RIDERS READY FOR MONTREAL, DURANT SPEAKS
REGINA – The Saskatchewan Roughriders and Montreal Alouettes have held their day-before walkthroughs at Mosaic Stadium in advance of Friday’s game (7:30 pm Sask Time, TSN, 620 Rider Radio Network). Here are some notes from their media sessions:
ALOUETTES QUARTERBACK DARIAN DURANT
– “I hope it’s a nice warm reception for sure. I hope Rider Nation appreciates my time here, appreciates what I’ve done for this franchise. I really hope everyone stands and gives me a warm ovation because I think I deserve it. I wish the other guys that are on different teams could be here to receive it with me because I couldn’t have done it without those guys. They know who they are. It should be nice. I’m expecting a nice one for sure.”
– “I’m excited! I’m excited to play and get another opportunity to play football and compete against some old friends. I guess if you could put it into one word, that would be it.”
– “I’m not nervous. I don’t really get nervous anymore. Maybe butterflies. I’m just really excited to come out here and play, enjoy the atmosphere and experience it from a different point of view. I’ve never had to deal with the crowd noise here so I’m really excited to see what it will be.”
ROUGHRIDERS HEAD COACH & GM CHRIS JONES
– Jones said they’re not in any position to take the 3-13 Alouettes – or any team – for granted. He said his memory isn’t great but he knows his team hasn’t been perfect recently. Montreal has a lot of proud veteran players who will play as hard as they possibly can. John Bowman’s tears over missing the playoffs weren’t fake.
– Even though a playoff spot has been clinched, there’s still plenty of work to do. They need to prepare for every scenario, and prepare for every team who will be in the playoffs because the match-ups haven’t yet been set. In the weeks ahead, they’ll prepare for their current opponent plus their future opponents.
– Darian Durant has been a very good player in this league for a long time and did great things for the Saskatchewan franchise. Other than that he’d prefer to not discuss the Durant situation any more because the trade was a long time ago. “Darian was a good player, no doubt,” Jones said.
– Brandon Bridge is a dynamic player. He was the 7th-rated QB for the NFL Draft in his draft class, higher than any other current CFL quarterback. Jarious Jackson has been working with him to get the ball out of his hands quicker. He’s missed some throws in situations where they really could’ve used completions. He’s got work to do, but he’s going to be a really good player.
– Jones wouldn’t discuss re-signing Brandon Bridge in the off-season. The Riders are worried about the task at hand and will get to Bridge’s contract situation when it’s in the forefront.
– Regarding the demolition of Taylor Field on Friday, Jones said it was a fun place to go into and a tough place to play. He’s got four or five great stories of barbs from Rider fans over the years, but none really stand out as #1.
ROUGHRIDERS QUARTERBACK KEVIN GLENN
– He’s not sure why he wasn’t good enough for Montreal. Everybody has an opinion on who they like and who they don’t like. He’s not the only player in CFL history who’s been shown the door. Anthony Calvillo went through that in Las Vegas and Hamilton. It depends on the organization and who’s coaching.
– Brandon Bridge is a very good quarterback. Glenn’s seen a ton of growth out of him going back to their days together in Montreal. The maturity is evident, plus his efforts to get better at the things that he needs to get better at. He’s a sponge.
– Bridge needs to get better at not just throwing the football, but managing the game and being a coach on the field. To get to the next level, he needs to show leadership in the locker room and get more consistent at making plays when the opportunities present themselves. He needs to get to a point where that’s second nature. Arm strength gets young quarterbacks out of trouble but to have a long career, they need to use their head and not their feet. That all goes into being a great quarterback.
– Bridge can get better in doing interviews and the best way to do that is by doing more of them. Glenn will continue to coach him up in that area.
– There’s a lot of excitement in the locker room now that a playoff spot has been clinched. It had been a long time since the Riders won a game in Calgary. You can see through social media that this is a very exciting time for everybody.
RP
@rodpedersen
