CALGARY \u2014 Dedrick Mills\u2019 life on the football field reflects his life off it.<\/p>\n
The Calgary Stampeders running back is poised to claim the CFL\u2019s rushing title this season. <\/p>\n
His 1,225 rushing yards with two games remaining in the regular season are already the most by a Stampeder since Jon Cornish (1,813) in 2013.<\/p>\n
Mills was in a dark place in 2024. A friend and his cousin were killed in a car crash that spring in his home state of Georgia. <\/p>\n
Mills abruptly left the Stampeders mid-season for almost three weeks for what head coach and general manager Dave Dickenson later called a suspension.<\/p>\n
The 28-year-old Mills says his career output this season is because of \u201cme just changing things in my life that, I felt held me back.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t have a good first three years, dealing with a lot of family trauma, other things that were holding me back,\u201d Mills continued Friday. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis past off-season, I took time for myself to clear my mind, get closer to God, came back this year and everything just fell into place.\u201d<\/p>\n
He\u2019s also a man in love as he recently was engaged to Jasmine Murphy from Nova Scotia. The two met at a Calgary Surge basketball game.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve got a beautiful fianc\u00e9e now,\u201d Mills said. \u201cShe also helped me stay straight, keep me in this right path that I\u2019m on.\u201d<\/p>\n
The five-foot-10, 238-pound back out of Nebraska started 2025 with a bang when he scored three rushing touchdowns in Calgary\u2019s season-opening win over Hamilton.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was a statement game,\u201d Mills said earlier this season. \u201cI just wanted to come out and show everybody, let everybody know what they\u2019ve got to deal with all season, what\u2019s coming all season and just prepare themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
He\u2019s scored 10 rushing touchdowns so far this season. Mills has also added 227 receiving yards on 16 catches.<\/p>\n
Calgary (9-7-0) leads the CFL in rushing yards per game (126.7) and attempts (23.1) heading into Saturday\u2019s game against the Toronto Argonauts.<\/p>\n
After three weeks on the road, the Stampeders will play their final home game of the regular season and seek to cap it with a 6-3 record at McMahon Stadium.<\/p>\n
With quarterback Nick Arbuckle (shoulder) on the shelf, Jarret Doege will start for the Argonauts (5-12-0), whose season concludes Saturday because of a bye week to end the regular season.<\/p>\n
After claiming the Grey Cup two of the last three seasons, and reaching the East Division final four straight years, the Argonauts finish out of the playoffs for the first time since 2019. <\/p>\n
Toronto is still a dangerous opponent, Dickenson said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you play loose and no pressure, sometimes that frees you up,\u201d Dickenson said. \u201cI know they\u2019ll be well coached. I know there\u2019ll be coming in here with everything they got. They\u2019re going to try to finish the right way. It\u2019s our job to just maintain our standards, what Stampeder football is. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a big game for us. We had a win last week. We played good football Can we take it to the next level and get better so we can gain some momentum?\u201d<\/p>\n
Mills can expand his lead as rushing leader Saturday as Saskatchewan\u2019s A.J. Ouellette (1,179 yards) was rested Friday in Winnipeg to save him for the playoffs.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love when it gets cold. I love it when it starts raining a little bit too, because I know where the ball going at,\u201d said Mills, who has his eye on the 1,500-yard mark.<\/p>\n
Quarterback Vernon Adams Jr. said after he signed with Calgary, his off-season conversation with Mills indicated the running back was gearing up for a big season.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe told me that he was going to be better for the team,\u201d Adams said. \u201cHe told me his diet and his off-the-field activities, everything was going to be more locked in as a leader of a football team.\u201d<\/p>\n
The last Stampeder to earn the CFL rushing title was Ka\u2019Deem Carey (1,088) in 2022. Mills has posted three games of 100-plus yards this season.<\/p>\n
\u201cI do believe he\u2019s got a really nice focus, and he\u2019s getting some support outside of these walls and I think that\u2019s important for people,\u201d Dickenson said. \u201cHe\u2019s got a good thing going in his private life, his personal life. <\/p>\n
\u201cHappy with what he\u2019s doing and proud of him, but there\u2019s a lot more to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 17, 2025.<\/p>\n
Donna Spencer, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CALGARY \u2014 Dedrick Mills\u2019 life on the football field reflects his life off it. The Calgary Stampeders running…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":220685,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-220684","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\/220684","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=220684"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220684\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/220685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}