Truth be told, the introduction of Jeremy O’Day and Corey Mace was necessarily combative.
Their CFL playing careers coincided on opposite sides in 2010, during a peak period in the Saskatchewan Roughriders/Calgary Stampeders rivalry.
As a perennial All-CFL centre, O’Day’s responsibilities called for routine collisions with rival defensive linemen — such as Mace, whose first season of Canadian professional football was the last on the gridiron for O’Day.
Round 1 went to Saskatchewan, which won 43-37 in overtime on Sept. 17, 2010 at historic Mosaic Stadium.
When the teams met on the same turf four weeks later, Calgary prevailed 34-26 — a key development being Mace’s 60-yard fumble return for a fourth-quarter touchdown.
The play began when O’Day snapped the ball to Darian Durant. The Roughriders’ quarterback was promptly rocked by a blitzing defensive back, Milt Collins, who dislodged the football.
Mace, who had been battling with O’Day at the line of scrimmage, scooped up the loose ball and enjoyed a pleasant sprint to the north end zone.
“I’m still mad about that, I guess I would say,” O’Day joked on Tuesday after it was announced that he and Mace had signed two-year contract extensions with the Roughriders. Both pacts will take effect after the 2026 season.
The Roughriders and O’Day reached their first contractual arrangement on Feb. 26, 1999, after he had spent his first two CFL seasons with the Toronto Argonauts.
Mace followed a comparable path — Toronto to Saskatchewan — in late November of 2023, when he was hired by the Roughriders’ Vice-President and General Manager as the community-owned CFL team’s 48th Head Coach. Mace had spent the previous two seasons as the Argonauts’ Defensive Co-ordinator.
“It started with a conversation over the phone when we were interviewing (prospective) head coaches for the job here,” O’Day recalled. “After that conversation, you wanted to talk to him more. It led to a FaceTime/Zoom call with him and then an interview in person.
“He was the exact same person from the first call. He’s not fake in any way. He’s authentic, genuine, a very hard worker, motivated, awesome to work with. He’s fun to come to work with every day.
“He has just been great for the organization. Players love him. He loves the players. I certainly enjoy having him around. He’s a lot of fun.”
Fun is one way of describing the vibe in Riderville, considering the team’s ascending fortunes.
On Friday, the Roughriders clinched first place in the CFL’s overall standings and hosting privileges for the Western Final (Nov. 8, 5:30 p.m., Mosaic Stadium) by defeating the visiting Argonauts 27-19.
Saskatchewan had previously won the West Division pennant in 2019, during O’Day’s first season as the full-time GM. (He had served on an interim basis for the latter half of the 2015 campaign.)
The 2019 Roughriders won 13 games. This year’s edition carries a 12-4 slate into Friday’s game against the host Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
O’Day has just become the second Roughriders GM with seasons of 13 and 12 wins (and counting) to his good name. With future Canadian Football Hall of Famer Ken Preston in charge, Saskatchewan won 13 games in 1969 and a team-record 14 the following year.
Comparably, Preston and O’Day are the only GMs to guide Saskatchewan to the CFL’s best record. The Preston-led Roughriders were the pace setters in 1968, 1969, 1970 and 1976. Under O’Day, a 49-year wait ended on Friday at 10:04 p.m.
Of the 45 players who dressed for Saskatchewan against Toronto, 41 joined the team under the administration of O’Day — who is always quick to deflect the credit to the Assistant GMs (Kyle Carson and Paul Jones) and Larry Dean (Player Personnel Co-ordinator).
As an example of O’Day’s acumen, consider the acquisition of Mario Alford.
He was obtained from the Montreal Alouettes for a fifth-round draft choice on July 3, 2022. The following November, he was named the CFL’s Most Outstanding Special Teams Player.
Nice deal, that.
Alford, when asked on Tuesday about the extensions awarded to O’Day and Mace, replied: “That’s huge. They’ve done a great job in this organization. We’ve been to the West Final back-to-back. That just tells you how hard they work and how they put the team together.”
Alford is one of many difference-making players O’Day and associates have brought to Saskatchewan from other CFL teams. We could publish a scroll of names that includes Trevor Harris, A.J. Ouellette, Jermarcus Hardrick, Jameer Thurman … the list goes on.
And then there are the Canadians. Seventeen players who have been drafted by this regime are part of the equation in some form.
The emergence of Samuel Emilus, a two-time 1,000-yard receiver who has 588 yards in just seven games this season, exemplifies the Roughriders’ skill and vision at the draft table.
This season, KeeSean Johnson and Dohnte Meyers have both exceeded 1,000 receiving yards. They debuted as CFLers in 2024 and, well, look at them now. (See also: Defensive back Rolan Milligan Jr., 2021.)
Johnson and Meyers are part of a receiving corps that has been in flux for much of this season — and most of 2024 — due to injuries.
Over the same span, there have been several configurations of offensive linemen.
A bastion of stability is Regina Thunder graduate Logan Ferland, who in 2024 was named the West’s Most Outstanding Offensive Lineman.
We could go on, but you get the idea. The talent is several layers deep.
With that and other factors foremost in mind, President-CEO Craig Reynolds initiated extension-related discussions with O’Day in late August. Once a new deal was consummated, O’Day made it a priority to secure Mace’s services through 2028.
With those announcements out of the way, the focus is now on the 2025 Roughriders’ penultimate regular-season game — to be played on Friday in Winnipeg.
Coincidentally, and rather fittingly, the Roughriders and Blue Bombers will collide 15 years to the day after Mace’s 60-yard fumble return.
Happy anniversary in advance to Coach Mace.
As for the GM, well, it should be noted that the Roughriders rebounded rather nicely from that Oct. 17, 2010 home-field loss to Calgary.
Five weeks later, O’Day and the Roughriders defeated the Stampeders 20-16 at McMahon Stadium to earn a berth in the 98th Grey Cup Game.
Everyone, it turned out, had something to celebrate.
A decade and a half later, that has not changed.