Zach Collaros estimated Wednesday that he was 11 or 12 years old when he first walked into a huddle as a quarterback.
Nearly two decades have passed, so Collaros’ skills as a leader have only grown since that day.
“I have great parents so they allowed me to have confidence in myself no matter what I was doing,” the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ starting quarterback said at Mosaic Stadium. “From middle school on through high school into college and into the CFL, I’ve always had great coaches and great mentors and you pick up things along the way on how other people lead.
“(Then-University of Cincinnati head coach) Butch Jones and (offensive co-ordinator) Mike Bajakian used to tell me at Cincinnati all the time (that leadership) is a skill you can practise every single day. As the quarterback, naturally it falls upon you.
“I try to do my job the best that I can. I’m a perfectionist by nature, so I try to make sure everybody else is doing the right thing too. I’m sure that’s probably annoying sometimes, but that’s just how I am.”
Collaros, 30, won the Roughriders’ starting job in training camp and began the regular season with a victory over the Toronto Argonauts. He took the loss in Saskatchewan’s second game, a contest against the host Ottawa Redblacks which he didn’t finish due to head and neck injuries.
After sitting out four games — and after watching backup Brandon Bridge go 2-2-0 as the starter — Collaros returned to the lineup against the Edmonton Eskimos on Aug. 2. Saskatchewan lost that game, but since has rattled off three straight victories.
As a result, Collaros takes a 4-2-0 record as the Roughriders’ starter into Saturday’s game against the host Winnipeg Blue Bombers (2 p.m., CKRM, TSN).
“He’s a great communicator and he’s one of those guys who’s easy to like,” Saskatchewan head coach-GM Chris Jones said after Sunday’s 31-23 victory over the visiting Bombers in the Labour Day Classic. “He comes to work every day and he’s blue collar.
“He doesn’t do a bunch of this rah-rah stuff. He’s just kind of a blue-collar type of quarterback. It’s easy to follow him.”
Guard Dariusz Bladek believes every quarterback has a different style of leadership. When it comes to Collaros, Bladek said the QB “keeps his head high, which brings great morale to the group.”
“Not to take anything away from Bridge or (third-stringer David Watford), but Zach brings control and authority to the huddle,” Bladek said. “You know what you’re getting. It’s clean and crisp — it’s business. You walk up to the huddle, get your play and get right back down.
“He always has a tone to him. There’s never a moment when his tone drops. When we were playing Calgary and we were down all those points, he was the same man. If anything, he was pushing more, telling us, ‘We’re good. We’ve got this.’ He was like that against Winnipeg too when we needed those two crucial drives in the fourth.”
On Sunday, the Bombers took a 20-17 lead with 2:01 left in the third quarter. After the Roughriders took possession at their 35-yard line, Collaros led the offence on a six-play, 75-yard drive that culminated in his 25-yard touchdown pass to Marcus Thigpen at 1:03 of the fourth.
Collaros completed all four of his pass attempts on the drive for 66 yards.
The Bombers cut the deficit to one on a Justin Medlock field goal at 7:44 of the fourth, but Collaros guided the Roughriders on a six-play, 69-yard march that ended in Nick Marshall’s one-yard TD run at 13:54.
Collaros went 2-for-2 passing for 59 yards on that possession; a third throw drew a pass interference call on the Bombers in their end zone.
“He steadily improves and that comes with being in there playing,” Roughriders offensive co-ordinator Stephen McAdoo said Wednesday. “He was hurt in the first part of the season and now he’s back and he just gains more confidence as he’s in there.
“He’s learning the guys who are around him. He worked with some of the guys in camp. There are a few pieces that he hasn’t thrown to as much as some of the others, but he’s learning everybody to an extent that he’s feeling more comfortable.”
That’s not to say everything has been hunky dory. Collaros has yet to exceed 300 yards passing in 
a game this season (his high is 270) and he has thrown just five touchdown passes (versus four interceptions).
But the Roughriders appear more willing to throw the ball down the field with Collaros at the controls. He has attempted 11 passes of 30 or more yards in his six games, while Bridge tried just two passes of that length in his five appearances.
McAdoo noted that he trusts all of the Roughriders’ quarterbacks, but Collaros’ experience and his strengths as a player have led to aggressive play-calling.
On Sunday, for example, Collaros’ 39-yard completion to Jordan Williams-Lambert on a second-and-three play in the fourth quarter helped set up Marshall’s final TD. The call showed an aggressiveness that caught many people — the Bombers included, no doubt — off guard.
“Everybody looks for you to throw the ball down the field 20 times, but what are the odds of you making completions?” McAdoo wondered. “If (the odds aren’t good), then I’m putting our defence in a hole and that’s not what I’m here to do.
“When the opportunity presents itself for us to make those plays by what the defence is doing, we’re going to take them.”
