A few short years ago, Bo Levi Mitchell and Trevor Harris seemed to be in danger of either getting stuck in depth roles or being out of the CFL entirely.
Today, the veteran quarterbacks just might be the top candidates for the league’s most outstanding player award heading into a showdown between the CFL’s division leaders.
Mitchell, 35, brings his East-leading Hamilton Tiger-Cats (6-3) to Regina on Saturday to face Harris, 39, and the top-ranked Roughriders (7-1) in perhaps the most anticipated game of the season to date.
“Incredible amounts of respect. Personal opinion, two future hall-of-famers,” Roughriders head coach Corey Mace told reporters this week.
“… Just having time spent around both those guys, super competitive. They’re going to do anything possible to push their team forward.”
Mace has a unique perspective on the quarterbacks, who both entered the league in 2012.
A defensive lineman as a player, Mace was put on offence for short yardage and caught Mitchell’s first career touchdown pass 13 years ago with the Calgary Stampeders. He played with Mitchell for four years and then was an assistant coach on a Stamps staff with the QB from 2016-21.
“I’m not shocked at the career (Mitchell’s) had. Special talent, man,” Mace said. “Does a lot of really good stuff and he’s been able to do it for a long time. Nothing but respect for old Bo.”
Older Harris, meanwhile, was signed by the Roughriders to be their quarterback prior to the 2023 season, Mace’s first year as head coach.
Things turned sour for both quarterbacks in the years after Mitchell’s Stamps beat Harris’ Ottawa Redblacks in the 2018 Grey Cup.
Mitchell, a two-time MOP, lost the starting job with the Stampeders in 2022 and was traded to Hamilton after the season. He endured injuries and inconsistency in his first season with the Ticats and appeared on shaky ground, but bounced back last year to be named the East’s top player (albeit in a non-playoff season). This year, the Ticats had won six in a row before a 41-38 overtime loss to the B.C. Lions last week. Mitchell overtook Stamps legend Doug Flutie for ninth on the CFL’s career passing-yardage list earlier this year.
Harris was signed by the Edmonton Elks as their franchise QB prior to the 2019 season, but was pushed out of that role in 2021 and shipped to the Montreal Alouettes. He eventually overtook current Stamps star Vernon Adams Jr. — another QB writing a strong redemption story — for the Montreal starter’s role before he signed with the Roughriders.
Mitchell leads the league in passing yards (2,856) this season, while Harris is tops in completion percentage (75.2). Mitchell has a ridiculous 21-3 touchdown-to-interception ratio after going 38-28 in his first two years in Hamilton. Harris also is impressive this year at 13-4.
Ticats head coach Scott Milanovich, like Mace, knows both quarterbacks well. He started coaching the Argonauts in 2012 when Harris broke into the league with Toronto, sitting behind hall-of-famer Ricky Ray and current Winnipeg Blue Bombers star Zach Collaros in what now looks like one of the best QB rooms in CFL history. Harris, who was on a Grey Cup team that first year, finally got a chance to start most of the season in 2015 under Milanovich in Toronto before he signed with Ottawa.
“In my opinion, he’s playing the best he’s ever played (this year),” Milanovich said of Harris. “I don’t think there’s a QB in football that gets the ball out quicker. His accuracy is as good or better than ever. All those years of experience are enabling him to know exactly where he wants to go with the football quicker.”
Harris also sang the praises of Mitchell.
“Always admired Bo from afar, watching him play,” he said. “Makes the game look easy. Never gets sped up. Does a tremendous job.”
It’s possible this matchup at the halfway mark of the season is a Grey Cup preview.
Mitchell has won two Grey Cup games as a starter, while Harris is still looking for his first (though he has two while being a backup or third-stringer).
More than 30,000 tickets have been sold for the marquee matchup five days before opening kickoff.
The visiting Roughriders beat the Ticats 28-23 in Week 2, but Hamilton wasn’t playing at the same level back then.
“They’re a good team, we believe we’re a good team,” Mace said. “We know it’s going to be a battle. But you know, we’re playing with one extra here. The fans are showing up for this one. It’s going to be fun.”
Sergio Castillo was part of a record day for kickers on both sides of the border last Saturday.
The Blue Bombers kicker tied a CFL record with a 63-yard, go-ahead field goal in the final minute of what ended up being a walk-off loss against Calgary on a Rene Paredes three-pointer
That same night, Jacksonville Jaguars kicker Cam Little nailed a 70-yarder in a pre-season game against the Pittsburgh Steelers. It was four yards longer than Justin Tucker’s NFL record, but Little’s kick doesn’t qualify because it was in a pre-season game.
Some of the most successful kickers in CFL history currently are in the league (Castillo, B.C.’s Sean Whyte, Paredes and Ottawa’s Lewis Ward are longtime success stories), while it’s no longer very rare to see NFL kickers try field goals from 60 yards or more.
Why are we seeing better kicking now?
“I think it’s just kids … they’re starting to learn the technique a lot younger,” Castillo said this week. “I’m training kids from like 10, 11, 12 years old. Compared to when I was starting, guys were learning when they got to high school. So they’re developing their technique before they develop their strength. So they’re depending on the technique, not the strength. And then when the strength comes along, now you combine both of those, you’re going to have records shattered.”
Slip-sliding the wrong way
The league’s regular-season division winners from last season are heading in the wrong direction at the halfway mark.
After a 3-0 start, the Blue Bombers have lost four of five and are clinging to third in the West as they prepare for a Thursday home game on a short week against a Redblacks team that has won two in a row.
The Alouettes (5-4), meanwhile, have lost four of their last six and are 1-4 with McLeod Bethel-Thompson starting in place of the injured Davis Alexander.
Caleb Evans replaced an ineffective Bethel-Thompson at halftime of last week’s home loss to Edmonton and is expected to start Saturday on the road against Nathan Rourke and the B.C. Lions. The Alouettes placed Bethel-Thompson on the six-game injured list with an elbow injury on Wednesday, and signed former Argos QB Cameron Dukes.
Thursday, Aug. 14: Ottawa Redblacks (3-6) at Winnipeg Blue Bombers (4-4), 8:30 p.m. ET / 7:30 p.m. CDT
Friday, Aug. 15: Toronto Argonauts (2-7) at Edmonton Elks (2-6), 9 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. MT
Saturday, Aug. 16: Hamilton Tiger-Cats (6-3) at Saskatchewan Roughriders (7-1), 3 p.m. ET / 1 p.m. CST
Saturday, Aug. 16: Montreal Alouettes (5-4) at B.C. Lions (4-5), 7 p.m. ET / 4 p.m. PT
