{"id":250967,"date":"2025-10-30T22:00:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-30T22:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/250967\/"},"modified":"2025-10-30T22:00:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T22:00:08","slug":"wests-most-outstanding-offensive-lineman-falls-for-a-most-outstanding-prank","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/250967\/","title":{"rendered":"West\u2019s Most Outstanding Offensive Lineman falls for a most outstanding prank"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the 11th time, a Saskatchewan Roughrider has been named the CFL West Division\u2019s Most Outstanding Offensive Lineman.<\/a><\/p>\n

It is doubtful that any of the first 10 notification processes unfolded in a manner that is comparable to what the current right tackle experienced the other day.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a little scary from J.O. and Corey,\u201d Jermarcus Hardrick, nicknamed Yoshi<\/a>, said on Thursday, referencing Jeremy O\u2019Day (Vice-President of Football Operations and General Manager) and the division\u2019s 2025 Coach of the Year, Corey Mace.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThey were like, \u2018Hey, we\u2019ve got a meeting with you.\u2019 I walked in and J.O. walked down the hall and I sat with Mace. He was just quiet. Then J.O. walked in and said, \u2018Yosh, I\u2019m sorry it had to come to this \u2026\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cThey both put their heads down and my lip started quivering. I thought I was really in trouble.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen they said, \u2018You\u2019re the West\u2019s Most Outstanding Offensive Lineman,\u2019 so we hugged each other.<\/p>\n

\u201cI told them \u2018thank you for everything.\u2019 I thanked them for the chance and for believing in me after the injury.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hardrick, whose 2024 season was limited to five games by a quad injury, rebounded with a flourish in 2025 for a Saskatchewan team that finished first overall in the league and is now preparing to play host to the Western Final (Nov. 8, 5:30 p.m., Mosaic Stadium).<\/a><\/p>\n

The team\u2019s success has helped Mace and Hardrick become second-time CFL Awards finalists.<\/p>\n

As a member of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, Hardrick received divisional top-lineman laurels in 2023. He signed with Saskatchewan as a free agent on Feb. 13, 2024.<\/p>\n

Mace has been named the division\u2019s top coach in both his seasons with the Roughriders.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think most coaches would tell you we look at that as a team award, an organizational award,\u201d Mace said. \u201cSo much goes into it. I\u2019m humbled just to represent the organization.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moreover, he is delighted that Hardrick will carry Saskatchewan\u2019s colours at the awards gala during Grey Cup Week in Winnipeg.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think everybody in the league knows how good he can be \u2014\u00a0how good he is,\u201d Mace said. \u201cI\u2019m just so proud of him, with how things ended for him last year and the work that he put in to get back on the field.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, the way he\u2019s been playing this year hasn\u2019t gone unnoticed. It\u2019s well-deserved. There\u2019s a lot of really good offensive linemen in the league and, truthfully, on our team, but Yosh has kind of been playing at a different clip.\u201d<\/p>\n

With Hardrick and Logan Ferland on the roster, Saskatchewan boasts the past three Western representatives for the top-lineman award. Ferland was the 2024 nominee.<\/p>\n

Hardrick and Ferland followed Roger Aldag (1986, 1988), Vic Stevenson (1992), Andrew Greene (2000, 2003), Gene Makowsky (2004, 2005, 2008) and Brendon LaBatte (2013) as finalists from the Roughriders.<\/p>\n

Aldag (1986, 1988), Greene (2003), Makowsky (2004, 2005) and LaBatte (2013) went on to win the league award.<\/p>\n

The 39-year-old Mace is in the running to become the eighth Roughrider to be named Coach of the Year. The winners to this point are Steve Owen (1962), Eagle Keys (1968), Joe Faragalli (1981), John Gregory (1989), Kent Austin (2007), Corey Chamblin (2013) and Chris Jones (2018).<\/p>\n

Mace and the Montreal Alouettes\u2019 Jason Maas are the finalists for the second year in a row.<\/p>\n

\u201c(Mace) is awesome,\u201d Roughriders quarterback Trevor Harris said. \u201cHe\u2019s just one of those guys where we have tons of fun, but he commands a lot of respect.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s quite the coach. I\u2019m very, very happy that I\u2019ve had the opportunity to play football for him and be on his team.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s very deserving. I think it would be a surprise if he didn\u2019t win it. He has been awesome for us. He makes our place a better place to play and he makes this league great.<\/p>\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t be more happy for him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hardrick is delighted to receive individual accolades, but the priorities are clear and unwavering.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn a personal level, it means a lot \u2014\u00a0coming off an injury and getting back out there,\u201d he said, \u201cbut I didn\u2019t do it alone. There are the guys beside me, the coaches, the strength staff \u2026 everyone.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t care if I win any award if we get to win the Grey Cup. That\u2019s the major award.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For the 11th time, a Saskatchewan Roughrider has been named the CFL West Division\u2019s Most Outstanding Offensive Lineman.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":250968,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-250967","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\/250967","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=250967"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250967\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/250968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}