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The Saskatchewan Roughriders have got back the kicker who holds the team’s best field goal accuracy rate above 100 kicks.
One of the team’s best kickers of all time was dropped in February, after the Riders’ Grey Cup Championship season. Now, 35-year-old Brett Lauther is returning to the green and white after a trade with the Ottawa Redblacks.
The Redblacks, sitting with an abysmal 0-14 record with four games to go, have taken the Riders’ fifth round draft pick in exchange for Lauther. In his time there this season, he made 32 of 34 field goals over 12 games.
“As you would think, lots of hugs, lots of smiles,” said Roughriders head coach Corey Mace. “He’s meant a lot to this team in the previous years. And just to see some familiar faces and for them to see him, it was just a nice reunion.”
Originally hailing from Truro, Nova Scotia, Lauther went 295-for-360 on field goals in his previous eight seasons as a Roughrider.
Kicker Brett Lauther, shown speaking to media in a file photo from last fall, is returning to his team after less than a year away. (Corey Herperger/CBC News)
“I wouldn’t trade any of this for the world,” he said.
“It’s definitely surreal … Just trying to put my best foot forward, hopefully make some people proud. Being back here right now, it’s just a lot. I don’t even feel like this is real or even what I’m saying right now. I’m just so tired.”
Beyond the team’s field goal accuracy record, Lauther has registered 433 career kickoffs for a total of 7,292 yards, averaging 63 yards apiece.
“I’m just trying to kick the ball where it’s supposed to go. I mean, I tried to do the same thing last year,” Lauther said.
“Sometimes it’s worked out better than others. I think being healthy this year has been really good, just for my life outside of football and in football. It was definitely very difficult last year.”
Mace said Lauther won’t quite be hitting the field this week, and Dawson Hodge is confirmed in the lineup against the Calgary Stampeders on Friday.