Jake Maier, who will start at quarterback for the Ottawa REDBLACKS tonight when they play host to the Saskatchewan Roughriders, has 13,122 career passing yards to his credit at age 29.<\/p>\n
When Trevor Harris celebrated his 29th birthday, his career yardage total was a comparatively paltry 705.<\/p>\n
He has certainly made up for lost time.<\/p>\n
The fourth-year Roughriders quarterback \u2014 who is in his 14th CFL season \u2014needs only 170 passing yards on Friday to assume sole possession of 12th on the league\u2019s All-Time list.<\/p>\n
Harris is poised to leapfrog Tom Clements, who registered the first 12,466 of his 39,041 career yards with Ottawa (1976-78) and Saskatchewan (1979). Clements compiled 17,002 yards in advance of his 29th birthday.<\/p>\n
Although Harris is not motivated by any statistic that does not appear in the win column, he appreciates the significance of an imminent ascent on a legend-laden list.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want to try and brush off any of those things, because when you start talking about 12th All-Time, that\u2019s pretty cool,\u201d said Harris, 40. \u201cA lot of really great quarterbacks have played up here, so it\u2019s humbling to hear that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Harris has been a teammate of two of the few quarterbacks who are above him on the yardage list \u2014 Henry Burris (third All-Time at 63,639) and Ricky Ray (fourth; 60,736).<\/p>\n
Ray and Harris both occupied the Toronto Argonauts\u2019 quarterbacks\u2019 room from 2012 to 2015. Ray was the starter for most of the first three years before encountering injury issues that opened the door for Harris to enjoy a breakout season in 2015, at 29.<\/p>\n
That year, Harris threw a league-best 33 touchdown passes \u2014 his career high to this point \u2014 and led the loop in completion percentage (71.0).<\/p>\n
Harris joined the REDBLACKS the following year and worked in tandem with Burris.<\/p>\n
While Smilin\u2019 Hank battled injuries at age 41, Harris earned East Division all-star laurels and led the CFL in quarterback efficiency rating (116.0). He attempted 330 passes, compared to 264 by Burris, during the regular season.<\/p>\n
Come playoff time, Burris guided Ottawa to back-to-back victories, including a 39-33 conquest of the Calgary Stampeders in the 104th Grey Cup Game.<\/p>\n
Burris earned Grey Cup MVP honours after throwing for 461 yards and three touchdowns \u2014 including the overtime winner \u2014 in what turned out to be his final game as a player.<\/p>\n
Grey Cup MVP accolades were graciously accepted by Harris after he quarterbacked Saskatchewan to a 25-17 victory over the Montreal Alouettes on Nov. 16 in Winnipeg.<\/p>\n
Harris could have opted for a storybook ending to his playing career, a la Burris, but instead signed a new contract with Saskatchewan.<\/p>\n
Good move.<\/p>\n
The first quarterback in Roughriders history to begin a season in his 40s, Harris carries a stratospheric efficiency rating (127.3) into Friday\u2019s game in Ottawa.<\/p>\n
He has thrown for 1,175 yards and become only the second quarterback in Roughriders history to hit 300-plus in each of the team\u2019s first three regular-season games. The first was Joe Paopao, in 1985.<\/p>\n
Moreover, Harris has thrown eight touchdown passes \u2014 and only one interception \u2014 while fashioning a typically top-tier accuracy rate (75.7 per cent).<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like I\u2019m still in my prime,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m just thankful that I\u2019ve been able to learn and grow and develop around a lot of good people who have taught me things.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been preparing for these years of my career for the last 10 years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Over that span, Harris has thrown most of his 212 career touchdown passes.<\/p>\n
He assumed sole possession of 14th on the CFL\u2019s All-Time list by passing for two scores last Friday against Toronto at Mosaic Stadium. Harris and Dieter Brock were tied at 210 when the game began.<\/p>\n
What is the secret to making all this happen at age 40?<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll have to thank Jesus Christ for a work ethic to keep grinding the way I have,\u201d Harris replied.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thank Tom and Suzanne Harris for good genetics to allow me to play at this stage of my career.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just glad that I\u2019ve listened and that I\u2019ve had the right people in my corner to help me \u2014 like Jake Kozens, my personal trainer \u2014 and other people who have helped me formulate the way I go about my off-seasons.<\/p>\n
\u201cGood genes, Jesus Christ, and the people around me.\u201d<\/p>\n
TREVOR HARRIS ON THE CFL\u2019S CAREER LISTS<\/p>\n
PASSING YARDS<\/p>\n
79,816 \u2014 Anthony Calvillo<\/p>\n
72,381 \u2014 Damon Allen<\/p>\n
63,639 \u2014 Henry Burris<\/p>\n
60,736 \u2014 Ricky Ray<\/p>\n
53,255 \u2014 Danny McManus<\/p>\n
52,867 \u2014 Kevin Glenn<\/p>\n
50,535 \u2014 Ron Lancaster<\/p>\n
45,198 \u2014 Bo Levi Mitchell<\/p>\n
43,857 \u2014 Matt Dunigan<\/p>\n
41,355 \u2014 Doug Flutie<\/p>\n
40,534 \u2014 Tracy Ham<\/p>\n
39,041 \u2014 Tom Clements<\/p>\n
38,872 \u2014 TREVOR HARRIS<\/p>\n
TOUCHDOWN PASSES<\/p>\n
455 \u2014 Anthony Calvillo<\/p>\n
394 \u2014 Damon Allen<\/p>\n
373 \u2014 Henry Burris<\/p>\n
333 \u2014 Ron Lancaster<\/p>\n
324 \u2014 Ricky Ray<\/p>\n
303 \u2014 Matt Dunigan<\/p>\n
293 \u2014 Kevin Glenn<\/p>\n
284 \u2014 Tracy Ham<\/p>\n
270 \u2014 Doug Flutie<\/p>\n
270 \u2014 Bo Levi Mitchell<\/p>\n
259 \u2014 Danny McManus<\/p>\n
252 \u2014 Tom Clements<\/p>\n
221 \u2014 Zach Collaros<\/p>\n
212 \u2014 TREVOR HARRIS<\/p>\n
ATTEMPTS<\/p>\n
9,437 \u2014 Anthony Calvillo<\/p>\n
9,138 \u2014 Damon Allen<\/p>\n
7,452 \u2014 Henry Burris<\/p>\n
7,303 \u2014 Ricky Ray<\/p>\n
6,689 \u2014 Danny McManus<\/p>\n
6,434 \u2014 Kevin Glenn<\/p>\n
6,233 \u2014 Ron Lancaster<\/p>\n
5,476 \u2014 Matt Dunigan<\/p>\n
5,339 \u2014 Bo Levi Mitchell<\/p>\n
4,943 \u2014 Tracy Ham<\/p>\n
4,854 \u2014 Doug Flutie<\/p>\n
4,700 \u2014 Kent Austin<\/p>\n
4,657 \u2014 Tom Clements<\/p>\n
4,535 \u2014 Dieter Brock<\/p>\n
4,474 \u2014 TREVOR HARRIS<\/p>\n
COMPLETIONS<\/p>\n
5,892 \u2014 Anthony Calvillo<\/p>\n
5,158 \u2014 Damon Allen<\/p>\n
4,982 \u2014 Ricky Ray<\/p>\n
4,649 \u2014 Henry Burris<\/p>\n
4,068 \u2014 Kevin Glenn<\/p>\n
3,640 \u2014 Danny McManus<\/p>\n
3,493 \u2014 Bo Levi Mitchell<\/p>\n
3,384 \u2014 Ron Lancaster<\/p>\n
3,184 \u2014 TREVOR HARRIS<\/p>\n
COMPLETION PERCENTAGE<\/p>\n
71.24 \u2014 Cody Fajardo<\/p>\n
71.17 \u2014 TREVOR HARRIS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jake Maier, who will start at quarterback for the Ottawa REDBLACKS tonight when they play host to the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":778143,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":["post-778142","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\/778142","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=778142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/778142\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/778143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=778142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=778142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=778142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}