Roughriders Head Coach Craig Dickenson backpedaled like a DB on Thursday after he initially indicated that Jake Dolegala would be the Riders starting quarterback during his media availability. But on Friday, the Riders Head Coach was more precise with his answer about the QB situation.
Dickenson confirmed that Dolegala would be the starting quarterback for the Saskatchewan Roughriders on Sunday when they meet the Argos. The backup QB for the game is still to be determined, neither Cody Fajardo or Mason Fine were at practice on Friday but the team is expecting at least one to be back on Saturday.
Nick Marshall would normally be the Riders emergency quarterback, but that won’t be the case on Sunday since he will be out of the Saskatchewan’s lineup Dickenson confirmed.
“We’re hopeful that we’ll get either Mason or Cody to be our backup, I’m quite confident that one of them will be able to go.”
There was some positive news for the Roughriders on Friday as Darnell Sankey and Rolan Milligan have been removed the team’s COVID protocol list. Milligan did not play in the Touchdown Atlantic game as he became ill the morning of the game.
It doesn’t appear the Riders will be getting any more reinforcements on the rest of their roster according to Dickenson.
“We are, what we are for this game, but after this game we should be a little bit better.”
Dolegala will be the number one QB on the depth chart after spending the beginning of the season as the third stringer. He’s been getting all of the reps at QB this week since he is the only healthy one at the moment. Dickenson has noticed improvement with Dolegala this week.
“Jake looked a lot better today than yesterday, I think he’ll look better tomorrow than he did today.”
The Riders depth has been tested throughout the year and it will face a tough task on Sunday with several new faces expected to be in the lineup. Despite all of that, the Riders Head Coach believes in their normally deep roster.
“Right now it’s just going to be one of those games where it’s going to be we’re playing who we can play, to be quite honest, if they’re a healthy guy they will probably be out on the field ”
Even though the odds are stacked against the Riders heading into the rematch with Toronto, Dickenson is confident in his club, even with a tough Argos team coming into Regina on Sunday.
“Our guys had a good day today and they know the expectation is to win, they’re here for a reason, they’re all pro football players, they get paid, expectation for them is to go out there and perform.”
With the two teams meeting for the second time in two weeks, Dickenson believes there won’t be as much scrapping between the two sides as their first encounter during the contest on Sunday.
“I think the second time around will be better, I sure hope so, we’ve talked to our guys at length and I know they’ve talked to our guys at length about cleaning it up, it’s just not a good look for anyone of us to be breaking up fights between grown men, it’s just stupid. ”
Dickenson added that he believes the refs will be cracking down on the players if things get chippy like they did in Nova Scotia, and the Riders Head Coach that he fully support the officials if it comes down to that.
The Riders will meet the Argos on Sunday in a game that was originally scheduled for Saturday. You can catch the game on 620 CKRM with Countdown to Kickoff at 2:00, Opening Kickoff is 5:00.
