THE CANADIAN PRESS
OTTAWA — The Ottawa REDBLACKS are still waiting for the results on Henry Burris’ injured finger, but Rick Campbell told TSN 1200 Ottawa Monday morning he expects Trevor Harris to start Thursday against the Montreal Alouettes.
Burris injured the pinky finger on his throwing hand during the third quarter of Saturday’s season-opening 45-37 overtime win over the Edmonton Eskimos.
“He’s actually seeing a guy this morning and we’ll have to wait and see,” Campbell said in the same interview. “We’re fully anticipating that Trevor will be our guy this week just because it’s a short week, but we’re gonna wait and see until Henry comes back from the doctor this morning.”
The injury happened on a play-action fake to running back Travon Van, then on the next play Burris couldn’t handle the snap and had to fall on the ball. The 2015 Most Valuable Player exited the game after throwing for 251 yards, one touchdown pass and an interception on 23-of-31 attempts.
» Related: Harris leads REDBLACKS to OT win
Trevor Harris picked up where Henry Burris left off in Ottawa’s season-opening win (Johany Jutras/CFL.ca)
Harris, acquired as a free agent by the REDBLACKS after leading the CFL in touchdown passes with the Toronto Argonauts a season ago, picked up right where Burris left off, throwing for 292 yards and three touchdowns on 17-of-19 passing.
In leading his team to a dramatic overtime win in the Grey Cup rematch, it didn’t take long for one of the CFL’s biggest insurance policies to pay off in the first week of the 2016 season.
“People always talk about how the backup quarterback needs to prepare like the starter even though they’re not,” Campbell added, “but you could see it was very evident when he went into the game that he had prepared like he was going to be the starter and was ready to go and good on him for being ready to go.
“It takes all 44 guys on the roster to get it done and that was definitely true Saturday night.”
Campbell has reiterated that Burris, if healthy, is his starting quarterback, but for Burris to play on a short week he’d have to be on the mend fast.
The REDBLACKS will look to start 2-0 on Thursday in Montreal against the 1-0 Alouettes.
