Notebook: It’s homecoming week for some Roughriders

Derek Dennis is set for a family reunion of sorts in Calgary.

The Saskatchewan Roughriders offensive tackle will be in Cowtown this weekend for the first time since signing with the CFL team as a free agent in the off-season. Dennis spent the previous two seasons with the Calgary Stampeders, who play host to the Roughriders on Saturday.

“Honestly, I’m approaching it as any other week,” Dennis said. “It may be a little emotional when I get there, but for right now, I’m just trying to control myself.

“I’ve still got a lot of friends on the team, especially all the stuff we went through last year with those guys after losing Mylan (Hicks, who was shot to death Sept. 25) and all that. Those guys, I treat them as family.

“I’m going to be excited to see a lot of them (and) excited to see some of the coaches. I’m just trying to prepare for this week as normally as possible.”

Dennis’ Twitter account would seem to suggest otherwise.

On Monday, he posted a GIF of a man rubbing his hands in anticipation. Dennis also had a running Twitter conversation through the off-season with Stampeders defensive end Charleston Hughes to set up their first on-field meeting as opponents.

Hughes’ status for Saturday’s game at McMahon Stadium isn’t clear — he has been battling an injury — so Dennis may not get his chance to face Hughes.

“If he plays, it’ll be fun,” Dennis said. “If not, then I’ll have fun with Alex (Singleton) and Micah (Johnson) and those guys.

“I know their games after seeing them for a year and a half. I know exactly the type of players they are, so I know it’s going to be a dogfight of a game. We’re going to be out there jawing, jaw-jacking, talking smack and I’m looking forward to it.”

That said, Dennis (who was named the CFL’s most outstanding offensive lineman last season) would still like to face Hughes (who’s one of the top defensive ends in the CFL).

“The last year and a half of practice, I used to always take it easy on him just because that’s my teammate,” Dennis said. “He’s not my teammate anymore, so I don’t have to take it easy on him. I was kind of amped up to get a chance to let him see how I really play because in practice, you don’t give them the full spectrum.

“Charleston swears up and down that he’s the greatest defensive end to ever play in the CFL, so it would have been nice to try to make him eat those words. If he plays, that’s great. If not, then they’ve got a couple other capable D-ends that can get the job done. I’m just looking forward to the challenge.”

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Denzel Radford is set for a real family reunion in Calgary.

The 23-year-old receiver will be playing a CFL game in his hometown for the first time Saturday — and he has tried his best to look after people.

“I was asking all the teammates for their tickets so I could accommodate all the people that I have coming,” said Radford, whose father, brother and sister are to attend the game along with Radford’s girlfriend, members of her family and some of his friends. “There’s probably 15 or 16 — a pretty good group.”

Radford was a member of the Montreal Alouettes before being acquired by Saskatchewan during training camp. Montreal’s first visit to Calgary this season is set for Sept. 29, so the trade means Radford gets to go home sooner rather than later.

“Obviously, I want to play well in front of my family and friends,” he said. “It’s going to be a big game for our team — probably the biggest game of the year so far for us. It just happens to be at home for me, so there’s a little added incentive to try and perform to my maximum ability.”

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Roughriders defensive end Willie Jefferson made a fashion statement during practice Wednesday.

Jefferson was the only player sporting the green pants that he normally would wear during a game. It was the first time this season that he has done that in a practice and he plans to continue it throughout the season.

“When I came into the league, I looked up to Odell (Willis) as a big brother-type of thing,” said Jefferson, who began his CFL career with Willis’ Edmonton Eskimos in 2014. “He told me that when he gets ready for practice, he takes it as a game. He wears his game pants to practice, so when I was (in Edmonton), I followed him and wore my game pants to practice.

“I’m going to try to bring that game-ready mentality to practice for this organization.”

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On Tuesday, Roughriders head coach-GM Chris Jones announced the team would close one practice a week because he felt someone was leaking information about the team’s schemes.

Jones pointed to an incident when the Hamilton Tiger-Cats seemed to know exactly what the Roughriders were doing on a special-teams play before they ran it.

On Wednesday, Tiger-Cats head coach Kent Austin told reporters in Hamilton that the spying allegations were “absurd.”

“You wouldn’t expect him to say anything else,” countered Jones, whose team beat Hamilton 37-20 on July 8. “All I’m saying is that it was a play that’s very rarely even used. Had they noticed it a little bit later (I could understand), but they noticed it in two seconds, so somebody was watching.

“Maybe it wasn’t them. Maybe somebody who just knows them happened to give them the information.”

Jones said it’s the second time that an opponent seemed to know in advance what Saskatchewan’s special teams were doing; the first occurred during a 2016 game against the Ottawa Redblacks.

So, because Jones is worried about it happening again, he’s standing by his decision to close one practice a week to the public and members of the media.