hosting privileges for the Western Final (Nov. 8, 5:30 p.m., Mosaic Stadium)<\/a> by defeating the visiting Argonauts 27-19.<\/p>\nSaskatchewan had previously won the West Division pennant in 2019, during O\u2019Day\u2019s first season as the full-time GM. (He had served on an interim basis for the latter half of the 2015 campaign.)<\/p>\n
The 2019 Roughriders won 13 games. This year\u2019s edition carries a 12-4 slate into Friday\u2019s game against the host Winnipeg Blue Bombers.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Day 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.<\/p>\n
Comparably, Preston and O\u2019Day are the only GMs to guide Saskatchewan to the CFL\u2019s best record. The Preston-led Roughriders were the pace setters in 1968, 1969, 1970 and 1976. Under O\u2019Day, a 49-year wait ended on Friday at 10:04 p.m.<\/p>\n
Of the 45 players who dressed for Saskatchewan against Toronto, 41 joined the team under the administration of O\u2019Day \u2014\u00a0who is always quick to deflect the credit to the Assistant GMs (Kyle Carson and Paul Jones) and Larry Dean (Player Personnel Co-ordinator).<\/p>\n
As an example of O\u2019Day\u2019s acumen, consider the acquisition of Mario Alford.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s Most Outstanding Special Teams Player.<\/p>\n
Nice deal, that.<\/p>\n
Alford, when asked on Tuesday about the extensions awarded to O\u2019Day and Mace, replied: \u201cThat\u2019s huge. They\u2019ve done a great job in this organization. We\u2019ve been to the West Final back-to-back. That just tells you how hard they work and how they put the team together.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alford is one of many difference-making players O\u2019Day 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 \u2026 the list goes on.<\/p>\n
And then there are the Canadians. Seventeen players who have been drafted by this regime are part of the equation in some form.<\/p>\n
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\u2019 skill and vision at the draft table.<\/p>\n
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.)<\/p>\n
Johnson and Meyers are part of a receiving corps that has been in flux for much of this season \u2014\u00a0and most of 2024 \u2014 due to injuries.<\/p>\n
Over the same span, there have been several configurations of offensive linemen.<\/p>\n
A bastion of stability is Regina Thunder graduate Logan Ferland, who in 2024 was named the West\u2019s Most Outstanding Offensive Lineman.<\/p>\n
We could go on, but you get the idea. The talent is several layers deep.<\/p>\n
With that and other factors foremost in mind, President-CEO Craig Reynolds initiated extension-related discussions with O\u2019Day in late August. Once a new deal was consummated, O\u2019Day made it a priority to secure Mace\u2019s services through 2028.<\/p>\n
With those announcements out of the way, the focus is now on the 2025 Roughriders\u2019 penultimate regular-season game \u2014\u00a0to be played on Friday in Winnipeg.<\/p>\n
Coincidentally, and rather fittingly, the Roughriders and Blue Bombers will collide 15 years to the day after Mace\u2019s 60-yard fumble return.<\/p>\n
Happy anniversary in advance to Coach Mace.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Five weeks later, O\u2019Day and the Roughriders defeated the Stampeders 20-16 at McMahon Stadium to earn a berth in the 98th Grey Cup Game.<\/p>\n
Everyone, it turned out, had something to celebrate.<\/p>\n
A decade and a half later, that has not changed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Truth be told, the introduction of Jeremy O\u2019Day and Corey Mace was necessarily combative. Their CFL playing careers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":215095,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-215094","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cfl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-canadian-football-league","11":"tag-canadianfootballleague","12":"tag-cfl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=215094"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215094\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/215095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}