WINNIPEG — Chris Jones is willing to go with the flow.
The CFL’s rules committee met during Mark’s CFL Week and proposed that, to improve the flow of the game, coaches should no longer be allowed to throw their challenge flags in hopes of getting calls for illegal contact on a receiver.
Many CFL fans have complained that the coaches’ so-called “fishing expeditions” slowed down the game. Those fans made their thoughts clear to commissioner Randy Ambrosie during his cross-country tour and now the rules committee has weighed in.
“It’s one of those deals where (challenging) seemed like a good thing a few years ago,” Jones — the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ vice-president of football operations, general manager and head coach — said Friday during a media availability with football operations staff members from the five West Division teams.
“We went through the process and actually won a Grey Cup with a contact challenge late against Ottawa (in 2015 when Jones was with the Edmonton Eskimos). But it’s a fan-based league. It’s important that we have a flow to our game.”
Another suggestion by the committee could affect the tempo of games as well. The replay official now will automatically review a play that appears to be a touchdown but wasn’t ruled as such and thus forced a coach to challenge.
The rules committee made a number of other recommendations to improve player safety, including eliminating blindside blocks, outlawing low blocks that occur outside of the tackle box and expanding the definition of spearing.
•••
The Roughriders have had an eventful off-season, with receiver Duron Carter facing charges for marijuana possession and with positive doping tests from 2017 involving offensive lineman Bruce Campbell and returner Marcus Thigpen.
Asked how his team handles such negatives, Jones noted there have been positives as well before noting the incidents have to be addressed.
“Have we stubbed our toe a little bit? Absolutely we have,” he said. “I’m disappointed in really all three of them. Bruce is no longer with us (having hit free agency), but we’ve talked with those guys and they’ve accepted the responsibility for the things that they’ve done.
“I don’t think anybody is without reproach. It’s pro football and sometimes there are going to be bumps in the road.”
•••
Defensive end Charleston Hughes found out just how hungry Roughriders fans are for a winner when he made his first appearance on behalf of the team in Regina.
During a visit to the Rider Store, a gentleman welcomed Hughes to Saskatchewan with a gift.
“He brought me a Ziploc bag full of barbecued venison — barbecued deer meat,” Hughes recalled. “He dropped it on the table and that was my welcome to the team.”
Hughes also has received an indoctrination into the goals that Rider Nation has for its squad. Not surprisingly, he’s fine with them.
“You’re supposed to have high expectations; I have high expectations for myself already and I haven’t even played for the team yet,” Hughes said.
“I’m going to live up to what I’ve been doing in the past and I have those expectations every single year where I’ve got to meet goals. I’ve got to set standards for myself and I want the whole team to do that — to set standards and set goals and be able to perform every week.”
•••
Like Hughes, tailback Jerome Messam is getting used to being a Roughrider.
Unlike Hughes, Messam has been with Saskatchewan before. He was a member of the Roughriders in 2014 and 2015 before being traded to Calgary late in the ’15 season.
Messam signed as a free agent with Saskatchewan on Feb. 14 and is still getting his head around his return.
“I saw my locker room and my player bag on Tuesday and I was like, ‘Wow.’ It actually hit me: ‘I’m back,’ ” Messam said. “To see the green and white and to see my helmet, it just gave me chills. I’m super-excited.”
Messam has said he didn’t see the trade to Calgary coming in 2015, so he feels he has some unfinished business in Saskatchewan. He has seen a number of changes in the province since he left, including the arrival of Jones in December of 2015.
“Rider Nation was questioning his regime a lot in the beginning, but they have seen that the Mad Scientist knows what he is doing,” Messam said. “I’m excited to play for Chris Jones.”
•••
The CFL’s national combine is set for Saturday and Sunday in Winnipeg and two University of Regina Rams — quarterback Noah Picton and tailback Atlee Simon — are to participate.
Three players who took part in the West regional combine were invited to move on to the national event, but none of them had ties to Saskatchewan.
Kicker Sean Stenger, defensive back Brooks Falloon and defensive lineman Tristian Koronkiewicz represented the University of Saskatchewan Huskies in the regional combine.
Receivers Mitch Thompson and Thomas Huber, linebacker Danny Nesbitt, defensive back Korey Greene and defensive lineman Eric Wicijowski comprised the Rams’ contingent at the regional combine. Two former Rams — defensive back Jordy Kibamba and linebacker Dylan Minshull, both of the PFC’s Calgary Colts — also took part.
Results from the regional combine can be found here.
