July 3, 2018

Notebook: The Roughriders don’t mind a short week

The Saskatchewan Roughriders are preaching mind over matter when it comes to their quick turnaround this week.

After playing Saturday against the Montreal Alouettes, the CFL’s Roughriders didn’t practise Sunday but were back on the Mosaic Stadium turf Monday. They had a workout Tuesday, are to hold a walk-through Wednesday and then will tangle with the visiting Hamilton Tiger-Cats on Thursday.

Getting back to work with just one day off after a game is a lot to ask of even well-conditioned athletes, but Roughriders linebacker Sam Hurl noted that he’s OK with the schedule.

“Honestly, I feel like it’s good to throw yourself right back into the fire,” Hurl said after Tuesday’s closed practice at Mosaic Stadium. “You get your body moving again, you get working and you don’t have time to dwell on what’s hurting and what’s banged up.

“In a way, you almost overlook it mentally. Your mind has no choice but to keep going. You can say, ‘Oh, it’s a short week,’ but mentally when you know you have a game coming up, you get over that stuff pretty quickly.”

Saskatchewan head coach-GM Chris Jones and his staff try to give the players a bit of a break in short weeks. The coaches stick to schemes that have been installed previously, which keeps the players from having to work over and over again on new things in hopes of perfecting them.

The workouts this week have been lighter than normal, without a lot of competition between the offensive and defensive players. As a result, Jones believes his charges “should be fresh” for Thursday’s game.

“The coaches do a good job of taking care of us with reps and things like that, so (a short week) is not as bad as what it may seem,” defensive end Tobi Antigha said. “We just have to put our ailments, injuries and sores away and just focus on the task at hand, which is coming out and having a good game against Hamilton.”

The Roughriders have a bye week after playing host to the Tiger-Cats, so there will be time to recover. Saskatchewan’s next game after Thursday’s outing is set for July 19 in Hamilton.

Antigha saw a silver lining to this week’s compressed schedule.

“As bad as we played on Saturday, we’re really anxious to play another game,” he said in reference to a 23-17 loss to the Alouettes. “That’s how we look at it: We weren’t happy with the product that we put on the field on Saturday, so we’re looking forward to Thursday and trying to get back in the win column.”

•••

The Roughriders made a trade Tuesday that could land them someone whom Jones called “a dynamic player.”

Saskatchewan acquired the rights to Denard Robinson — who played quarterback at the University of Michigan before becoming a running back/receiver/Wildcat QB with the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars — from the Toronto Argonauts for linebacker/defensive end Eric Striker.

Robinson, 27, was on Toronto’s negotiation list.

“We’re trying to reach out to him and see if he might have an interest in coming up to the CFL,” Jones said. “I think the big field would be a place where he could excel.”

The 6-foot-0, 215-pound Robinson completed 57 per cent of his passes for 6,250 yards with 49 touchdowns and 39 interceptions over four seasons at Michigan. He also rushed for 4,495 yards with 42 TDs with the Wolverines.

In the NFL, he rushed 259 times for 1,041 yards with five TDs and caught 47 passes for 310 yards in 54 games with the Jaguars. He didn’t play in 2017.

“He’s very similar to (Marcus Thigpen), but probably more of a receiver than a running back,” Jones said.

Striker, 24, signed with the Roughriders in April after impressing the coaching staff during the team’s mini-camp in Bradenton, Fla. He had two tackles in Saskatchewan’s first regular-season game before spending the past two weeks on the practice roster.

•••

The Roughriders added national offensive lineman Braden Schram to the practice roster Tuesday.

The 25-year-old product of Manning, Alta., was selected by Hamilton in the second round (13th overall) of the 2017 draft out of the University of Calgary. The 6-foot-4, 312-pounder dressed for one game as a backup O-lineman last season.

Schram was released by the Tiger-Cats on Thursday.

“You never can have enough Canadian offensive linemen,” Jones said, “so when he became available, we wanted to research what we could do to get him here.”

•••

Cornerback Duron Carter got a few snaps with the offence late in Saturday’s game as the Roughriders tried to rally against Montreal.

Asked Tuesday if Carter might get more action on offence against Hamilton, Jones replied, “We’ll see.” Jones plans to keep Carter at corner in the absence of Nick Marshall, who’s out with a hand injury.

Jones repeatedly has offered his support for Carter, and the veteran coach did that again Tuesday by pointing out that the Ottawa Redblacks’ Diontae Spencer and the Als’ Chris Williams — both of whom beat Carter for TDs in the past two games — are excellent receivers.

“Those are good players and guys who anybody would struggle with,” Jones said. “It doesn’t matter who you put over there. You could put Brandon Browner or D.A. (Dwight Anderson) or any of those great ones we’ve had in the past and they would struggle, also.

“If (those receivers) caught a ball, (critics) wouldn’t be questioning it quite as bad. They only question it simply because it’s Duron.”