At SMF Field in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan Roughriders head coach Corey Mace received a heartfelt welcome during Green & White Day on Saturday afternoon. Standing ovations greeted his first ‘State of the Nation’ address to fans. Mace faced questions from enthusiastic fans of all ages, including one about his most formidable CFL rival.
“Who do I fear the most?” Mace pondered. “Probably the Saskatchewan Roughriders.”
Green & White Day kicked off with Mace’s address to a packed room, followed by a public practice and scrimmage at SMF Field. Throughout the afternoon, community celebrations took place. Mace was joined by president and CEO Craig Reynolds and general manager Jeremy O’Day, fielding questions for nearly an hour as the Roughriders prepared for their first pre-season game against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers on Monday.
Fans’ inquiries ranged from the backup quarterback competition to the team’s strategy for the upcoming season. However, many focused on Mace’s initial training camp and his transition to being a CFL head coach.
“We’re driving down the highway and there’s a huge billboard with [Mace’s] face on it,” O’Day remarked. “I said, ‘You haven’t lost a game yet. They’ll take that down so fast.'”
Despite good-natured teasing from his general manager, Mace embraced the attention and emphasized the significance of collaboration among players, coaches, and fans to return the Roughriders to contention.
“We will do this thing together,” Mace declared. “It’s not just us up here and it’s not just the guys that you’re going to see, it’s going to be the entire province.”
However, the enthusiastic Riders crowd also raised tough questions to Saskatchewan management following two consecutive 6-12 seasons, which have excluded the team from the CFL playoff picture.
O’Day highlighted the team’s aggressive off-season efforts to strengthen the roster, including the acquisitions of free agents A.J. Ouellette, Jameer Thurman, and Jermarcus Hardrick.
“Everything we do is to improve the team,” O’Day affirmed. “It’s not acceptable to have records like that. At a minimum, you have to be a playoff team every year. When you do that, you have the opportunity to win Grey Cups.”
Overcoming adversity has been a major challenge for Saskatchewan in recent seasons, including a season-ending injury to starting quarterback Trevor Harris last summer and an 0-14 record post-Labour Day since 2022. Mace acknowledged that this issue has been a training camp focus.
“We’re going to get scored on,” Mace acknowledged. “We’re going to be put in situations and sometimes I want to see how the guys are naturally going to handle that. That’s adversity, that’s football, and you got two options… bounce back or bounce backwards.”
From a league-wide perspective, Reynolds expressed optimism about the CFL’s current state and stable ownership. However, he addressed concerns surrounding the Toronto Argonauts after the league imposed a minimum nine-game suspension on star quarterback Chad Kelly for violating the league’s gender-based violence policy and his subsequent appearance at Argonauts training camp.
Reynolds declined to comment on another team’s internal procedures but commended the Roughriders’ efforts in this area over the past decade.
“I look inwardly and I look at our organization,” Reynolds said. “I’m very proud of the work that we do in our organization and I’m very proud in terms of how I know we would handle situations. I’m very proud of the process, the people, and the leaders that we have involved in our organization.”
As the Roughriders prepare for Monday’s pre-season opener at home, Mace expressed excitement about evaluating his team in game situations.
“Everything is roses right now,” Mace noted. “We’ll see what it’s like when the bullets are flying.”
The Roughriders’ pre-season opener against the Blue Bombers is set for 2 p.m. on Monday at Mosaic Stadium.
