January 21, 2018

O’Leary: REDBLACKS’ GM sees growth from Trevor Harris

Patrick Doyle/CFL.ca

With his starting quarterback fourth in the league in passing yards last season and tied for the league-lead in touchdown passes (30), Marcel Desjardins was very happy with Trevor Harris’ 2017 season.

“I thought he did very well. Obviously his stats showed that,” Desjardins said last week in Banff, at the start of the GMs and team presidents meetings.

“It’s unfortunate that we weren’t able to win more games early on but I think it was a great learning experience for him to be the guy. I think he’ll come to camp this year so much further ahead in terms of not only knowing what to expect of the rest of the group but knowing how he will react in certain situations.”

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This will be Harris’ seventh season in the CFL, but last year was his first as a full-time starter. There was no question in the Ottawa REDBLACKS’ minds that Harris could do the job, but Desjardins knew that there’s always a learning curve when you officially get handed the keys to an offence for the first time.

“(As a first-time starter) you kind of maybe overreact to certain things and not react well enough to other things. I think it’s a great learning process for everybody,” Desjardins said, “whether it’s a quarterback or anyone else in the spotlight.

“His decision making…for me, for you, our decisions are maybe not behind the scenes but certainly we can spread them out a little more. His are within a fraction of a second sometimes. That’s where it’s tough on those guys.”

Harris went into last season fully aware of that too and tried to prepare himself for it. He worked with a sports psychologist ahead of the season — the same one that Tom Brady uses — and as CFL.ca’s Don Landry wrote about in October, he used military-inspired combat training to help with those split-second decisions he had to make.

“That’s one thing that Trevor is great at, is his preparation,” Desjardins said. “Both Xs and Os-wise and just the mental and physical side of it in terms of preparation for the season.

“A lot of that is off-season work. Every guy has to understand what makes him tick. Coaches and management can help but at the end of the day it comes down to the player. He wants to do those things, but at the same time you try it and if you don’t think it’s beneficial it doesn’t’ mean you continue it. You try to get a feel for what helps you and what doesn’t and why it does or doesn’t and you just evolve from there in terms of your preparation.”

Having signed Harris to a one-year extension on Dec. 13, 2017, Desjardins is looking forward to seeing that evolution continue when training camp opens this season.

“His play, even from 2016 and when he played in 2017, it was at a high level. I think part of his equation is, again, because he’s now the leader…that’s part of the dynamic of learning to be the starting quarterback, is to be true to who you are and don’t try to force things that aren’t you.”

Marcel Desjardins and Rick Campbell will look to get the REDBLACKS back in the Grey Cup in 2018 (Johany Jutras/CFL.ca)

Desjardins hesitates somewhat with the leader label. If you’re not a rah-rah type of player, he doesn’t want you to try to be that just because you’re the starter. Leadership has to reflect your actual personality. At the same time, you can’t just have one voice in the locker room.

“You go back to look at whether it’s Anthony Calvillo or Ricky Ray, guys that are not the rah-rah, vocal guys out there that have had (a lot) of success. You don’t have to be that guy,” he said.

“I think (Harris) is in the middle. He has that in him when it needs to be there, but I think as part of the dynamic of our team we need to have other guys help fill that role.”

DESJARDINS WORKING HIS WAY THROUGH HIS FREE AGENTS

With less than a month until the free agent market opens, Desjardins has signed a number of his key players to contract extensions. Brad Sinopoli, Harris, running backs William Powell and Mossis Madu are all staying in Ottawa.

“You have to prioritize, right? That’s the nature of the beast. Trevor and Brad were guys we needed to get done pretty quickly and there are others, but I don’t control all the elements, so to speak,” Desjardins said. “So sometimes the timelines are a little more out of my control.”

Tops on Desjardins’ list as Feb. 13 nears would be receiver/returner Diontae Spencer (922 yards receiving, 1,536 total return yards), who joined the team last year after spending the previous two seasons in Toronto.