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<\/p>\n\u201cI think everyone is excited to get after it for the first time.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\t<\/p>\n
There has been a lot of recent history between the two clubs as the Riders ended the Lions\u2019 season at Mosaic Stadium to punch their ticket to the Grey Cup.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Saskatchewan also won the regular-season series 2-1, with the only loss coming in the final week as the Riders rested a number of starters in the game.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know if we can call it a rivalry. They are our next opponent, so I hate them the most. Kudos to some former teammates I\u2019ve had over there in college,\u201d said\u00a0running back A.J. Ouellette, who was teammates with Lions\u2019 quarterback Nathan Rourke at Ohio University.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A lot of eyes will be on Rourke and the high-powered Lions offence to start the season. Rourke was named the CFL\u2019s Most Outstanding Player and Most Outstanding Canadian after a 2025 campaign that saw him pass for 5,290 yards and 31 touchdowns while adding 564 rushing yards and 10 scores on the ground.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are mobile quarterbacks out there who don\u2019t make the throws as well and I think he does both well,\u201d said\u00a0defensive end James Vaughters, who was one of the veterans the Riders brought in during free agency.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re looking forward to limiting him as much as we can and affecting him as much as we can. That\u2019s our job as a D-line.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Another new face on defence is\u00a0linebacker Josh Woods, who had spent five seasons with the Lions.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mace, who has now handed the defensive co-ordinator title to Josh Bell, admits this is an exciting matchup for defensive-minded coaches.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think every offence kind of brings something unique you get excited about from a defensive standpoint. Certainly Nathan Rourke coached by Buck Pierce, there is a lot of cool elements,\u201d Mace said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to be on it. We will see where we stand and how we feel with where we are at a defence. There\u2019s a few other elements to it. There\u2019s a different defence that is going to be presented out there. It\u2019s not a Corey Mace defence as everyone says. This is Bell and company, and it\u2019s going to be exciting.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
On offence, the Riders will once again be led by\u00a0quarterback Trevor Harris,\u00a0who is coming off one of the best seasons of his CFL career. He threw for 4,549 yards, 24 touchdowns and 11 interceptions.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Now on Saturday, he will get back to doing what he loves.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI get to play football. That\u2019s something that I think is one of my super powers is I just like to play ball. I like to be the quarterback, I like to lead and I like to be a part of something bigger than myself and that\u2019s a candle that burns bright no matter what,\u201d Harris, 40, said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cNo more evidence of that when we won the Grey Cup and I didn\u2019t really change how I felt about my career up to this point. I just like to play ball.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
He will have most of his weapons back from last season as KeeSean Johnson, Sam Emilus, Kian Schaffer-Baker and Dhel Duncan-Busby will all be back for another season with the Riders. The only new weapon joining the group this season is wide receiver Jaylen Johnson, who won a starting job after training camp and two preseason games.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Saturday\u2019s game will see the team unveil the 2025 championship banner and will also be the first game fans can legally tailgate at.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Harris is ready to get back playing in front of the Rider faithful once again.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m grateful we were able to have a championship brought to these people but at the same time, if we just bring one, I don\u2019t think we did them justice,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s on us to make sure we continue to raise the bar and continue to get better because that\u2019s what this fan base deserves.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI think everyone is excited to get after it for the first time.\u201d\u00a0 There has been a lot…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":735193,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":["post-735192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cfl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canadian-football-league","tag-canadianfootballleague","tag-cfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/735192","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=735192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/735192\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/735193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=735192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=735192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=735192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}