![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1783590790_152_indicator-big.gif\")
<\/p>\n\u201cMentally, I\u2019ve just got to go out there and stay within myself, don\u2019t try to be a hero and do my thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
\t<\/p>\n
Mitchell suffered a broken left ankle in a 14-13 loss to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers on July 5. The 36-year-old Mitchell was off to a torrid start this season, completing 78.2 per cent of his passes to go with 1,107 yards, nine touchdowns and one interception.<\/p>\n
Dolegala has been communicating with Mitchell all week and shared some of the advice he was given.<\/p>\n
\u201cBo has already told me to just be myself, don\u2019t try and be a hero,\u201d Dolegala said. \u201cHe knows how I play, he\u2019s like \u2018Jake, you\u2019re a gunslinger, we\u2019re both gunslingers.\u2019 <\/p>\n
\u201cHe just wants me to go out there, be myself, take what is given, but when the shots are there, don\u2019t be afraid to let it loose.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mitchell had surgery on the ankle on July 6 and is expected to make a full recovery. It\u2019s unknown if he will be able to return this season so head coach Scott Milanovich will depend on Dolegala and Tre Ford to run the Hamilton offence.<\/p>\n
While Ford, a free-agent signing from the Edmonton Elks in February, has been listed as the No. 2 quarterback on the Tiger-Cats depth chart this season, it was Dolegala that Milanovich chose to make Sunday\u2019s start.<\/p>\n
\u201c(Dolegala) just has more experience with what we\u2019re doing right now,\u201d explained Milanovich. \u201cMy hope when we brought Tre in is that he could kind of learn from Bo for a year and then if Bo chose to retire \u2014 I know there was talk of that last season\u2014 that he\u2019d be ready to compete next year. I just think Jake has a little bit more experience with what we\u2019re doing right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ford is a wild card for the Tiger-Cats with a style distinctly different from Mitchell and Dolegala. Known more for his scrambling and improvisation skills, Ford has been struggling with his consistency. <\/p>\n
In his first taste as a starter with the Elks, he was named their Most Outstanding Player and Most Outstanding Canadian in 2023, passing for 2,069 yards while rushing for 622 yards.<\/p>\n
He began the 2025 season as the Edmonton starter but lost the job to Cody Fajardo five games into the campaign. Ford was released by the Elks in January and subsequently signed with the Tiger-Cats in February.<\/p>\n
Saturday\u2019s game will be a bit of homecoming for Dolegala who spent his first two seasons with the Riders before moving on to the B.C. Lions in 2024 and the Tiger-Cats in 2025.<\/p>\n
While the talk in Hamilton is about who isn\u2019t playing, the talk in Saskatchewan is about someone returning to the lineup\u2014 running back A.J. Ouellette, who missed the last two games with an ankle injury.<\/p>\n
Since joining the Riders in 2024 as a free agent, Ouellette has become an integral part of the team, spearheading it to a Grey Cup title in 2025, with 1,222 rushing yards and eight touchdowns.<\/p>\n
Known for his toughness and intensity, Ouellette admitted that sometimes the Saskatchewan organization feels it must save him from himself when battling an injury.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, I think my first year here was a big indicator on that, coming back from injury too soon and re-aggravating all that stuff,\u201d said Ouellette, who missed 10 games in 2024 with an assortment of injuries. <\/p>\n
\u201cWorking with (head coach Corey) Mace for years now, he understands who I am. My main focus is to be able to play at my best and help the team win. But sometimes I\u2019ve got to kind of figure out if I\u2019m at my best or not.\u201d<\/p>\n
That doesn\u2019t mean sitting on the sidelines is any easier for Ouellette.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnytime you miss a practice, it eats at you so missing a game is 10 times worse. It\u2019s great to know that I\u2019ll be out there and hopefully execute my job and get a win,\u201d said Ouellette.<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 11, 2026.<\/p>\n
Jeff DeDekker, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cMentally, I\u2019ve just got to go out there and stay within myself, don\u2019t try to be a hero…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":795888,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":["post-795887","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\/795887","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=795887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/795887\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/795888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=795887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=795887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=795887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}