Thoughts and observations as Rider Camp opens

Harris smiled.

“I didn’t want the hair to smudge your autograph,” he said.

Harris was at the kickoff rally at Mosaic Stadium along with quarterbacks Mason Fine, Shea Patterson and receivers Jake Wieneke and Shawn Bane Jr. It was a first for the Riders, with the CFL Draft Party and the autograph session being exclusive for season ticket holders.

Harris said when he signed with the Riders, he wanted to build relationships with other players in the locker room because that type of team cohesion wins teams Grey Cups. Harris was active in involving his teammates in the audience question and answers period and talked about the responsibility of leading the team in a marketplace that takes its football seriously.

I was neutral on the signing of Harris in free agency, even though the Riders made it clear they were moving on from Cody Fajardo. Fajardo started the ball rolling on his leaving the year before when he complained about his receivers and not being able to get the deep ball.

People I talk to are split as to whether Fajardo was just a one-year wonder who was stuck when opposing defensive coordinators caught on to how he eluded the rush, or whether Fajardo was the victim of a Swiss Cheese offensive line.

The best locker rooms or offices are where everyone is pulling together and Ron Lancaster, the best quarterback in Rider history never threw his teammates under the bus when they lost. Lancaster took responsibility and his teammates responded to that, since he had their backs publicly, they could bust their backs to help him on the field.

Harris is not a scrambler like Fajardo, but he has a quick release that can compensate for a porous offensive line. No one should doubt Harris’ ability to move the team between the 30-yard lines, but he had trouble with touchdowns unless they were through the long ball.

Wieneke will be the number one receiver, and the Riders signed Derrell Walker formerly of Edmonton, to help. Walker played with Harris when both were in Edmonton and Harris will need speedsters to help take the pressure off and help him hit the long passes he can do quite nicely.

The Riders seem about to run more than they did last year, and they have two decent running backs to start the season off. New offensive coordinator Kelly Jeffrey said he wanted to see an open competition at running back, noting Jamal morrow is more a hybrid of receiver and running back while Frankie Hickson came in when Morrow injured his hand can came away with 533 yards while Morrow rushed for 666.

The Riders also have BJ Emmons, Javier Hawkins, Rodney Smith and Jace Jordan along with Kienan LaFrance and 2023 fourth round draft pick Thomas Bertrand-Hudon competing for spots. If the Riders can’t at least run the ball, 6-12 may look like a great season.

The Riders brought Anthony Vitale in to coach the offensive line and the Riders seem to be hoping this will help raise the level of play of the offensive line. The problem is that until the line faces an opposing defensive rush, it is tough to tell if a year of experience will help or not.

The Riders rookie camp opens May 10-12 in Saskatoon with the main camp opening on May 14^th. The Riders will have to be at 85 players, not including territorial exemptions or draft picks so they will have to cut about 20 players before that happens.

A fair number of those will retire because they are either not in shape or they may be late coming up from the States so they will be placed on the suspended list. The Riders first home exhibition game comes May 27 when BC comes to town, then the Riders go to Winnipeg for a June 2 exhibition game with the season opening in Edmonton on June 11 and the Rider home opener is set for June 16.

The Rider AGM has not been held yet, but there are signs the Riders will see a loss of season ticket sales from 22,000 to 17,000. A lot of the drop is due to no Grey Cup being an incentive for fans to keep season, I suspect more is due to the way the team death spiraled through last season, combined with the sticker shock of concessions, merchandize and if you come to Regina from out of town, the cost of gas and everything else.

The Riders seem to have done market research and have unleashed a campaign to give season tickets a value-added component with things like the first CFL draft night where season ticket holders could gather in the Harvard Lounge at Mosaic Stadium and watch the draft and meet some Rider players.

The biggest thing will be how the team fares on the field and right now it seems fans are waiting to see how things unfold.GM Jeremy O’Day and head coach Craig Dickenson are in the last year of their contract and if the team does not improve its performance, then expect changes, perhaps even starting with Rider CEO Craig Reynolds who rolled the dice on Chris Jones and now has to hope O’Day learned enough to keep the Riders competitive.

The Riders gutted their off-field team during COVID and now are trying to rebuild the organization without losing fans. This gets tricky because some team moves from last season, like charging an extra $50 for printed season tickets put off a lot of fans.

Incidentally, tickets now are printed for no charge although the team is a fan of the Rider app where tickets can be electronically stored on your phone. A great idea except if you do not use the site often enough, you must get a new password every time you log on and as I have just discovered, my tickets are not showing up on my phone app.

While the Ticketmaster model of electronic tickets may save costs for the Riders, the fact of the matter is the demographics of the team fan base are getting older and those fans are at varying degrees of digital literacy. The Riders need to keep those fans while trying to bring in younger fans, although pricing may be an issue as fans or potential fans mull the relative costs versus the benefits of being a season ticket holder or even a one game ticket buyer.

The Riders got rid of their pocket paper schedules years ago, something which dismayed the mostly senior ladies of my condominium complex who would always ask me for the pocket schedules so they can put them on their fridges for when the games were being played.

They brought them back this year in a new format, which may help, but the Riders need to walk back some of their moves to bring back fans who think, quite correctly, that if the Riders will not make it easier for people to attend games or follow the team, then they will not.

The Riders draft class includes first round pick Luke Korte-Moore of UBC, a defensive lineman; Jaxson Ford DB from U of R; Matt Dean, linebacker from York: Bertrand-Hudon, a running back from Delaware Stare; Evan Foren, an O lineman from Queens and linebacker Nick Thomas from University of Manitoba. The Riders rolled the dice on offensive lineman Sidy Sow from Eastern Michigan selected in the fourth round of the NFL draft by the New England Patriots and Tavius Robinson, a linebacker from the University of Mississippi drafted in the fourth round of the NFL draft by the Baltimore Ravens.

Those two picks were flyers on those players who may never come to the CFL depending on what happens. Sometimes they do come back, but those players at a minimum will be gone for two to three years and even if cut by their NFL teams, others may pick them up.

The thing is the draft success may not matter if Brent Jones comes to the Riders being unable to get into medical school. Jones was the former U of R offensive center drafted by Calgary, won rookie of the year, then went to the NFL and made a fortune before coming back.

Jones’ wife is a teacher and Jones has a degree in engineering, but he wanted to try medicine and if he made it through the interview process, then start his first year of medical training.

The interesting thing is that even as part of that, Jones could still be in Regina for medical schooling and that may open a door to his being able to play and really solidify the offensive line. If that works, then the Riders have a definite shot at making a run at the playoffs.

That will not be clearer until at the very least June, which means the Riders must be hoping their offensive linemen actually got stronger, worked on their footwork and are dedicated to keeping Harris in the upright position.

When the CFL came back in 2021, I remember seeing the rookie camp and thinking either our offensive line is that bad or our defensive line that good. Turns out both was true and having the rookie camp in Saskatoon may help in quelling Regina fan discontent with the offensive line because out of sight, out of mind, the question of whether the Rider offensive line has improved will determine whether the Riders can make a run for the playoffs or just get ready to clear the decks for next offseason.

by Greg Urbanoski

Thoughts and observations as Rider Camp opens

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