ROBSERVATIONS: Trevor’s terrific totals … Jauch talk … how to “cell” a joke … non-scoring big-gainers … and the weekly shout-outs
Suppose someone told you the Saskatchewan Roughriders could deploy a quarterback who produces at a rate that would generate 42 touchdown passes and 5,738 aerial yards over an 18-game regular season.
You would sign up for that in a heartbeat, correct?
Thought so.
Well, it is my great pleasure to point out that there isn’t any need to sit back and dream that maybe, one day, the Roughriders will be blessed by such a player.
Trevor Harris is already on the payroll.
In 6½ games this season, the Roughriders’ starting signal-caller has thrown for 15 touchdowns and 2,072 yards.
Despite missing an equivalent amount of time with a knee injury, Harris is tied for third in the CFL in touchdown passes.
His quarterback-efficiency rating — an impressive 102.8 — also puts him at No. 3.
And how is this for a No. 2 ranking?
There are only six seasons in Roughriders history in which a quarterback has logged six or more multi-touchdown-pass games within a span of seven contests.
Kent Austin went 7-for-7 in 1991. Harris (2024 version) is tied for second, at 6-for-7, with Austin (1990), Glenn Dobbs (1951), Henry Burris (2000) and Darian Durant (2013).
Durant, by the way, was recently leapfrogged by Harris on the CFL’s All-Time passing-yardage list. With 31,956 yards, Harris has ascended to 16th.
And speaking of Burris …
Smilin’ Hank holds the team record for most passing yardage after a quarterback’s first 12 games in a Roughriders uniform (3,492). Harris, at 3,346, is second.
Over those 12 games — five in 2023 and seven this year — Harris has thrown for 21 TDs. (And remember: It’s actually 11½ games, including 6½ this year.)
But let’s be conservative and use 12 games as part of our extrapolations. Take Harris’s numbers over that period, project them over 18 games, and you have full-season totals of 32 TDs and 5,019 yards.
(OK, just for giggles, let’s try 11½! The results: 33 TDs and 5,237 yards.)
The Roughriders’ single-season leaders?
Touchdown passes: Austin (35 in 1992), Austin (31 in 1991), Austin (31 in 1993), Durant (31 in 2013) and Burris (30 in 2000).
Passing yards: Austin (6,225 in 1992), Austin (5,754 in 1993) and Durant (5,542 in 2010) are the only Roughriders in the 5,000-yard club.
You want more numbers? Oooooh, have we got numbers!
(Really, what else do you expect from a numbers nerd during a bye week?!)
Here is a list of the Roughriders’ top touchdown-pass totals over a seven-game span within a season:
25 — Kent Austin, 1991
19 — Tom Burgess, 1989
18 — Kent Austin, 1990
18 — Darian Durant, 2013 (Part 1)
17 — Kent Austin, 1992
17 — Darian Durant, 2013 (Part 2)
15 — Ron Lancaster, 1966
15 — Ron Lancaster, 1976
15 — Kent Austin, 1993
15 — Trevor Harris, 2024
14 — Ron Lancaster, 1969
14 — John Hufnagel, 1981
14 — Joe (747) Adams, 1982
14 — Henry Burris, 2000 (twice!)
OK, one more …
Harris has thrown for at least one touchdown in seven consecutive games. Here are the longest TD-pass streaks in Roughriders history, with playoff games included in the cases of Burris (2004) and Durant (2013):
14 — Kent Austin, 1993
13 — Glenn Dobbs, 1951
13 — Kent Austin, 1992
11 — Ron Lancaster, 1969
11 — Kent Austin, 1991
9 — Ron Lancaster, 1976
9 — Nealon Greene, 2003
9 — Henry Burris, 2004
9 — Darian Durant, 2013
8 — Ron Lancaster, 1975
7 — Ron Lancaster, 1966
7 — Ron Lancaster, 1972
7 — Ron Lancaster 1974
7 — Trevor Harris, 2024
If Harris continues at his current clip, his streak will have swelled to 12 — no, not 11½ — by the end of the regular season. Such a total would place him fourth on the Roughriders’ All-Time list.
HOORAY FOR RAY!
Austin’s three seasons with 30-plus TD passes coincided with Ray Jauch’s tenure as a Roughriders assistant coach.
Jauch, a 2024 inductee into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame, coached the Roughriders’ quarterbacks, receivers and running backs for two seasons before taking over as the offensive co-ordinator in 1993.
He spent the following two years as the Green and White’s head coach. Most notably, he impressively extracted an 11-7 record from a 1994 Roughriders team that was forced to get by without Austin (whose trade request had been accommodated) and free-agent departees Jeff Fairholm, Jearld Baylis, Barry Wilburn and Charles Anthony.
Jauch, now 86, is entering the Hall as a builder. He and the other 2024 enshrinees are to be honoured during halftime of Saturday’s CFL game between the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and the visiting Ottawa REDBLACKS.
It is due recognition for someone whose 126 head-coaching victories place him sixth on the CFL’s career list.
Jauch earned coach-of-the-year honours while in Edmonton (1970) and Winnipeg (1980). He guided Edmonton to a Grey Cup championship in 1975, when the team’s fierce rivalry with the Roughriders was at its best.
Although Jauch is best remembered as an elite coach, he was actually introduced to three-down football as a player with Winnipeg in 1960.
In fact, his finest game was at Taylor Field.
On Oct. 10, 1960, Jauch scored a touchdown on both sides of the ball to help Winnipeg defeat Saskatchewan 48-7.
He reached the end zone on a 34-yard reception and a 45-yard interception return.
“The game marked the first time all season that Jauch had played any defence at all,” Hank Johnson noted in the Oct. 11, 1960 Regina Leader-Post, “and he made his interception for the major on only his second play while stationed at a defensive spot.”
The latter play was his only pick over two seasons as a CFL player.
On a very busy day, he also found time to rush six times for 26 yards and return a punt for an advance of nine.
Two of the six TDs Jauch scored as a Blue Bomber came on that October day at Taylor Field.
Nearly 64 years later, Ray Jauch is again being celebrated.
He is entering the Hall alongside three former Roughriders players — Vince Goldsmith (1981-83, 1988-90), Weston Dressler (2008-15) and Chad Owens (2017).
Marvin Coleman and S.J. Green are also being enshrined as players.
Jauch and the late Ed Laverty are being recognized as builders.
As well, the Hall of Fame’s media wing has been expanded with the inductions of TSN’s Farhan Lalji and CFL stats genius Steve Daniel.
FLIPPING THE FIELD
During the game in which Jauch scored two touchdowns, Roughriders quarterback Don Allard hit Bob Renn for a 71-yard completion.
That connection was recently bumped down one notch, to 27th, on a lengthy list of the longest non-scoring passing plays in franchise history.
(See again: Numbers nerd on a bye week. No stat holidays here!)
Harris and Kian Schaffer-Baker collaborated on an 81-yarder one week ago in Winnipeg. That sprint, which set up a TD pass from Harris to Samuel Emilus, put Schaffer-Baker in a three-way tie for seventh on the following non-scoring scroll:
94 — Ron Lancaster to Bobby Thompson vs. Hamilton, Oct. 28, 1973
94 — Joe Paopao to William Davis vs. B.C., Aug. 5, 1984
85 — Bubba Wyche to Bobby Thompson at B.C., Oct. 30, 1969
85 — Ron Lancaster to Nolan Bailey at Calgary, Nov. 13, 1971 (playoffs)
85 — Bernard Quarles to Tony Dennis vs. Toronto, July 26, 1986
83 — George Cullen to Ken Charlton vs. Winnipeg, Oct. 18, 1941
81 — Kent Austin to Ray Elgaard vs. B.C., Sept. 30, 1990
81 — Reggie Slack to Tydus Winans at Edmonton, Nov. 9, 1997 (playoffs)
81 — Trevor Harris to Kian Schaffer-Baker at Winnipeg, Sept. 7, 2024
80 — Austin DeFrate to Curt Schave (75) and Nick Busch (five yards after a lateral) vs. University of Saskatchewan, Oct. 22, 1932
80 — Ron Lancaster to Bob Pearce vs. Hamilton, Oct. 28, 1973
80 — Henry Burris to Dylan Ching at Winnipeg, Sept. 29, 2000
79 — Heath Rylance to Curtis Mayfield vs. Montreal, Aug. 11, 1996
79 — Brett Smith to Weston Dressler at Hamilton, Oct. 9, 2015
78 — Joe Paopao to Tyron Gray vs. Calgary, Sept. 9, 1984
78 — Kevin Mason to Bruce Boyko vs. Winnipeg, Sept. 1, 1996
77 — Glenn Dobbs to Ken Charlton at Edmonton, Sept. 8, 1952
76 — Frank Tripucka to Ken Carpenter at Winnipeg, Sept. 7, 1957
76 — Darian Durant to Kory Sheets at Edmonton, Aug. 10, 2012
75 — Johnny Cook to Gabe Patterson at Calgary, Sept. 25, 1948
74 — Ron Lancaster to Bobby Thompson at B.C., Sept. 12, 1972
74 — John Hufnagel to Chris DeFrance at Winnipeg, Sept. 12, 1981
74 — Kent Austin to Don Narcisse at Ottawa, Sept. 24, 1989
72 — John Hufnagel to Joey Walters vs. B.C., July 18, 1982
72 — Michael Bishop to Rob Bagg at Montreal, Sept. 28, 2008
72 — Ryan Dinwiddie to Dallas Baker vs. Hamilton, Oct. 29, 2011
72 — Darian Durant to Chris Getzlaf at Montreal, Sept. 29, 2013
72 — Brett Smith to Nic Demski vs. Calgary, Aug. 22, 2015
71 — Don Allard to Bob Renn vs. Winnipeg, Oct. 10, 1960
71 — Ron Lancaster to Tom Campana at Edmonton, July 26, 1974
71 — Homer Jordan to Leroy Campbell vs. Edmonton, Sept. 18, 1983
71 — Marvin Graves to Demetris Bendross at Winnipeg, Aug. 3, 2001
71 — Cody Fajardo to Kian Schaffer-Baker at Calgary, Oct. 2, 2021
Longest non-scoring completion against the Roughriders: 100 yards — Joe Theismann to Eric Allen, Saskatchewan at Toronto, Sept. 19, 1973.
HEEEEEERE’S CALEB!
On Wednesday, I had the great honour of sitting beside Caleb Blundell — the Saskatchewan Roughrider Foundation’s operations and events co-ordinator — during a community event.
Awaiting a Win with Wellness presentation in Scott Collegiate’s gymnasium, we were both looking at our cellphones.
Then I happened to remind myself of a newly implemented policy that prohibits students from using cellphones during class time.
Technically, it was class time. And there were several dozen students in the bleachers, not far away from us … and not using cellphones.
Gulp.
I turned to Caleb and semi-jokingly asked him whether we were, in fact, in flagrant contravention of the rules and therefore subject to detention, expulsion, censure, etc.
His priceless response: “When you were in high school, the telephone hadn’t been invented yet.”
Caleb 1, Me 0.
ROLL CREDITS …
• Nice people who deserve a plug: Lori Dattilo, Maurizio Dattilo, Liam Dattilo, Noah Dattilo, Evan Dattilo, Elliott Dattilo, Peter Godber, Trevor Harris, Nick Wiebe, Rob Wiebe, Diane Wiebe, Connor Wiebe, Tom Hallick, Michel Drieger, Serge Balcaen, Kelly Moore, Matt Spence, Leigh Spence, Laurence Pontbriand, Ryan Karakochuk, Ross Vanstone (no relation), Chris Latimer, Pete Paczko, Lindsay Morhart, Barb Ryan, Reid Quest, Rhonda Haus, Nicole Bissonnette, Caleb Blundell, Dr. Jen Johnston, Gord Hunchak, James Shewaga, John Grainger, Mel Fiissel, Ken Newman, Jorgen Hus, Jay Dufour, Jay Onrait, Steve Daniel, Rhett Dawson and Weston Dressler.
