Dale MacMillan/Esks.com
It’s been five years since Trevor Harris has played for a team coached by Scott Milanovich and he’s now about to be reunited with him in Edmonton.
The pair were together in Toronto as Harris began his CFL career. But after Harris moved onto the Ottawa REDBLACKS and then to the Eskimos and Milanovich took his coaching abilties to the NFL, he didn’t think the duo would ever get back together.
“It’s one of those things that you just shake your head and say, ‘life.. life is just crazy,’” Harris said about playing for Milanovich once again. “The way I’ve looked at Coach has been such a mentor to me and guy that I aspire to continue to accrue knowledge that he has. When he went to the NFL I thought, you know, there’s probably no chance at all that I’ll ever get to play for him again.”
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Milanovich and Harris are pictured here in 2015 during a game at Rogers Centre (Adam Gagnon/CFL.ca)
Harris was with the Argonauts from 2012-2015. Milanovich was the Double Blue’s head coach from 2012-2016. Harris was a backup to start his career in the CFL, as many pivots are, until 2015 came along. That was the season that put Harris on the map, after replacing Ricky Ray (who had an early season injury) and passing for 4,354 yards and 33 touchdowns. That was his final season in Ontario’s capital before he moved on to the nation’s capital, signing with the REDBLACKS as a free agent ahead of the 2016 season.
Milanovich spent one more season with Toronto before he headed to the NFL to become the Jacksonville Jaguars quarterbacks coach.
During the four years that the duo were together in Toronto, Harris wasn’t sure how Milanovich felt about him as a quarterback.
“Early on in my time in Toronto, I wasn’t too sure he liked me,” admitted Harris from his home in Ohio on Tuesday. “It was one of those deals where I kind of just shut up and did what I was told. Coming into the quarterback meetings everyday and learning the offence and really just playing well enough to hang around long enough to the point where someday I’d get an opportunity.
“When you’re young and in the league and you’re not sure who likes you or if you have any fans. If you get released early without an opportunity, it’s hard to make a career of this. So I just knew that I had to make sure I was doing the right things every day to the point where they’d say, ‘okay, well if something happens to our starter, he’s been around long enough to get this chance.'”
Harris had learned a lot from Milanovich during their time together in Toronto and while they’ve been apart. Down the road, when Harris eventually decides to hangs up his cleats, he wants to get into coaching. He says he wants to become a coach similar to Milanovich, in his knowledge and the way he instills culture into his players.
“I developed such an admiration for coach,” Harris said. “Just his knowledge of the game, the way he approaches people, the way he implements culture with the team and really just the way he’s able to relate to quarterback play. It’s amazing. The way that I’ve learned the CFL, learned the game, learned coverages and processing things is all been a lot of what Scott has taught me.”
Harris and Milanovich were together in Toronto from 2012-2015 (Adam Gagnon/CFL.ca)
And in the strange way that life sometimes works out exactly how you’d like it to, Harris and Milanovich will reunite in Edmonton this season.
Before the campaign gets underway, which the CFL has announced will not happen before September, Harris is continuing to train and get ready from his home, where he is practicing social distancing with his wife Kalie and their two sons, TJ (three) and Trace (three months). He’s been working on his grip strength, forearm strength and, of course, throwing. He’s also been researching and learning how to preserve his body for longevity.
When asked about how his elbow is feeling, the same elbow that kept him on the sidelines late last season, he says it feels great but also added “it’s hard to tell until you give it the workload that it’s going to have in a season, in practice and camp.”
“When this became a chance for it to happen I was just… I couldn’t believe it,” Harris said, when asked how he felt when he heard Milanovich would be taking over as head coach.
“It was one of those deals where it was sort of a dream come true. Him, Jaime Elizondo and Jason Maas are guys that I’ve just relished and just been so thankful to have the opportunity to play for those guys.”
