Peter Power/CFL.ca
TORONTO — While he didn’t think it would be this soon, James Franklin is set to play against his former club, the Edmonton Eskimos, this weekend.
“It’s funny because I was expecting maybe another year or two until I’d actually get to, not necessarily play against you (Reilly) but be able to have our teams play against each other, because I know we don’t directly compete,” Franklin said to Mike Reilly on a conference call with the media ahead of Saturday night’s tilt.
“Now we’ll get this opportunity and I’m just thankful for the help that Mike’s provided for me over the years helping me develop and progress as a quarterback especially in a league up here.”
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Before joining the Toronto Argonauts, Franklin patiently waited behind Reilly for his opportunity, learning from the reigning Most Outstanding Player. He appeared in 55 games with the Esks with 52 of them being a backup primarily to Reilly himself.
“He had to jump in and play significantly early based on my injury,” said Reilly, recalling his knee injury in 2015. “Between him and Matt (Nichols) keeping our team afloat on that season we had the Grey Cup. His play time may not have been as significant over the two seasons after that but what you don’t see on game day is the stuff that goes on on the field in practice, what goes on in the meeting rooms, things like that, and you could certainly see James grasping the offence better and better as each season went on.”
This weekend the pair will face each other for the first time as the Argos look for their first win of the season and the Eskimos hope to improve to 3-1.
Franklin was looked to during the team’s Week 2 contest against the Calgary Stampeders after Ricky Ray left the game with a neck injury. The team then went on a bye and it was deemed that Ray would miss a significant amount of time because of that injury.
Now with arguably the biggest opportunity of his CFL career in front of him, Franklin is prepared to be the team’s starter and for everything the Eskimos defence is going to throw at him on Saturday.
“I’m excited to see a lot of the guys and then play against them,” Franklin said. “I know that they’re definitely going to be giving me a hard time out there. Especially Mondo (Almondo Sewell). He’d always joke around at practice (saying), ‘that’s a sack, Frank!’ and I’d say, ‘no, upright on that tackle!’ Unfortunately now, I’m going to have to try and prove that if he gets a hold of me.”
Franklin’s first test as a Toronto’s starting pivot gets under way at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday night at BMO Field.
