Quarterback Trevor Harris and the Saskatchewan Roughriders will look to start playing their best football of the season beginning this weekend. (Saskatchewan Roughriders)

Riders looking to hit their stride as Labour Day Classic approaches

By Britton Gray Sep 3, 2026 | 4:18 PM

The Saskatchewan Roughriders always look to improve throughout the season.

But once Labour Day hits, head coach Corey Mace feels like this is the time of year when you really need to start seeing the team trend upward.

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“The season standings usually start to get tighter and tighter around this time. You want to be hitting your stride once you get this far in the season. Everyone should understand what we are trying to do in the system. You’re just looking for progression,” Mace said.

Saskatchewan comes into the Labour Day Classic against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers with a 7-4 record and just ended a two-game slide last time out. The Riders defeated the Toronto Argonauts 28-24 last weekend at Mosaic Stadium.

Mace believes his team is right where it is supposed to be at this point.

“Definitely room to grow with the remainder of the season. We need to see it each week,” Mace said.

Quarterback Trevor Harris believes every game isn’t necessarily about winning all the time, but about becoming the team they want to be come the end of the season.

“This is when it’s the most important time to play your best football is from here onward. Make sure you’re still continuing to make strides and get better every day but sticking to your routine of rehabbing your body and pre-habbing your body and keeping your body strong, because this is where a lot of times the aches and pains can catch up with you and the body starts getting a little bit tired and maybe the mind is a little bit tired or you go to bed a little bit later,” Harris said. “It’s time to lock in and kick into overdrive and make sure we are playing our best football. It’s the best time of the year. The only thing missing is the weather getting a little more chilly so I look forward to that.”

While the Riders are coming into the game off a hard-fought win over the Argos, the Bombers are coming off their most complete game of the season. Winnipeg dominated the Montreal Alouettes 44-28 to improve to 6-5 and add some more stakes to the game this week.

“You can’t just say because they’ve had losses in the past that it’s going to carry on. Teams can make a turnover real quick and maybe that was the game that got them over the hump,” defensive back Marcus Sayles said. “They have to play us two more times back-to-back, so we’re going to be ready as well.”

Saskatchewan got some good news on the injury front as wide receiver KeeSean Johnson (back) and Sayles (quad) both returned to practice Thursday. Running back A.J. Ouellette also logged a full practice, but with this being his sixth game on the six-game injured list, he hasn’t been with the starters at practice this week.

Defensive end James Vaughters was limited after suffering what is being reported as a calf injury during practice.

Kickoff for this week’s game is set for 5 p.m. Sunday. The Green Zone pregame show begins at 3 p.m.