Roughriders hit the field for Day 1 of regular season practice

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4 days ago

Trevor Harris felt like a kid on Christmas on Sunday.
With the CFL pre-season in the books, the Saskatchewan Roughriders quarterback — back for his 13th season in the CFL — and the rest of his teammates hit the field at Mosaic Stadium for Day 1 of practice in Week 1 of a brand-new season.
'Everybody kind of longs for that feeling of waking up Christmas morning not knowing what Santa Claus brought you,' Harris said ahead of Saskatchewan's season opener on Thursday (7 p.m., TSN) against the visiting Ottawa Redblacks. 'And that's what football season is. It still gives me butterflies in my stomach coming out here to practice every single day.'
For Harris, who is one of Saskatchewan's many returning veterans, he's grateful to be back under centre for a third year with the Roughriders after missing time with separate knee injuries in back-to-back years.
'When you strap the helmet on, you feel like you're a kid out here,' said Harris, who celebrated his 39th birthday on Saturday. 'I don't feel my age.
'There's been a lot of times where I didn't know when the next snap (would be) or if it was going to happen, or when it was going to happen, and a lot of times where I thought it was going to be done.
'I'm just really, really thankful that I'm here and getting the opportunity to be the quarterback this franchise. It's something that I'll never take for granted.'
Following two pre-season games and an 18-day training camp, the Roughriders were forced to make roster decisions on Saturday as the team cut 17 players, added 11 to the practice roster, returned five to school and suspended one.
And while it was an exciting day for some of the players to find out they had made the team, there were also some tough conversations with the players who were let go.
'You get to know these guys on a little bit of a deeper level and you know that's our decision to do that, knowing that the inevitable of just making final cuts, but it never makes it easier,' said Roughriders head coach Corey Mace. 'It's not an awesome day, until you get that first team meeting.'
While the biggest names who were released were twin linebackers Justin and Jordan Herdman-Reed, the Roughriders found a way to keep all four quarterbacks on the roster with Harris, Jake Maier, Tommy Stevens and Jack Coan all sticking around.
'When you have good quarterbacks, you don't let them go,' said Harris. 'I think that there's quite a few guys that could be franchise quarterbacks in that room.
'I think we're all learning from each other, and I think that everybody's better than us in some way, and in that, we're always learning.'
While Harris is the unquestioned starter, Maier provides solid experience as a backup while Stevens will handle short-yardage duties. Coan, in his second year, appears to be a promising prospect the Roughriders want to keep around to develop.
'I thought Jack played a really good pre-season game, and he's been showing his skill set throughout camp and truthfully throughout his time with us since he's been here,' said Mace. 'So, we wanted to see if there was a way that we can get all four and glad that we got that done to have those guys here.'
While many are predicting Saskatchewan to have a strong season this year, Harris says it's important for the group to focus on one day at a time. However, they aren't shying away from the high expectations either.
'It's about building that great team from Day 1,' said Harris. 'I think a lot of times people do talk about the expectations or whatever, but ultimately, it's how we perform and how we build and how we grow as a team each and every day.
'But if you have expectations, that means you've done something right in the past, and you're going in the right direction. So I think we're in going in the right way.'
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