One thing that hasn’t changed is that it’s still imperative to establish the run and stop the run.
So, Hamilton Tiger-Cats, keep getting the ball to running back Larry Rountree III.
And, on defence, control the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ two-legged piston, A.J. Ouellette.
It’s never quite that simple, but that’s where you must start against a 3-1 Riders team with pronounced designs on a second straight Grey Cup.
Yes, the headlines around the Ticats have mostly been about the long-term absence of Bo Levi Mitchell, as they should be. The quarterback was off to one of the best—if not the best—starts of his Hall of Fame career when he was injured last Sunday night.
But a week is a lifetime in pro football, and after spending a couple of days thinking of little but their empathy for their fallen leader, the Ticats returned to practice this week to prepare for Sunday night’s (7 p.m. ET, Ticats Audio Network/Y108, TSN) date against the deep Riders in Regina.
The Ticats have made only a couple of alterations to the roster from last week’s last-minute loss to Winnipeg, but of course one of them is Jake Dolegala being named as the starter by head coach Scott Milanovich early in the week.
The last time anyone not named Bo Levi Mitchell started for the Ticats was in mid-August of 2024, when Taylor Powell took the reins before being injured in that game and Mitchell re-assumed control. He has started the last 30 games and 42 of the last 43 Ticats matches.
Dolegala had been the short-yardage and No. 3 quarterback behind Mitchell and Tre Ford, but Milanovich said he got the nod because, “I think Jake has a little bit more experience with what we’re doing right now.”
Part of that is his familiarity with Milanovich’s systems, terminology, and expectations. The towering (6-foot-7) Dolegala joined the club last year and says this is the first time in his professional career that he’s had the same offensive play caller (Milanovich) in back-to-back seasons.
“I think the continuity between quarterback and OC/head coach is crucial,” Dolegala said, adding that making smart reads, and of course, not turning the ball over are at the top of the priority list.
Dolegala, a Buffalo native who comes from a football family (his grandfather played nine seasons for the Bills), grew noticeably more comfortable day-over-day running the first-team offence this week, threw more accurately and read routes more quickly with his first week of sustained work with the starters.
“He’s big, strong, and has more mobility than you might think,” Milanovich said. “Big arm. He’s had a history of getting hot in games and can push the ball down the field.”
And he was with the Roughriders in 2022 and ’23, so he is familiar with the howling pressure cooker of Mosaic Stadium.
Some Rider players talked this week of Dolegala’s cannon arm and how he has the height to see over onrushing defenders.
He’ll be facing a Rider team which is off to another one of its quick starts and is motivated to keep pace with the Edmonton Elks atop the West. Dating back four years, Saskatchewan is a stunning 23-5 before losing its second game of the season. The Riders have won the last four games with the Ticats.
In Ouellette, returning from injury, the Riders have a similar offensive trigger to Winnipeg’s Brady Oliveira, whom the Cats stymied much of last week’s game before he ate up crucial yardage and maintained ball control for the Bombers in the critical dying minutes.
And Ouellette’s constant threat dovetails nicely with the skills of veteran Saskatchewan pivot Trevor Harris, necessitating just enough hesitation for Harris’s lightning-quick releases to a cadre of talented receivers, paced by KeeSean Johnson and Kian Shaeffer-Baker, ranked Nos. 2 and 3 in CFL reception yardage.
“So, you’ve got to be extremely disciplined,” says Ticat weakside linebacker Braxton Hill, who will join middle linebacker Wynton McManis and SAM backer Reggie Stubblefield in the trio’s second consecutive game together after early-season injuries to Hill and McManis.
“You have to play the run and just do your assignment because if you give him 1 or 2 steps, or an inch, he can really get something behind you or in front of you that can make a big play.”
“(Harris) is a veteran. He’s extremely good at what he does. He can look people off. He’s smart. You know he has the ability to run certain plays at you that can put you in a predicament as a linebacker, whether you get sucked up in the run, whether he’s throwing digs behind you, whether he’s just trying to get you off your path.”
Harris’s rapid release and CFL experience, peppered with runs and pass routes out of the backfield by the running back, also exert mental pressure on the secondary, particularly the two inside halfbacks who guard the defensive seam.
“It puts you in the hot seat, it’s coming fast, and it is in all likelihood coming your way or to the (halfback) on the other side,” says Ticats’ aggressive boundary halfback Destin Talbert who opened last week’s game with an interception.
“Keep your eyes on him, have good discipline and then be ready to make your play.”
As they’ve begun to gel, the Ticat defence has ascended the statistical chart and now leads the CFL in fewest points allowed, and least offensive yardage surrendered per game and are near the top in a few other categories. The defence has talked a lot this week about being stronger in the final four or five minutes of each game, where they’ve had some lapses.
While they take collective pride in their statistical improvement, it’s been counter-balanced by a 2-2 record they feel should be better.
“I think the 2-and-2 values higher than seeing ourselves as the team that’s limiting them at points,” Talbert says.
“We’re not resting on our laurels. We’re really looking to be the best at every stat, and that includes winning. We’re not getting it done enough, so we’ve got to keep stepping up.”
Roughriders Roster & Depth Chart
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The legendary family link between the Roughriders and Tiger-Cats
Marc Mueller, the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ offensive coordinator who won a Grey Cup last year after winning a pair of rings as a longtime offensive assistant coach in Calgary, was a summer fixture with the Ticats when he was growing up.
His grandfather was Ron Lancaster, a legend in both Regina and Hamilton, and every summer from the time he was nine years old until he was 19, he spent more than a month around the Ticats, for whom Lancaster was the coach and then general manager.
“Just being able to drive to and from work with my grampa (from Ancaster) was my favourite part,” says the 37-year-old Mueller, whose mother Lana is Lancaster’s daughter and whose father Larry is a former assistant GM with the Riders.
“It was just he and I, and we’d talk about what was going on that day in practice and why.”
“It’s a part of my life which led to what I am now; being a coach and having a deep love for football.”
Mueller was nine when Lancaster took over as Ticats head coach in 1998 and turned the team’s fortunes around. They won the East, and the following year they won their most recent Grey Cup.
“When I was 10, I used to snap the ball for skelly (receivers, backs and quarterbacks against linebackers and defensive backs); I’d fold towels in the basement just to help out. I’d hold water, whatever they let me do; anything I could do to prove I could stay and not have to go back home to Regina.”
Mueller was a very good football player himself, winning a high school championship and later quarterbacking the University of Regina Rams and earning a CFL tryout with Edmonton.
“I was fortunate to spend most of my summer in Hamilton until football would start up in Regina, and I’d always be around for four or five games, and I’d always go with the team to a game in Toronto or Montréal.”
“Some of the main highlights of my life were at Ivor Wynne Stadium with guys who helped shape me as a football player and a young man, like Danny McManus, Carl Coulter, Rob Hitchcock and Mike Morreale to name just a few.”
“It was so much fun every day, and those guys were nice to me and took pretty good care of me. They let me play with them in crib tournaments on the road. They probably had to, being the grandson of the head coach.”
“I’m sure at times I was annoying, but they never made it seem that way when I was a kid.”
Lancaster was diagnosed with bladder cancer in 2004 and later, lung cancer. When he died in September 2008, he was the club’s Senior Director of Football Operations.
“I was young, so most of my time in Hamilton during games I’d just watch,” Mueller says, “but when he came back from cancer actually did something. I had to get him water, keep him hydrated.”
“All those years around the Ticats and my grandparents (Bev and Ron) were such an important part of my life.”
Once a Cat, never a Cat?
Charleston Hughes, a six-time All-CFL DE, was informed by Saskatchewan head coach Corey Mace on Tuesday that he’d been selected to the Canadian Football Hall of Fame class of 2026, to be inducted at Hamilton Stadium, Sept 17 and introduced during the Ticats game against Montréal the next night. In 2018, Hughes was a Ticat, but only on paper, as he was traded to Saskatchewan in February 2018, the same day he’d been obtained by Hamilton from the Calgary Stampeders. The Ticats obtained Vernon Adams Jr. from the Riders in the swap. Adams is now the starting quarterback in Calgary. Hughes joins Speedy Banks and Sean Millington, who were announced previously, in the new class with three more inductees yet to be revealed.
Notes and Quotes:
Ticats’ field-side halfback Quavian White is out with injury, and Kaleb Hayes steps into the role … Jarret Doege, signed this week, is the third quarterback on the Hamilton roster …the Tiger-Cats rank No. 2 in the CFL for the fewest penalties, the kind of overall discipline which can pay dividends … Hamilton has never trailed by more than 3 points in a game this season … Couple of milestones on Sunday in Regina: Ticat MLB Wynton McManis will play his 100th CFL game and Rider QB Trevor Harris his 200th … in case you were wondering: QB Jake Dolegala is the tallest player on the active roster at 6-foot-7, but OT Brayden Swartout, who’s on the reserve roster, is also 6-7. OT Quinton Barrow is 6-6, OT Trevor Reid is 6-5, as is Punter Mitch McCarthy. On the current practice roster, P Nick Haberer and TE Jevoni Robinson are both 6-5. Four other Ticats measure 6-4 … it got lost in the post-game concentration on Bo Levi Mitchell’s lower body injury but former Mac star Owen Hubert had an outstanding game last weekend, recording 3 special teams tackles … Saskatchewan’s Marc Mueller, the coordinator of one of the most effective offences in the league says, “I’m looking forward to Sunday, it’ll be two good teams going at it. They’ve got good players, and they’re well-coached. I was fortunate enough to work with Brent (Monson, Ticat defensive coordinator) for years in Calgary. He is always going to be prepared. Brent is good at putting those guys in spots where they can use their talent best.” Monson’s defence has allowed the fewest (376 per game) net yards in the league and fewest points per game (24.5) … game within the game: the Riders have the highest punt return average at 19.3 yards per game (aided by Mathew Sexton who took one 101 yards for a TD in his debut) and the Cats have allowed the second-fewest punt return yards at 10.8 per game … Rider WR KeeSean Johnson has 100 yards in receptions in 3 of the 4 games so far …. fellow WR Kian Schaffer-Baker will reach 250 career receptions with his next two catches …. Trevor Harris is 11-5 in his career against Hamilton, while this will be Jake Dolegala’s 1st career start against Saskatchewan, one of his 3 former teams … 2024 CFL defensive player of the year DB Rolan Milligan remains on the six-game injured list for the Riders … RB A.J. Ouellette returns to the Saskatchewan lineup after injury but RB Thomas Bertrand-Hudon moves to the injured list as does DB Nelson Lokombo … Hamilton native Darius Bell, a rookie OL, is on the Riders’ 6-game injured list … in 18 CFL games this year only one was won by a team with more turnovers than the opposition.
