Riders News

Roughrider fans who find wearing a jersey just isn't enough can now have the team's logo carved into their hair.
At Xclusive Hair, a salon in south Regina, stylist Tasia Bodei will use her skills to shave the Roughrider logo into customers' hair.
She taught herself how to do what's known as "carving". To take the look one step further, she will also dye the logo green.
 

The Saskatchewan Roughriders were without their starting quarterback for one day and they're lucky it wasn't longer than that.

Darian Durant has been keeping his symptoms secret for close to three weeks, but when the symptoms got much worse yesterday, Durant couldn't bite his lip any longer.

"I thought it was something that would just go away but it progressively got worse," explained the second year starter.

"Yesterday, it hit its worst part so I finally figured I should go get it checked out for it."

The Saskatchewan Roughriders will make a change to their secondary for the third time this season when they take on Montreal on Friday. Tad Kornegay, aka Mr. Everything, will move from linebacker to wide-side corner to replace the injured Donovan Alexander.

Alexander tweaked a hamstring injury against Hamilton and will sit out for the second game in three weeks. Leron Mitchell, who's also injured, played the position against Edmonton.

He struggled with punting over the first few weeks of the season and he's now on his way out.

The Riders announced Monday that they are releasing import kicker/punter Louie Sakoda.

He averaged only 33.9 yards a punt in three games with Saskatchewan. That's the lowest punting average in the CFL.

Sakoda was replaced by Eddie Johnson for the game against Calgary in Week 4. Johnson's averaging 45 yards per punt, the second-highest average in the league.

(File photo)

The Saskatchewan Roughriders were able to pull out another win and ruin a record setting day by Arland Bruce.

After trailing at the half 14-13, the Riders came out in the second half and outscored the Hamilton Tiger-Cats 24-10 for a 37-24 win.

Wes Cates led the way with 141 total yards and 2 touchdowns.  Andy Fantuz had 8 catches for 100 yards.

The Roughriders must have been happy to see the Hamilton Tiger-Cats up next on the schedule (Saturday, 4:30 kickoff, Mosaic Stadium, TV: TSN). The Tabbies haven't won in Saskatchewan in 10 years. They're last win at Mosaic Stadium, which was still Taylor Field at the time, was August 11th, 2000 when they beat the Roughriders 29-23.

The Riders are hoping to get back to their winning ways after a 40-20 defeat in Calgary ended their three game winning streak to start the season.

The Saskatchewan Roughriders offensive line says their performance last week against Calgary wasn't their best.  Quarterback Darian Durant was pressured numerous times and sacked twice.

Center Jeremy O'Day says they want their QB as comfortable back there as possible.

"You want to make him as comfortable as you can back there.  You don't want him to think about the defence and the front guys, so we have to do a better job of that."

Marc Parenteau says one bad game doesn't mean a whole bunch of changes are needed.

The Saskatchewan Roughriders are looking for a little more consistency from their offence.  After a couple of sub par games the past two weeks, they're looking for that spark to light a fire underneath them.

Wes Cates says the loss to the Stamps is that spark they need.

"I think we just needed a team (Calgary) that was hungry and was going to come out and challenge us to let us know that it's not going to be easy.  Calgary showed us that we need to work hard week in and week out."

The Saskatchewan Roughriders are looking to fix some holes in its defence.  Tied for first in the CFL with 129 points allowed, there is a lot of room for improvement.

Defensive back Lance Frazier says that's a number that needs to get better.

"I take it personal because most of that's in the back end.  We've allowed a lot of passing yards this year and that's something we have to tighten up on and I take it very personal.  I have complete confidence we will get better."

The Calgary Stampeders and Saskatchewan Roughriders looked like two teams trying to find their game after the first half. Too bad for the Roughriders the Stampeders found it the second half and Saskatchewan did not.

The Stampeders outscored the Riders 33-13 in the second half for a 40-20 victory and a share of first place with Saskatchewan in the West Division. Both teams are now 3-1 after the first four weeks.