Kevin Glenn knows the most popular man in Saskatchewan is the Roughriders’ backup quarterback.
Heck, he used to be the Roughriders’ backup quarterback.
But now Glenn is the No. 1 pivot in Saskatchewan, so he isn’t at all surprised to hear some folks suggest that backup Brandon Bridge should take over as the starter.
“I was that guy once,” Glenn, a 17-year CFL veteran, said Wednesday after the Roughriders practised at Mosaic Stadium. “The backup quarterback is the most popular guy. He sits there on the sideline and if the first guy is in there and he does something wrong, it’s always, ‘Let’s put that guy in’ because he’s not in. That’s just what it is in professional sports.
“It’s just like the relief pitcher is the favourite guy on the (baseball) team. It’s not the starter, it’s the reliever, the guy who comes in and saves the day.”
Glenn, 38, has been both a starter and a reliever since coming to the CFL in 2001. During his travels around the league, he has been part of quarterback controversies and has seen them flare up on other teams — and that apparently has given him prognosticating powers.
During the TSN telecast of Saturday’s 30-15 loss to the B.C. Lions, a camera found Glenn on the Roughriders’ sideline late in the game. He predicted that some of the network’s analysts would be talking about his age and about Saskatchewan’s quarterbacking situation — at the precise moment they were doing just that.
As he noted Wednesday, quarterback controversies are an occupational hazard. The more that those involved understand it, the more that they can joke about it — and that’s what he was doing Saturday.
“It’s all fun and games,” Glenn said with a chuckle. “I know some of those guys on the (TSN) panel and sometimes I’ve got that understanding that I know what they’re about to talk about. That’s just me foreshadowing that I could be on that panel one day because I already know what they’re going to talk about before they even talk about it.
“When you have a camera this close to your face on the sideline — when they’re literally pushing other guys out of the way who were next to me to get the camera this close to my face — I kind of figured what they were talking about.”
Glenn completed 19 of 27 pass attempts for 186 yards and two interceptions in Vancouver. It was his lowest yardage total of the season.
With the Roughriders trailing 30-0, Glenn gave way to Bridge late in the fourth quarter. Bridge went 6-for-6 passing for 114 yards with touchdown passes of 46 yards to Duron Carter and 45 yards to Naaman Roosevelt.
Roughriders head coach-GM Chris Jones said after the game that Bridge had been good, but the coach also pointed out that the Lions had played a much less aggressive style than they had against Glenn. Bridge concurred, saying he simply took what the Lions gave him.
But a number of CFL observers still suggested that Bridge should start ahead of Glenn when the Roughriders play host to the Lions on Sunday. Jones put the kibosh on that talk Wednesday.
“(Bridge) made two plays,” Jones said. “He threw the ball to two guys and one of them was a circus catch (by Carter).
“Kevin Glenn’s Kevin Glenn. He’s our starter and if there’s an opportunity to play Brandon Bridge or if we decide to play Brandon Bridge, then that’s the decision we’ll make at that point.”
Even Bridge was on board with that strategy.
“Everyone understands their role,” he said. “Everyone understands this is Kevin’s team, we’re going to support him and we’re going to go on.”
Despite some hiccups, Glenn has been solid since replacing the departed Darian Durant as the Roughriders’ starting quarterback. Glenn fits the ball-control offence preferred by offensive co-ordinator Stephen McAdoo and, for the most part, has made sound decisions with the ball.
On Saturday, he completed 70.4 per cent of his passes, but couldn’t get the Roughriders into the end zone. Their deepest penetration with him at the controls reached the Lions’ 29-yard line — but that drive ended with one of his interceptions.
Two other possessions which looked promising ended in sacks that drove Saskatchewan out of field-goal range.
“We had the worst things happen to us at the worst times,” Glenn said. “We’re driving down the field and we get a penalty here. We’re driving down the field and we throw an interception here. We’re driving down the field and we get another turnover or something here and it puts us out of field-goal (range).
“We were moving the ball, but when we needed to be detail-oriented, we weren’t — and things happened for the worst.”
Those issues prompted calls for a quarterbacking change from folks who put the blame on Glenn, even though he wasn’t solely responsible for the problems. Some of his detractors pointed to his age, a complaint that doesn’t faze him.
“Their first initial comment would be if I did it, ‘Oh, he’s getting old,’ ’’ Glenn said. “If a Brandon Bridge did it, it would be like, ‘Oh, he’s not ready.’ That’s just the nature of their reality and what they actually see.’’
But the talk of a quarterback controversy is water off a duck’s back for Glenn. In his mind, there are bigger issues about which to worry.
“Losing is probably the worst; other than that, nothing really gets to me,” said Glenn, whose team is 2-4-0. “I’ve been around (the criticism). It’s kind of like you’re immune to it. It’s not going to change the way I go home and sleep. Only losses do that.
“Only losses are when I can’t sleep and stay up, not when someone says something that is their opinion.”
