Scruffy’s This N That

1 – FOOTBALL IN THE 306: We may agree to disagree on several topics when it comes to football and the love we have for it in this province, but there is no doubt that there is no province that loves its gridiron activities than those of us in Saskatchewan and that will be on full display this weekend as four of the five teams that most of us follow are in action with high schools getting closer to wrapping up their seasons if they haven’t already. 

The University of Regina Rams and University of Saskatchewan Huskies will get things started Saturday afternoon as the two schools meet in the Hardy Cup final for the second year in a row. You might say the Rams winning last year was an upset, but if they can do it again today it should not be considered as one as these two teams were the best in Canada West this season. The winner will be one game away from being at the Vanier Cup. Many in Regina want the Rams to be in that game for obvious reasons, but if they are not I think organizers would be more than OK with the Huskies being there. 

Saturday night, the B.C Lions hit Mosaic Stadium to battle the Riders with the winner off to Winnipeg for the Grey Cup and on Sunday, the Saskatoon Hilltops look for yet another Canadian title when they take on the Okanagan Sun. There is a chill in the air for games like this, but many of us wouldn’t have it any other way as this is what is expected in November.

It is a weekend to celebrate the game in a province that treats it like no other. 

2 – WHO’S HEADING TO WINNIPEG: At the start of the CFL season, I said the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and B.C Lions would be your Grey Cup combatants. I can’t change that pick now, but I will admit I could be 0-2 this weekend. Both of these games should be outstanding. Davis Alexander is undefeated at home, but he isn’t on the road and I get the feeling Bo Levi Mitchell is ready to turn it up one notch. Could this be his last run? Does he get to the Grey Cup, win it and call it a career? I doubt it, but who knows. I know a job at TSN is likely waiting for him when he hangs the helmet up and if Montreal wins, I would think he would be a part of the panel again this year as he has shown how good he is with ic in hand. 

As for the Western Final, the Riders have a stiff challenge in front of them. If there has been one thing I have not liked about Saskatchewan this year, it is the amount of pass yards they have given up. They simply can not have Nathan Rourke slice and dice them because if they do, it won’t be pretty. Yes, the football team took their foot off the pedal in the final couple of weeks knowing they would finish first but they were not as good in the second half as they were in the first and Trevor Harris’ play seemed to drop off. Harris doesn’t need to be as good as Rourke in this one, but he needs to have a big game. Could this come down to Sean Whyte or Brett Lauther? It wouldn’t surprise me! 

3 – THAT DIDN’T TAKE LONG: I thought one of the stories revolving around Grey Cup week was who would the REDBLACKS interview for their vacant head coaching job. Guess not, although we can ask who is going to be the head coach in Toronto now? I didn’t see Ryan Dinwiddie moving from Toronto to Ottawa, but he brings some instant respectability to that team considering his body of work with the Argos. Many think this opens the door for Mike O’Shea to move from Winnipeg to take over. It doesn’t seem as if the Bombers are big on re-signing their head coach for whatever reason as I would think a new deal would have been announced by now, but if he is available then yes, it would make sense for Toronto to go get him. One also wonders if O’Shea wants to be involved with the Argos especially when he knows that year one won’t be kind considering all the road games they will play because of the World Cup. 

4 – ONLY IN THE CFL: There are many things that make the CFL great. One of them is accessibility to your favourite players. That happened Friday afternoon in Regina. A gentleman I used to work with at Harvard is a huge B.C Lions fan. He now works for a different company but is still in downtown Regina doing his thing. He found out that the Lions were holding a short walk-through in Victoria Park. He can usually be found at Mosaic Stadium wearing Lions gear, but for whatever reason he didn’t have his orange Lions hoodie with him yesterday. He wandered his way over to the park and to make a long story short, he introduced himself to Nathan Rourke and got a picture with him—the person who took the picture was Buck Pierce.

This would never happen in the NFL. Never! Imagine going to watch your favourite team in Minneapolis and seeing Josh Allen, Christian McCaffrey or Micah Parsons just strolling through the Mall of America. It won’t happen. It’s stories like this that make the CFL unique and great.  

5 – WEEK 10 NFL NOTES: After seeing who will be in the Grey Cup today, we will plop ourselves on the couch for another Sunday of NFL play. Here are some notes going into this weekend’s action:

• Aaron Rodgers is tied for third in the NFL with 17 touchdown passes this season, including five games with multiple touchdown passes. With two touchdown passes on Sunday Night Football against the Los Angeles Chargers, the Steelers quarterback can surpass Pro Football Hall of Famer Peyton Manning (165 games) for the third-most games with multiple touchdown passes in NFL history. Only Tom Brady (204 games) and Drew Brees (173) have more.
• Cleveland defensive end Myles Garrett ranks second in the NFL with 10 sacks this season and became the third player since 1982, when the individual sack became an official statistic, with at least 10 sacks in eight consecutive seasons, joining Pro Football Hall of Famers Reggie White (nine from 1985-93) and John Randle (eight from 1992-99). With two sacks on Sunday, Garrett can become the first player since 1982, when the individual sack became an official statistic, with at least 12 sacks in six consecutive seasons, surpassing Pro Football Hall of Famer Lawrence Taylor (five from 1985-89).
• As the 2025 season crosses the halfway point in Week 10, six of the eight divisions have a team in first place or tied for first that did not win its division last season. Denver (7-2), Indianapolis (7-2), and New England (7-2) are tied for the best record in the NFL while seven teams – Buffalo, the Los Angeles Chargers, the Los Angeles Rams, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle and Tampa Bay – have six wins through Week 9.
• Only two teams go into the weekend allowing less than 20 points per game as the second half of the season starts.  Those teams are Seattle and Houston.  The Seahawks are home to Arizona while Houston is home to Jacksonville. 

6 – THE FUTURE HAS ARRIVED: As we enter Saturday’s play in the NHL, look atop the leaderboard and you will see the top two scorers in the league are Macklin Celebrini and Connor Bedard. The former Pat had a huge night in Calgary leading the Hawks to a win against the Flames. I think we all knew these two were in for big seasons and we aren’t a quarter of the way through the year, but are these two ready to join the upper echelon of the league and join McDavid, Eichel, Kucherov and others?  When Pittsburgh played Washington earlier this week on ESPN, it was asked who the next marquee matchup in the league will be when Crosby vs Ovechkin is done. It was generally agreed upon that it might be Celebrini vs Bedard with the only difference being they are not in the same division. It has to have the NHL smiling knowing Gavin McKenna will enter the conversation next year. 

7 – WRAPPING UP THE WORLD SERIES: Going back to this summer, I said Blue Jays closer Jeff Hoffman would cost his team a playoff game.What turned out to be arguably Toronto’s biggest weakness this year came back to bite them in most unfortunate fashion as Miguel Rojas found a way to insert himself into World Series folklore by crushing a ball over the left field fence in the top of 9 with Rogers Centre on the verge of exploding. 

Give Hoffman credit for standing up to the pile of microphones in his face once it was over, but when Toronto looks back at this series they will see many missed opportunities in the final two games cost them the series as LA ended up being the better team (sorry Caleb Joseph!!) over a seven-game series which was one of the best, if not best World Series that we have ever seen.

Game 7 was one where everyone connected to the organization will look back at and wonder. Why couldn’t Toronto push a run across the plate in the 8^th after Ernie Clement’s lead-off double? What if Bo Bichette is running at 100 percent when he stops at 3^rd in a Clement single earlier in the game. What if Isiah Kiner-Falefa had just a tinier lead off of 3^rd base on the play where he was thrown out at the plate. 

They are questions that can likely never be answered.

8 – MOVING FORWARD:  So now what? It was a run for the ages for Toronto. No one and I mean NO ONE thought on the May long weekend that the Blue Jays would end up where they did. Many didn’t think they would be a .500 team. It is a team that is more than capable of making some noise in 2026 as the parts are there—or at least most of them.

Vladimir Guerrero Junior is signed, sealed and delivered but Bo Bichette is not. Can Toronto keep their number 2 guy? There are teams that will make an offer for him (the Yankees and Padres probably leading the way), but there is a pathway for him to return and he has said he wants to keep playing with Vladdy and the Jays organization. If he returns, does he go back to shortstop or does he stay at second as he did when he returned. If he wants to play shortstop, it may mean the end of the road for him. The price will tell a lot as well. I think Toronto wants to keep Bichette the way they did VGJ, but I also think VGJ is more committed to Toronto than what Bo is and that if a more lucrative offer comes his way he will go. 

Max Scherzer says he hasn’t thrown his last pitch in the majors, but he probably has with Toronto.  Does the team want to keep Chris Bassitt? If so, is he still a starter and if he is, what does that mean for Jose Berrios who was an afterthought in the playoffs with a mysterious injury. A new closer is also needed and it wouldn’t surprise me one bit if Toronto tries to trade Jeff Hoffman on the cheap after the way the season ended.

What is known is Toronto surprised everyone this year, but they won’t next and there are a lot of good teams ready to knock the Jays off their perch. Enjoy the off-season!!

9 – RANDOM THOUGHTS:

• Would those in the NHL world be reacting as strongly to Jordan Binnington trying to “steal” Alex Ovechkin’s 900^th goal puck had it been Marc-Andre Fleury who put it in his pants.  Did anyone, including Binnington, really think he would get away with what he did.  Settle down!  
• Canada’s white jersey for the upcoming Winter Olympics is great. Not so much with the red one.  Why do we need a black maple leaf? Why does a country whose colours are red and white need black in them? 
• It’s time for the Arizona Cardinals to part ways with Kyler Murray. 
• It’s not a good look for CFL Commish Stewart Johnston to cancel his event with the fans during Grey Cup week. This was the year where he absolutely had to stand up and take the bullets fired his way.

That’s all I got. Have a great week!