One of the best CFL quarterbacks of his generation – a possible Hall of Famer and someone who, at 39 years old, is a contender for Most Outstanding Player this season – still isn’t quite sure he’s “made it” yet.
Trevor Harris is authoring one of the best seasons of his 13-year career for the league-leading 7-1 Saskatchewan Roughriders. In his third season in green and white, he leads all QBs with a 119.7 efficiency rating and his 13 touchdown passes are tied for second.
Harris’ success dates back well before 2025. He entered the league in 2012 and is now 16th all-time in passing yards, fifth in passing yards per game, and second in career completion percentage. Harris has been a part of two Grey Cup champion teams (2012, 2016) and been an all-star twice (2016, 2024).
But he isn’t satisfied.
“I still feel like I’m constantly trying to prove myself,” the Edinboro University product said during the team’s bye week. “I think I’ll always feel that way and I think I still have a ton to prove in this league, obviously.”
Several years ago, Harris enlisted the services of Dr. Chantale Lussier, a mental performance coach he met while playing for the Ottawa RedBlacks back in 2018.
Dr. Lussier has worked with high-level athletes across multiple sports, including hockey and lacrosse. Harris said that the two have focused on how he can be the best, most authentic version of himself – both in the huddle and beyond.
“We’ve talked a lot about just being yourself,” he said. “What that looks like, and being able to exude confidence and understanding who you are.”
Harris allowed that he feels far more at ease with himself now than he did earlier in his career.
“When you grow as a person and get more and more comfortable in your own skin and as a leader, you can kind of assert what you want to have done in the locker room,” he said. “When you have a little bit more success, you can talk to the team.”
Roughriders head coach Corey Mace said that Harris’ approach sums up why he’s had so much success and longevity in a league notorious for cycling through quarterbacks.
“I had put him on a pedestal, and I needed a bigger one,” Mace said. “The way he sees the game, the way he takes care of everything that’s related to it, the intangibles and important things for us, how he is as a husband, how he is as a father, a man of faith. He checks so many boxes of what it looks like that we’re trying to say what a Roughrider is. He’s been incredible, and, obviously, he’s pretty good at football too.”
Harris’ touchdown-to-interceptions ratio this season is among the best of his career. He attributed that to the fact that, for the first time since 2017, he’s had the same system in consecutive seasons.
“It’s been really able to help me in terms of being able to process and start at a [higher] level coming into the season as opposed to just trying to learn the basics of a certain offence,” he said. “That’s been really helpful for me.”
Both Mace and Harris said it’s far too early to praise the Roughriders, and that there’s still plenty of work ahead of fall football. They still have areas of their game they want to clean up before November. The process is far from complete.
“If we want to be the team that accomplishes what we have set out, we’ve got to make sure we don’t settle,” Harris said. “That’s why I don’t think it’s important for us to look at the end result. We’re 7-1. That’s great, man. That is great, but really it’s about who we’re becoming in the process. You can kind of let up if you start patting yourself on the back and saying, ‘We’re 7-1 and we’ve done a good job.’ That’s not where we’re at.
“We want to make sure we stay true to the process, continue to press on the pedal, and understand that the team’s that’s going to accomplish what we want to accomplish is better than what we are right now.”
Much of that process is driven by an established veteran still intent on proving he belongs.
“I think that’s a trait of anybody, not even just in sport but anyone who wants to be great at something, they’re never complacent,” Mace said. “There’s always something that they’re chasing, whether that’s reality or something that’s self-talk to convince yourself that you’ve got another bar that you’ve got to cross. I think the greats do that, and certainly for him, if he wanted to call it and pack it in, I’m sure everyone would bring him up as one of the best quarterbacks to ever play up here.
“That’s not Trev. He’s got so much on his mind that he wants to accomplish. Truthfully, I don’t think he gets the respect he deserves anyways, so I’m happy he thinks like that.”