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<\/p>\nCoan, who has been with the Riders since 2024, will start his first career CFL game. The former Notre Dame Fighting Irish pivot has thrown for 153 yards and one touchdown when he has appeared in CFL contests in the past.<\/p>\n
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The Riders are coming off a 16-12 victory over the Montreal Alouettes on Saturday, which clinched their spot in the playoffs.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn this situation I just thought it was the right decision,\u201d Mace said.<\/p>\n
\u201cCertainly, I think Jack has earned an opportunity. With (Harris), he\u2019s had a great year. I think he\u2019s leading the league in passing, he\u2019s played every game he\u2019s been available. But we didn\u2019t put ourselves in a position to have a bye week and let the body rest up.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to centre Logan Ferland, it\u2019s an opportunity Coan has waited three years for.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s one of the first guys in here, just like the rest of the quarterbacks,\u201d Ferland said. \u201cLast guy to leave, works incredibly hard and just excited for his opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wide receiver Dhel Duncan-Busby called Coan a \u201ctrue leader\u201d with a similar mind to Harris on the field, adding the team has full faith in him under centre against the Edmonton Elks on Saturday.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf (Harris) has a question, he\u2019s running it through Jack,\u201d Duncan-Busby said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat just kind of goes to show how smart of a player Jack is. I think that Jack is ready for the opportunity and he\u2019s going to seize it.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the Riders have their playoff spot locked up, their division semifinal opponent is still to be determined<\/p>\n
A win by Saskatchewan on Saturday would clinch third place in the West Division and a road game against the second-seeded B.C. Lions.<\/p>\n
If the Riders fall to the Elks, however, they\u2019ll crossover to the East Division and will open the playoffs on the road against the Toronto Argonauts.<\/p>\n
After narrowly beating Montreal last weekend, Ferland said there\u2019s still a hunger to get their details ironed out before the post-season arrives.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have an extra week to get better,\u201d Ferland said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have an extra four days of practice to get better. We have an extra game to get better and build that chemistry. Just building on what we\u2019ve already created during the season, building on that and just getting better.\u201d<\/p>\n
Saskatchewan could see up to three quarterbacks take the field against Edmonton, with Brayden Schager upgraded to backup duties and Tommy Stevens in his usual spot for short yardage work.<\/p>\n
Schager has not seen the field for a CFL regular-season game. However, he did complete 24 of 37 passes with one touchdown and two interceptions in Saskatchewan\u2019s pair of pre-season games.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll see off of game flow,\u201d Mace said. \u201cWe\u2019ve given reps to Schager as well this week, we\u2019ll see how it goes. Last year we did end up doing that between Jake (Maier) and Jack (Coan).\u201d<\/p>\n
Several Riders did not practise on Wednesday, including Harris, wide receiver KeeSean Johnson and defensive back DaMarcus Fields, while running back A.J. Ouellette saw limited snaps.<\/p>\n
Mace, however, does not expect to rest the majority of his starters against the Elks.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wouldn\u2019t expect a full onslaught of a bunch of people,\u201d Mace said. \u201cThere\u2019s going to be probably three or four guys (sat). We\u2019ll see, I got another night to sleep.\u201d<\/p>\n
Saskatchewan takes on the Edmonton Elks on Saturday at Mosaic Stadium. Kickoff is scheduled for 1 p.m. <\/p>\n
\u2014 with files from 650 CKOM\u2019s Scott Roblin<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Coan, who has been with the Riders since 2024, will start his first career CFL game. The former…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":942040,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":["post-942039","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\/942039","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=942039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/942039\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/942040"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=942039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=942039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=942039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}