Photos: Saskatchewan Roughriders and Toronto Blue Jays. Photo edit: 3DownNation.
Saskatchewan Roughriders’ head coach Corey Mace can appreciate how Toronto Blue Jays’ manager John Schneider feels when he has to take a highly competitive, professional thrower out of a game.
During Game 4 in the American League Championship Series, Schneider visited Max Scherzer on the mound with two outs in the bottom of the fifth inning. The three-time Cy Young winner shouted at his manager and convinced him to stay in the game. The 41-year-old struck out Randy Arozarena swinging to end the frame on the way to a critical 8-2 win, which helped the Jays advance to the World Series.
“I think we had our Max Scherzer moment against Hamilton here and I apologize because it was a little emotional time for me. That was probably my Scherzer moment. Maybe he had his Trevor Harris moment — I did it first,” Harris said.
The 39-year-old was referring to Saskatchewan’s Week 11 game against the Tiger-Cats. With less than four minutes left in the fourth quarter, Saskatchewan held a 26-9 lead. Harris completed a pass to KeeSean Johnson for 30 yards and absorbed a hard hit from rookie Canadian linebacker Devin Veresuk in the process. Mace immediately pulled his franchise quarterback from the game.
“There’s a competitive nature. I took a big hit and I don’t want them to think it got to me in any way, so I popped right back up. I’m hearing the headset, ‘Jake Maier’s in the game, Trevor’s out.’ I waved Jake off, he started running off and Mace shoves him out there,” Harris said.
“I was like, ‘No.’ Then [offensive coordinator Marc] Mueller’s in there, ‘Trevor Harris is out of the game. You are out of the game.’ I was like, ‘This is not happening.’ I end up going off and [Mace] tries to put his arm around me and I did something I shouldn’t have done. I know he’s doing it because it was best for me.”
Harris has joked about fighting Mace for playing time after the Riders secured first place in the West Division. Mace said, as planned, him and his QB1 squared up and he came out clean from the fight for game reps as the veteran dressed as the third-string QB in Week 20 against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
“I would think that Max and Trevor are probably cut from the same cloth as far as a competitor goes,” Mace said. “You always want to make the right decision at the right time. For Trevor, there’s never a right time for that conversation, but I have to look at the totality of the team, so he gets it.”
Harris looked sharp in one-and-a-half quarters during Saskatchewan’s final regular season game in Week 21, completing 10-of-11 passes for 112 yards. He led three scoring drives — touchdown, field goal, touchdown — in his three possessions against the B.C. Lions and seems primed for a Grey Cup run.
Just like Scherzer with the Blue Jays, Harris’ sole focus with the Roughriders remains winning a championship in 2025 and giving all he has to accomplish greatness.