Darian Durant says Roughriders 'will hoist that trophy again'

After nearly a month away, the Roughriders are back home to play their final games at old Mosaic.

Saturday's game against the Alouettes and the following Saturday against the Lions are the only CFL dates left before Taylor Field gives way to new Mosaic next year.

It would have been fitting to at least give the old place one last playoff game before it tangles with the excavator, but that's not going to happen.

The 2016 Roughriders were quick to poo on that possibility. 

My kid was crying when I told him the news- Randy Chevrier after signing with the Riders

Despite a four-game win streak, the Riders playoff hopes officially vanished a couple weeks ago. Yet they still have their game faces on.

They plan on doing some damage with these few games they have left.

"If you are a competitor, it doesn't matter if it's a card game or a board game you want to win." said Darian Durant on Friday. "We are not paid to come out here and lose games no matter the significance of it; our job is to win. Even though we're out, we have something that we're building towards. We're trying to build a culture here and it doesn't matter if the game is meaningful or meaningless, we want to win it."

The Riders' veteran quarterback is one of the few remaining members from the 2013 Grey Cup championship team, a team which will be honoured Saturday.

For the majority of people connected with that club — Taman, Chamblin, Chick, Dressler, Brackenridge and so on — the wounds from their release are probably still too fresh to be in the mood for reminiscing, which is why none of the above will be there.

But that Grey Cup night still ranks as the best night of Durant's life. He hasn't smoked a cigar since, but he plans on doing so again before the Riders say goodbye to him too.

"We will hoist that trophy again before I walk out of town. You can mark that down and that will be my next one." said Durant just a few days after refusing to talk about his contract situation, yet that comment alone suggests a contract extension announcement is imminent.

The CFL needs more people like Randy Chevrier

If he's not applying for a job in the CFL's front office, Randy Chevrier sure sounds like he is.

His first order of business, after practicing with the Riders for the first time Friday, was to put on a jersey and join some of his new teammates at the hospital to spend time with the kids. 

"That's what it's all about". said Chevrier.

Chevrier wears his passion for the Canadian game on his sleeve, and to cap off off his 14-year career, he couldn't be more thrilled to finish it off with the Roughriders and in the same stadium where he won his first Grey Cup.

"If you played hockey, you would want to play for the Canadiens. If you played baseball, you would want to play for the Yankees. Well I believe the Riders have that mystique in the CFL. Playing against them, they've been the bitter enemy in my house. My kid was crying yesterday when I told him the news as I picked him up from school." said a smirking Chevrier.

Chevrier spent the last 11 seasons in Calgary after starting his career with the Eskimos. He has three Grey Cup rings to show for it.

The Riders, having no luck keeping their long snappers healthy this year, put in a call to Chevrier in Calgary where he was working for Adidas-Reebok and in the queue with the Calgary fire department.

"Someone asked me, 'the Riders are out of the playoffs, why would you go back?' Well someone's going to turn the lights on. Someone is going to show up to sell beer. Someone's going to show up to sell popcorn. A bunch of people are going to sit here and cheer. That's reason enough to compete." said Chevrier.

"I've got him teaching about three, four other guys how to snap. Looks like we need six or seven snappers," said Riders' head coach Chris Jones, knowing you need only one healthy one. 

Jorgen Hus and Daniel MacDonald will finish the season on the injured list, along with 22 other players, a pretty glaring reason why the Riders shattered the CFL record for number of players used in a single season.

"The injury thing has become almost a laughing matter. There's 14 guys on the six-game that we would love to have playing for us right now."

Extra Points:

• Vernon Adams is the slated starter for Montreal Saturday afternoon.  He will be the ninth different quarterback to start for the Alouettes since Anthony Calvillo took a hit from the Riders' Rickey Foley in 2013 at Mosaic Stadium. Calvillo never played again.
• Jake Waters, who has been with the Riders since July, has been listed as the backup quarterback for Saturday's game, as Chris Jones plans on evaluating as much as possible while trying to win the game at same time. Jones says Waters reminds him of Dave Dickenson. "He doesn't have the strongest arm, just a smart guy who delivers the football well."
• The Riders' head coach/GM doesn't plan on a long nap when this season is over. He already has four workouts planned before the Grey Cup. After the Riders last game in Vancouver, on the first Saturday in November, Jones and his staff will be evaluating free-agents in Long Beach and Oakland.
• The Riders appear to be losing their lustre with the couch potatoes. They are no longer the most-watched team in the CFL. The league announced on Friday the Eskimos are now leading the league in overall national TV ratings this season with an average audience of 649,000 viewers, followed by the Roughriders, average audience of 627,000 viewers.