career.
