Saskatchewan Roughriders receiver Dohnte Meyers had a “Hey, I know you!” moment when a newcomer, Aubrey Miller Jr., was introduced to the team last month.
Meyers and Miller Jr. were two of the principal players on Oct. 2, 2021, when the Jackson State Tigers outlasted the visiting Delta State Statesmen 24-17 in the W.C. Gorden Classic — a game that certainly lived up to the label.
Miller Jr., then a senior linebacker with the Tigers, figured in an eye-popping 19 tackles (six solo, 13 assisted) for the Deion Sanders-coached home side in Jackson, Miss.
Meyers scored a touchdown that ignited Delta State’s rally from a 17-0 deficit.
“We felt we should have won that game,” the first-year Roughriders pass-catcher recalls.
“We always had that game against Jackson State circled on our calendar, regardless of whether it was out of conference.
“It wasn’t just a charity game. We weren’t just happy to be there. We were going in there to win the game and send a message about Delta State football.”
That they did, nearly engineering an upset.
Delta State marched to Jackson State’s seven-yard line before a fourth-and-two pass fell incomplete with five seconds left in the fourth quarter.
“They won that game and then our season that year, my junior year, kind of took a turn for the worse,” Meyers says.
“We thought that game was kind of a pivotal point, especially with Deion there and being surrounded by Jackson State.
“It was a Division 1 program versus a Division 2 program and a Mississippi rivalry. There were all those things leading up to it and we tried to put our best foot forward.
“So when I saw Aubrey, I remembered him, just because he had a great game, and we did a pro day together.”
A great game, indeed.
Nineteen tackles!
“We just had a defence that had a bunch of guys who allowed me to fly around to the ball,” says Miller Jr., whose signing was announced by the CFL’s Roughriders on Aug. 12.
“When you just want to get to the ball, sometimes you don’t count the tackles. You just wait until the end of the game and you hear about it.”
Asked about the physical toll that was exacted by making so much contact in one game, the 25-year-old Miller Jr. shrugs.
“It’s college, man,” he says, “so my body was kind of young.”
It appeared that Jackson State would win handily after assuming a 17-point lead.
But then Delta State got on the board when Patrick Shegog hit Meyers with a 35-yard touchdown pass at 4:32 of the third quarter.
“That was sweet,” Meyers says with a smile. “I was, as they say, lit.
“I took my helmet off as soon as it happened, looked at the crowd, and told everybody, ‘Relax. We’re here to play ball.’
“It was amazing.”
Jackson State soon responded when Shedeur Sanders (Deion’s son) threw his third touchdown pass of the day to help the Tigers assume a 24-7 advantage.
Delta State quickly answered with a touchdown and followed up with a field goal that narrowed the gap to seven points.
Ultimately, it came down to one final possession by Delta State, which scrimmaged the ball on its 25-yard line with 2:23 left.
The Statesmen moved the ball briskly until finding themselves in a second-and-16 predicament with 32 seconds left.
Shegog promptly found Meyers for 14 yards, down to the seven-yard line.
Needing two yards to move the chains, Delta State threw back-to-back incompletions.
Although Jackson State won, both teams had a reason to celebrate.
“We always knew that we had the talent,” Meyers says. “It was a bigger platform that we got to showcase that on.
“I just reiterated that we had the guys in the room and we could get the job done against any opponent, regardless of whether it was Division 1.
“As long as you put the football down, we know football and we know how to make plays. We can do it on any stage.”
Miller Jr. was tough to upstage after playing a role in 19 tackles. Not one of them, however, was registered when Meyers had the football.
“He was on a scouting report, for sure,” Meyers says with a laugh.
“They were a big-hitting team, so I was making sure I wasn’t on the receiving end of any of those hits.”
