Darius Washington had a connection to the Saskatchewan Roughriders long before he joined the CFL team.
The 6-foot-4, 310-pound offensive lineman routinely received the Don Powell Award, having been honoured in 2022, 2023 and 2024 as one of the Florida State Seminoles’ unsung heroes.
Powell, a former guard and offensive line coach at Florida State University, was on the Roughriders’ coaching staff in 1973 and 1974.
“When I was doing research, I saw that,” Washington said. “It was really cool to see that he has ties to FSU as well.
“It’s a pretty cool, unique thing to see.”
Powell was an immensely popular coach during his time in Saskatchewan. He was only 40 when he passed away on May 21, 1975, following heart surgery in Regina.
The Don Powell Memorial Scholarship Fund was soon established by the CFL Players’ Association to assist graduating high school athletes in Saskatchewan.
Each year from 1976 to 1989, a celebrity dinner and dance was held in memory of Powell, with proceeds going to the scholarship fund.
Washington starred at West Florida High School in Pensacola before making his debut at Florida State in 2019.
He suited up for 57 games with the Seminoles, making 47 starts — including 33 at left tackle. Last season, he started at left tackle in 10 games, serving as a team captain in nine of those contests.
Washington attended the Denver Broncos’ rookie mini-camp before signing with Saskatchewan on June 9. Four days earlier, fellow American offensive lineman Payton Collins had injured a knee in the Roughriders’ regular-season opener.
Daniel Johnson, a Canadian, started the next four games at left tackle before suffering a shoulder injury.
With Johnson sidelined, a third left tackle — Washington — was assigned front-line duty as the Roughriders reached the one-third pole in their regular season.
He was part of an offensive line that helped the Roughriders improve to 5-1 by defeating the host B.C. Lions 33-27 on Saturday.
“No sacks allowed,” quarterback Trevor Harris said. “I take a lot of pride in that for the guys up front as well, because I know how much it means to them for the defensive line to be able to go away and not a single person got a sack. That’s pretty awesome.
“Darius stepping in and doing that, he’s been in some big moments in his career, based on where he played in college, so it didn’t surprise us.
“It’s a really big shout-out to Darius as well as our scouting department for putting people in good positions to step in and play like that.”
Washington stepped into a Lions linebacker after pulling from left to right on the Roughriders’ opening play from scrimmage. He helped to clear a huge hole for running back A.J. Ouellette, who gained 15 yards to ignite a touchdown drive.
“I’m thankful that they even called that play, just to have the trust in me to be able to pull and get the job done,” Washington said. “Pulling around and hitting a linebacker helped me get acclimated to the game really fast.”
Ouellette ended up rushing 15 times for a game-high 72 yards. Overall, Saskatchewan outrushed B.C. 111-43 in addition to throwing for 395 yards. Add it all up and the Roughriders exceeded 500 yards of offence for the first time since 2019.
That is a testament to the play of Washington, left guard Zack Fry, centre Logan Ferland, right guard Jacob Brammer and right tackle Jermarcus Hardrick, all of whom are coached by offensive line specialist Edwin Harrison.
But this is no time to rest on one’s laurels. The Roughriders’ focus quickly turned to Friday’s matchup with the Edmonton Elks (7 p.m., Mosaic Stadium).
“It was good to go out there and play football again, because I hadn’t played organized football since last year, so that was pretty fun,” Washington said.
“You can’t think about it too much. You’ve just got to look at it and keep moving on. But it was fun to have that experience again and go out and compete with brothers as well.
“That’s the best part of this game — that you get to do it with people who have the same common goal. You just have to make sure you do your best to achieve that goal.”
