TORONTO \u2014 One more yard would\u2019ve made Isaiah Smith\u2019s solid debut as a CFL starter an even more memorable one.<\/p>\n
The Canadian rookie running back ran for 99 yards in his first CFL start Saturday night, helping Toronto earn a 39-20 home win over Hamilton. <\/p>\n
But in the fourth quarter, Smith reeled off a 10-yard run to the Tiger-Cats\u2019 one-yard line that set up Chad Kelly\u2019s touchdown run to round out the scoring. That yard would\u2019ve not only put Smith at 100 for the game but resulted in his first CFL touchdown.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat (100-yard game) would\u2019ve been a milestone I would\u2019ve loved (to achieve),\u201d Smith said. \u201cBut I\u2019ve got plenty more weeks in the season to try and get it so that\u2019s what the goal is going to be.\u201d<\/p>\n
Toronto selected the six-foot, 230-pound Smith in the second round (11th overall) of the 2026 CFL draft. The 23-year-old Burlington, Ont., native ran for 880 yards on 141 carries (6.2-yard average) with five touchdowns over 21 games at Guelph and was the OUA\u2019s top rookie in 2022 with 495 yards on 85 carries (5.8-yard average) and three TDs in seven contests.<\/p>\n
Heading into Saturday\u2019s game, Smith had rushed for 116 yards on 31 carries (3.7-yard average) in spot duty behind rookie starter Sam Hicks. But Toronto went bigger against Hamilton, placing the five-foot-nine, 190-pound Hicks (team-high 383 rushing yards, 5.9-yard average) on the practice roster, promoting Qualan Jones (five foot 10, 242 pounds) from the PR to the active roster for his first CFL regular-season game while installing Smith as the starter.<\/p>\n
The roster shuffling resulted in Toronto rushing for a season-high 145 yards. Jones ran nine times for 37 yards versus Hamilton as the Argos improved to 4-0 this season when they\u2019ve recorded 100 or more rushing yards in a contest.<\/p>\n
But both Smith and Jones were especially effective in the fourth quarter with Toronto leading 25-20. Smith ran five times for 58 yards while Jones registered five carries for 29 yards.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt (CFL start) was actually amazing,\u201d Smith said. \u201cIt was like a dream come true, something I\u2019d been dreaming of all of my life and it was good to finally work for something that you want.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen it comes and it\u2019s here, God willing, you go out there and do your best. That\u2019s all you can ask for really.\u201d<\/p>\n
Smith and Jones gave Toronto\u2019s ground game a noticeable boost. The Argos entered Saturday\u2019s game standing eighth overall in CFL rushing (79.7 yards per game) while Hamilton\u2019s defence was ranked fourth against the run (91.2 yards per game).<\/p>\n
\u201cI know it was said on our draft that you would never take a Canadian running back that high,\u201d said Toronto head coach Mike Miller, who\u2019s also the club\u2019s offensive co-ordinator. \u201cWell, he\u2019s a special back \u2026 he\u2019s just getting started.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a very hard worker, smart kid, he plays with great passion. Kadeem Carey (Toronto\u2019s running backs coach) does a great job with those running backs. He (Smith) worked hard and so did Qualan, they did a nice job.\u201d<\/p>\n
Toronto receiver Damonte Coxie, who had two TD catches versus Hamilton, agreed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought (Smith) played really well, both of them,\u201d Coxie said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to build on that.\u201d<\/p>\n
With last week\u2019s win, Toronto (5-5) assumed sole possession of second in the East Division with a game in hand on Hamilton (4-7). The Argos tied their season series versus the Ticats heading into their final regular-season meeting Sept. 7 in the annual Labour Day clash at Hamilton Stadium.<\/p>\n
This season, Smith has rushed for 215 yards on 46 carries (4.7-yard average) while adding six catches for 77 yards. He has also registered seven kickoff returns for 126 yards.<\/p>\n
Toronto visits the Calgary Stampeders on Saturday afternoon. But a Labour Day victory would give the Argos the season series with Hamilton and the tiebreaker should the two teams end the year tied.<\/p>\n
\u201cHonestly, these guys respond well to that, so we\u2019re just ready to go out there,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 24, 2026.<\/p>\n
Dan Ralph, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO \u2014 One more yard would\u2019ve made Isaiah Smith\u2019s solid debut as a CFL starter an even more…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":870128,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":["post-870127","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\/870127","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=870127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870127\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/870128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=870127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=870127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=870127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}