By Mitchell Blair
For Riderville.com

Break out the Baconators!!! Wendy’s Friday Night Football makes its first and last appearance at Mosaic Stadium this year when the B.C Lions and the Saskatchewan Roughriders open the season to finish off Week 1 of the 2009 campaign.

The last time these two teams played was a night the Rider nation would love to forget as the Lions ended Saskatchewan’s chances of repeating as Grey Cup champs with a convincing 33-12 victory in the Western semi-final. That game still lingers in the memory bank of Rider defensive back Omarr Morgan.
  ”It stings to me. It’s in the back of your mind.” Morgan said. “They ended our season in front of our fans. You want to go out there and avenge that loss like what Montreal did last night to Calgary.”

A lot is being made of the losses the Lions suffered in the off-season as players like Cam Wake, Stefan Logan and Rob Murphy are no longer with them. It has some believing the Lions will not be their traditional strong selves in 2009, but Morgan isn’t buying that talk.
 “They still have guys like Geroy Simon and Paris Jackson and Brent Johnson.” Morgan said after Thursday’s short rundown. “They lost a lot of guys, but they still have core guys that make them great. You can’t think they aren’t as strong because when they have guys that I just mentioned, you know they are a good football team.”

Another guy not on that Lions team is receiver Jason Clermont. He now wears Rider green, but the Regina native doesn’t want to put any extra significance on this his first game against the team he used to call his for seven years.
 “I’m not looking at it as a nostalgic game or an emotional game.” Clermont said. ”I’m focussing on the task at hand and that is winning the football game. I’m having a tough time answering what its like playing my old team because that isn’t my focus, my focus is what I have to do to get this team a win. I will come out with a high level of intensity and emotion and I’m looking forward to just playing in a football game that matters.”

Quarterback Darian Durant is ready to get the season started under the lights in what is the CFL’s marquee game of the week.
“Its Friday night football, how can’t you be excited over that,” Durant said. “You always want to play on the biggest stage the game will give you and that’s what Friday night football is. It’s going to be a lot of fun.”

Durant also realizes that the season-opener is also a great chance to get an early jump on one of the team’s Western division rivals as victories against those teams could very well decide who finishes first and who finishes last in what is once again expected to be a very tight race throughout the year.
“You want to get off to a good start, especially at home.” Durant said. “Wins in July mean just as much as wins in November, so you want to get them when the opportunity presents itself. “


As for head coach Ken Miller, he is more than ready to kick the ball off and start the 2009 season after watching the other teams get off to a head start.
“The players are excited, I’m excited, the coaches are excited.” Miller said. ”We’re anxious to get it going.”

That is a statement that echoes across Saskatchewan as fans of the green and white wait with anticipation wondering what the 2009 season will bring.

The game will be on TSN starting at 7 pm local time. If you can’t watch it, 620 CKRM will have it all for you starting with the pre-game show at 4:30 followed by the play-by-play with Rod Pedersen and Carm Carteri.