REGINA — The Saskatchewan Roughriders' season opener will feature only one of their four all-Canadians from last year — and he will be playing for the opposition.
Hello again, Anton McKenzie.
The import linebacker was part of the annual off-season exodus, signing with the B.C. Lions after spending three CFL seasons with Saskatchewan. He is to play against his former teammates Friday on Taylor Field.
Like McKenzie, linebacking cohort Maurice Lloyd left the Roughriders via free agency. Lloyd parlayed two-time all-star status into a lucrative contract with the Edmonton Eskimos.
Saskatchewan's other two all-Canadians will not play this evening due to injuries. Guard Gene
Makowsky will miss the early part of the season with a torn medial collateral ligament in his right knee. Tailback Wes Cates, the Riders' most outstanding player in 2008, is likely to miss at least two games while recuperating from shoulder surgery.
Others will have to shoulder the load as a result of some notable absences. But, really, what else is new?
This is the third successive season in which Roughriders fans have been left to lament departures or injuries. Dating back to 2007, Saskatchewan has been the CFL's runaway leader in terms of man-games lost to injuries.
The trend has continued early this season, with Makowsky, Cates and left tackle Wayne Smith already being sidelined. Smith is likely to miss the entire 2009 campaign after tearing his left
Achilles tendon during an off-season workout.
Although the injuries are already mounting, head coach Ken Miller is not experiencing a sense of deja vu . . . yet.
"Each day is a new day,'' Miller said. "Each game is a new game. Every season is a new season. We can't reflect back on those things and we can't practise or play timidly in fear of those kinds of things happening. We have to address every situation with positive optimism.''
The events of the off-season have not always engendered optimism — outside the organization, anyway.
Many Riders fans are wondering whether Lloyd, McKenzie and defensive end Kitwana Jones (who was donated to the Eskimos) can be replaced. Long-time Riders defensive co-ordinator
Richie Hall is also an Eskimo, having made his head-coaching debut on Thursday.
The alarm bells also rang last year, when the list of departees included head coach Kent Austin (who left to become the offensive co-ordinator at the University of Mississippi), quarterback
Kerry Joseph (who was traded to the Toronto Argonauts after being named the CFL's most outstanding player in 2007) and linebacker Reggie Hunt (a recent cut of the Montreal Alouettes, who signed him as a free agent last year).
During the winter of 2007, the Riders severed ties with defensive tackle Nate Davis, linebacker Jackie Mitchell and guard Andrew Greene. Not only that, the team's outstanding player in 2006
— tailback Kenton Keith — signed with the NFL's Indianapolis Colts.
The Roughriders were able to cope quite nicely, winning the Grey Cup in 2007. Last year, Saskatchewan won 12 games and staged a home playoff game for the second straight season, effectively muting the pessimists.
Of late, the naysayers are wondering whether Darian Durant is a bona-fide CFL starting quarterback.
Durant possesses many of the requisite attributes, as he demonstrated during a scorching two-game set last July. But can he excel for an extended period? That is one of many searing-hot questions in Riderville.
If the Riders are to enjoy another prosperous season, the quarterback carousel has to stop. The organization must settle on one signal-caller — ideally Durant — and allow him to play through his mistakes. It remains to be seen, however, if the coaches, fans and media can exercise the necessary patience, given the tendencies toward impulsiveness.
"To each his own,'' Durant said. "If you get wins and you move the ball, there's nothing anyone can say.''
If Durant succeeds, he would be among the rarest of players — a young quarterback whom Saskatchewan has developed into a star.
There is a change all Roughriders fans could applaud.
rvanstone@leaderpost.canwest.com
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