May 24, 2018

Notebook: It’s all coming back to Zach Collaros

SASKATOON — Zach Collaros’ comfort level is growing.

As his first training camp with the Saskatchewan Roughriders progresses, the quarterback is developing chemistry with the CFL team’s receivers and offensive personnel.

He’s also getting more and more comfortable in the offensive scheme, which has its roots in the system he worked in with the Toronto Argonauts in 2012 and 2013.

Roughriders offensive co-ordinator Stephen McAdoo was on the Argos’ staff when Collaros played in Toronto and McAdoo has installed a similar system in Saskatchewan.

That should help Collaros, but it’s not exactly like riding a bike.

“It takes time,” Collaros said after Thursday’s training-camp workout at Saskatoon Minor Football Field. “You’re asked to do different things and different routes are run in different ways versus different coverages.

“Obviously from a terminology standpoint, it’s different. But being in this four years ago, things are coming back to me and that has made it a lot easier. I’ve spoken the language, so to speak, a time before.”

Collaros left the Argos in 2014 to sign with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and he played with them for four seasons. Saskatchewan acquired him from Hamilton in January and he has spent the past five months getting reacquainted with McAdoo’s version of the West Coast offence.

It’s not the same offence that the Argos ran back in the day, but Collaros noted that it’s similar.

“There are some different things in there that I’m sure (McAdoo) likes to do as opposed to what Scott (Milanovich) and Marcus (Brady) and those guys like to do,” Collaros said, referring to the Argos’ offensive coaches in 2013. “But everybody has their own way of doing things.

“For me, it remains to be seen how we game-plan things. To be quite honest with you, I can’t remember a ton of those game plans in Toronto, but there’s a lot of guys I can ask who have played in it and pick their brains a little bit.”

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Collaros isn’t sure how much — or even if — he’s going to play Sunday when the Roughriders open the pre-season against the host Edmonton Eskimos.

He also isn’t worrying about it.

“I trust whatever the coaches decide to do,” he said Thursday.

After providing that answer, Collaros was asked if he would like to play Sunday.

“I trust whatever the coaches want to do,” he replied.

Roughriders head coach-GM Chris Jones said the coaching staff has yet to decide how much playing time to give each of the team’s five quarterbacks, although he previously suggested the third-, fourth- and fifth-stringers likely will play the most.

The QBs who do play will have to make an impression since the Roughriders have only two pre-season games on which to base their decision.

“Number 1, do they have a command of what we’re doing? Are they going to take delays of game? Are they going to throw the ball to the opponent? Are they going to put the ball on the ground?” Jones said when asked what factors will be used to gauge the quarterbacks’ play.

“They’ve got to take care of the football. They’ve got to get us in and out of the huddle. They’ve got to make the random play. If they do that with the limited number of opportunities that they get, then you know that maybe he has a chance.”••

•••

The makeup of the rest of the roster for Sunday’s game also isn’t clear.

“We’re just going to take the guys we have,” Jones said. “It’s going to be a crowded plane, put it that way.

“None of our guest coaches are going to go, some of our veterans who we’ve evaluated in years past won’t go and we’re still going to be looking at somewhere around 90 players.”

•••

The list of walking wounded grew Thursday, especially among the Roughriders’ crew of Canadians.

Linebackers Brandyn Bartlett and Micah Teitz as well as defensive back Denzel Radford — all of whom started practice Wednesday — didn’t participate in Thursday’s workout. Neither did receiver Antwane Grant.

International defensive backs Sam Williams and Daniel Davie were on the field to start Thursday’s practice but didn’t complete it due to undisclosed injuries.

Receiver Jake Harty, linebacker Kevin Francis, offensive lineman Josiah St. John and defensive lineman Rakim Cox remain sidelined. In fact, Harty was put on the one-game injured list with a knee injury that will force him to miss the 2018 campaign.

The loss of the Canadian linebackers prompted the Roughriders to sign Adrian Clarke, a 26-year-old product of Mississauga, Ont.

The 6-foot-3, 233-pounder out of Bishop’s University played the previous three seasons with the B.C. Lions and recorded 25 special-teams tackles over 50 regular-season games.

The Roughriders also released defensive lineman Michael McFarland and signed defensive lineman Arthur Miley.

•••

The CFL announced Wednesday that its board of governors had approved a number of rule changes that will take effect in 2018.

Many of them are designed to improve player safety, but perhaps the most impactful change deals with illegal contact on a receiver. Coaches will no longer be allowed to challenge plays in hopes of getting penalties called, ending what had become something of an epidemic.

“That has kind of come and gone,” Jones said. “Once upon a time, it was the hot topic. Now that we’ve got illegal contact under control — people aren’t tugging and grabbing — we can go back and take a few flags out of our game.”

Ironically, a successful challenge for illegal contact that Jones initiated helped his team at the time, the Eskimos, win the 2015 Grey Cup game.