ROOKIE RIDERS SELLING OUT

Friday’s home preseason game against the Edmonton Eskimos (7:00 pm, 620 CKRM) will be the final chance for players to make or break it with the 2014 Saskatchewan Roughriders.  As such, the players are selling out in an effort to crack the lineup.

That includes rookie slotback Ryan Smith (NDSU) who opened a wound while laying out for a pass in workouts this week.  He says it’s part of the deal.

“Oh I just got a couple of stitches,” Smith told CBC’s Glenn Reid on Tuesday. “But besides that I’m fine. I’m okay.  I just go out there and work my butt off every single practice.  That’s what I’ve been coached to do.  It’s paid off so far.”

Smith may have started slow in the early stages of camp in Saskatoon but has improved daily and has worked his way into the first group of receivers.  He had four touches in the Ottawa game.

“It’s been getting better every single day,” Smith reported.  “Just getting used to the waggle, the offense, this game and how it’s played.  Having the older guys like Darian, Rob and Taj and Getty too, they’ve all helped out. Darian’s one heckuva player and one heckuva person.  Once he gets into the game all eyes are on him but he plays at a high level.”

First year quarterback Seth Doege (Texas Tech) made TSN’s Plays of the Week after being cartwheeled on a hit after an 11-yard first down run on Saturday.

“We were looking down field for a first down on 2nd-and-long and they covered it up pretty well,” Doege told the Leader Post’s Ian Hamilton on Tuesday.  “We wanted to stay on the field and I started scrambling knowing that if I went out of bounds, we’d be short.  I took him legs on, not head on, and he flipped me pretty good but I thought I’d spark the guys if I got up real quickly.  I wanted to show them that’s what our mentality’s about, what the Roughriders are about, and that’s grinding out whatever it takes to get first downs.  It hurt a bit but I didn’t want the other guy to know.”

Rider head coach Corey Chamblin said back-up quarterbacks Doege and Adam Weber cranked it up once they got into a game, as opposed to training camp practices.

“For instance, like Seth, I didn’t know he could run like that once he got outside,” Chamblin admitted.  “When the lights come on, that adrenaline kicks in and that game time speed kicks in and that’s what you see.  When the game starts, everything kicks in.  (On the hit) Seth is from Texas and has seen all those Texas football movies where you get hit and get back up.  He’s just trying to emulate that.”

The Riders will be back on the field Wednesday at 11:30 am.

Don’t miss In The Huddle Tuesday evening at 7:00 pm province-wide on Shaw (Saskatoon, Moose Jaw, Swift Current, P.A., etc).  I’ll be joined by former Riders Marshall Hamilton and Wes Cates.