PURIFOY NOT HOLDING A GRUDGE AGAINST REDBLACKS

Loucheiz Purifoy & Ed Gainey. Photo: CFL.ca

REGINA – As far as Loucheiz Purifoy is concerned, Saturday’s CFL game between the Saskatchewan Roughriders and Ottawa RedBlacks at Mosaic Stadium is not about revenge.

The 25-year old Rider defensive back was released by the RedBlacks in August after appearing in seven games for Ottawa. RedBlacks Coach Rick Campbell told the Ottawa Sun at the time, ““It just doesn’t fit with what we want in our locker-room and on the field.”

The Cantonment, FL product was promptly snapped up by Saskatchewan and almost immediately found a home in the Riders’ defensive backfield. He registered two interceptions in the Riders’ 32-27 win in the Banjo Bowl last Saturday.

If Purifoy harbours any resentment towards Ottawa, he wasn’t showing it on Thursday.

“It’s another game, man,” Purifoy said after the team’s Day 3 practice. “I’m just going into it like another game. We prepare for every team just like they’re any other team. Nameless, faceless, just go win another game.”

Clearly, some players are a better fit with some teams than others and Purifoy is loving his situation in Riderville.

“They let you be yourself,” Purifoy explained. “It’s balls to the wall, go hard or go home. It’s just a different style of coaching. Over here we’re aggressive. Over there, they’re aggressive sometimes. But they’re only aggressive with their D-line, which they got a great D-line.”

Roughriders Head Coach & GM Chris Jones agreed that Purifoy’s style fits in with what he’s trying to do in Saskatchewan.

“Looch is one of those interesting personalities,” Jones surmised. “He’s a very volatile player. He loves the contact, he loves the aggressiveness. He’s reminiscent of the Brandon Browners and Dwight Andersons that we’ve had in the past.”

If Purifoy came to Saskatchewan with baggage, Jones wasn’t concerned about it when they offered him a contract.

“It’s just like with all the other guys we’ve had in the past,” Jones continued. “You come here and there’s a certain expectation. You need to go play good football, that’s for sure. And then you’ve gotta fit in within our locker room. If you don’t do those certain things, then you can’t be here.”

Meanwhile the Riders practiced with crowd noise for a second straight week, but that may have been a first for a week leading up to a home game.

“Well the last time we played here, we’ve got a large crowd, so anytime you’ve got that many people in a small area, there’s going to be noise,” Jones reported. “So we just worked there at the end to make sure we got all of our substitution issues worked out prior to game day.”

Jones said he was happy with the way his team handled the crowd noise at Investors Group Field last week in the Banjo Bowl.

The Roughriders host the RedBlacks Saturday at 7:30 pm on TSN and the 620 CKRM Rider Radio Network.

RP
@rodpedersen