Jake Maier heated up instantly after coming in cold.
Nearly four years ago, the former University of California-Davis Aggies standout became the first quarterback in CFL history to throw for 300-plus yards in each of his first three starts.
Then a newcomer to the three-down game with the Calgary Stampeders, Maier now hopes to make a comparably auspicious introductory start as a Roughrider. The Green and White is to oppose the B.C. Lions on Saturday (5 p.m., Mosaic Stadium).
Maier arrived in Saskatchewan after starting 45 games for Calgary. Experience-wise, he was on the other end of the spectrum when he debuted in Canadian professional football during a COVID-shortened 2021 season.
“That was the first game I wore a uniform,” Maier recalled on Friday. “I was in street clothes (earlier in the regular season) because of the roster situation that we had. It was basically a COVID season, where you only suit up two guys.”
Those two quarterbacks were Bo Levi Mitchell and Michael O’Connor for the Stampeders’ first two games of the 2021 campaign, which opened without any pre-season auditions.
After Mitchell suffered a fractured fibula, it was initially suspected that the Stampeders would start O’Connor for an Aug. 20th home date with the Montreal Alouettes.
Surprise!
Maier threw for 304 yards to pilot Calgary to a 28-22 victory. The Stampeders, who overcame a 14-3 deficit, held on for the win — barely — when the Alouettes’ Eugene Lewis was tackled on the one-yard line after making a diving catch.
“I remember asking Bo at the time, ‘Are all the games like this?’ ” Maier said. “It kind of went back and forth. You start out and you’re not playing well and all of a sudden you get hot and, by the end of the game, the other team’s throwing a Hail Mary to try to win.
“Bo said, ‘Yeah, you get used to it.’ ”
The Stampeders quickly became accustomed to prolific passing by Maier, who followed up nine days later by going 30-for-39 for 307 yards against the host Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
“He started out 16-for-16, so I’ve seen Jake play at a high level,” said Roughriders middle linebacker Jameer Thurman, who in 2021 was in Year 3 of a four-season stay with the Stampeders.
“I know what he’s capable of. Whatever happens, I know he’ll be ready to go.”
Maier completed his 300-yard trifecta by putting up 328 on 29 completions against the visitors from Edmonton on Sept. 6th, 2021.
“I don’t think there was a ‘wow!’ factor, because we saw it every week in practice, so we knew what he was capable of,” Thurman said. “It was just a matter of him getting in a game and showing what he was able to do, and he did that.”
Did he ever.
“Early in my career, I fell into a lot of things,” said Maier, 28. “I was able to be around a pretty good team and a pretty good staff.
“I was almost kind of naïve. You don’t know what you don’t know, so you just go in there and work through your progressions and see what happens.
“You just cut it loose and feel like, ‘Hey, I’ve got some house money here as a rookie and I’m just going to try to do what I can for the team.’
“I just feel like it was the perfect storm maybe at the time to get my feet wet.”
Maier quickly whetted the appetite for what could be ahead.
Over four seasons with Calgary, Maier threw for 11,685 yards and 60 touchdowns. He amassed 4,244 aerial yards in 2023 and 3,841 last season.
With 22 touchdown passes in 2024, he was one of four CFL quarterbacks to reach or exceed 20. Also in that fraternity was the Roughriders’ Trevor Harris, who threw for 20 scores in 11 starts.
Maier was acquired from Calgary as insurance in case Harris were to be unavailable. He is to miss Saturday’s game due to illness and a head injury after guiding Saskatchewan to a 3-0 start.
“As the backup quarterback on any team, you never know when your number is going to be called,” Maier said. “For the team, it’s obviously bittersweet, because you want to make sure that everybody is healthy and ready to play.
“Given the circumstances of the week and how it has all played out, I’m ready to step in and do what I can for the team.”
In so doing, he will become the 72nd quarterback to start for Saskatchewan in the post-Second World War era.
“Jake Maier is our backup quarterback,” Head Coach Corey Mace, speaking in general terms, said with a smile. “I think anybody would be pretty happy to say that.
“I know he’s excited about the opportunity. The guys are all rallying behind him. He’s one of the guys, so nothing changes. We’re still going out there and trying to win a football game.”
That is something the Roughriders have done, without exception, in the regular season since Maier joined the team.
“I love it,” he said. “I feel like for the first three weeks, I couldn’t be prouder to be a part of this organization and around Coach Mace and the culture that he has created here. You hear a lot about it from the outside, but when you’re within these walls, you really feel it.
“It’s nice to be able to share that real adrenalin with your teammates, because if you don’t play, you are a supportive teammate and you love to be a part of it, but you don’t really get that edge to you that you would get when you’re out there and your body’s on the line and you’re experiencing those real-time moments.
“So to feel that in front of a home crowd that I know is going to be excited in a game against a division rival, that’s going to be one of those out-of-body experiences that you always look forward to.”
