Ottawa Redblacks quarterback Jake Maier hopes to see plenty of familiar faces when he makes his return to Mosaic Stadium to face the Saskatchewan Roughriders on Friday night.
The 29-year-old pivot is one of a handful of players in Ottawa’s line-up who suited up for the Green and White last season, and the opportunity to return to Regina and meet up with everyone they won a Grey Cup with is always a good time.
Then they’ll have to get to work, and for a few hours do everything they can to disappoint their buddies on the other side of the field. Such is the life of a professional football player, especially when you’ve won a championship together.
“It'll be a lot of fun,” Maier said prior to Friday’s contest. “A lot of familiar faces. I really enjoyed my time here but I'm just excited to be in front of what I think is one of the best environments in the league. So it gives you a little bit of extra motivation.”
As has been well documented over the last week, Maier and his current crew haven’t had a lot of success this season. They currently have an 0-7 record, with Maier having completed 187 passes for 2027 yards, eight touchdowns and nine interceptions.
That’s a tough run, but Maier remains confident the Redblacks aren’t far from putting a few wins together.
“I believe I've been battling every week, had some games where I didn't play as well as I'd like to,” Maier said. “But then also I've had some games that I've felt pretty confident about and felt good about in terms of just kind of our performances and offence. There's a little bit more untapped potential that we need to get into in order to get over the hump.”
One player rooting for Maier — outside of tonight, of course — is Riders quarterback Trevor Harris, who developed a close relationship with his back-up in their season together.
“I love the guy, and he’s quickly become one of my better friends,” Harris said. “I talk to Jake almost every week, and quarterbacking in this league, you become kind of a fraternity. You get close to the guys you work with because you talk a lot of ball. He’s a similar mold to me in terms of the way he plays the game, he takes what the defence gives him and find opportunities for his shots.”
Harris also described Maier as “a really fun guy to work with” who has an entertaining personality behind closed doors.
“We quickly developed an appreciation for one another, and he’s one of the guys when I watch CFL football, it’s easy to root for Jake, especially since he plays in the East now,” Harris said.
Maier has much the same opinion of his former teammate.
“I think the biggest thing that stands out the most, not just with Trevor but with that whole quarterback room, is just how close we all became,” Maier said. “We're still close today. We're still really, really good friends. It'll be nice to see all those guys again and be able to compete against them. But when it comes to Trevor, it's just about how well he prepares and he's somebody that I looked up to while I was here.”
Game time is 7 p.m. at Mosaic Stadium, and you can catch all the pregame action on the Rider Broadcast Network beginning at 4 p.m.
