Johany Jutras/CFL.ca
We’re at the point in what can feel like a painfully long off-season that players are entering countdown mode, whittling away the remaining days before training camp opens.
Zach Collaros would like to welcome those players to the club. He’s been in countdown mode for a much longer time.
“When you haven’t played football for a long time, you’re champing at the bit to get back out there. But the way things ended for me in Hamilton, I’m definitely looking forward to this year,” Collaros said at Mark’s CFL Week in Winnipeg.
The 29-year-old QB saw his last significant action on the field on Aug. 18, in a loss to Ottawa that saw the Ticats fall to 0-8. He watched from the sidelines the rest of the way as his backup, Jeremiah Masoli, took over in unison with June Jones assuming head coaching duties. The team went 6-4 through its final 10 games.
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Collaros poses in his new colours during the TSN shoot at Mark’s CFL Week in Winnipeg last month (Johany Jutras/CFL.ca)
“It’s tough, but it’s a learning experience,” Collaros said. “I think you learn more from adversity and I was still around some great people last year. I was able to pull some things from people I met. It was good. Overall, a big learning experience for me, and I think I became a better person from this.”
As his time on the Ticats’ sideline piled up last season, it was clear that Collaros was headed for a change in scenery. That change came in January, when he was dealt to the Saskatchewan Roughriders. Collaros was a backup with the Toronto Argonauts in 2012, when Riders head coach Chris Jones was the team’s defensive coordinator. While they work on opposite sides of the ball, there’s been a longstanding mutual respect between the two.
“He’s intense. I think we’re kind of cut from the same cloth, I’m an intense guy too,” Collaros said.
“It’s going to be fun. He pushes guys and that’s what you want from your coach, guys that can push you hard. I know he’s more of a defensive guy but he does a great job with game management. I’m excited to be around him, all those guys, (Riders offensive coordinator Steve) McAdoo, the whole staff.”
Collaros heads into his new situation with questions hanging over him. His 12-game losing streak as a starter is one of the CFL’s longest. Some wonder if he’ll be able to regain the form he showed in that 2015 season, when he was a big-armed, contact-craving mobile quarterback. Jones feels like Collaros will answer any questions, any doubters he might have when he finally gets on the field at Mosaic Stadium in June.
Collaros went 0-8 with the Ticats in 2017 before being sideline for the rest of the season (Johany Jutras/CFL.ca)
“I told him that last year doesn’t matter, just like last year didn’t matter when we first got to Saskatchewan, it didn’t make a damn that (the coaching staff had) just won the Grey Cup. It didn’t help us, we won five football games,’ Jones told CFL.ca in January.
“Last year we told our group that (2016) didn’t really matter. We won five ball games but you know good and damn well that we were better than that. So, that’s what I told Zach. I want him to come in, be Zach. Do what you’ve done and you’ll be fine. Don’t try to do too much. Don’t try to fit in, you’re not a fit in guy. Be Zach and everything will be fine.”
Collaros says he knows McAdoo’s offence well — McAdoo was on that 2012 Argos staff as well — and that’s it’s a system he’s played in before. He looks at what Jones and the Riders have assembled through the off-season and sees improvements to a team that was a win away from playing for the Grey Cup last year.
Picturing Collaros working with Duron Carter, Caleb Holley, Namaan Roosevelt and reuniting with Bakari Grant, to name a few of his new targets, is an exciting prospect.
“The skill position players are very good. Adding Jerome (Messam) at tailback is a big thing for us, too,” he said. “We’re improving on the o-line. We had a good o-line last year and we’re only going to continue getting better there as well. Obviously, the weapons we have at the skill positions for a quarterback are very exciting and something I’m excited to be a part of.”
