Perseverance pays off for Argonauts’ Harris
QB getting MVP buzz with stellar individual play, leading Toronto atop the East
Heading toward the midway mark of the CFL season, Argonauts quarterback Trevor Harris has thrown himself into the mix for the league’s most outstanding player. Harris is one of the feel-good stories of the CFL season so far, and if there were such an award, he might win that too. The 29-year-old quarterback showed patience sitting behind Ricky Ray for three seasons — and watching Zach Collaros step ahead of him when Ray was hurt — and now that he has finally gotten his opportunity, he is making the most of it.
Harris leads the CFL in most of the quarterbacking categories after eight games and, in his first year as a starter, has led the Boatmen to a 6-2 record, which has them tied for first in the East Division.
The other early contenders for the most outstanding player include Hamilton’s Collaros, in his second season with the Ticats after leaving Toronto; Calgary quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell, and B.C. Lions running back Andrew Harris.
The Toronto quarterback has been remarkable for a first-year starter on a team that is the most inexperienced in the league. Ottawa Redblacks quarterback Henry Burris, a future Hall of Famer, told the Star last week that Harris has made a big impression on him. Burris called Harris, at six-foot-three and 212 pounds, a “no-frills, no-thrill quarterback,” but meant no disrespect.
“He doesn’t have big speed,” Burris
Argos QB Trevor Harris’s game can be summed up this way — flashy doesn’t always win but efficiency almost always does
said. “He’s not the biggest guy, he doesn’t have the big arm, but the thing is he is very intelligent and he’s very accurate with his passes.”
Flashy doesn’t always win. Efficiency almost always does.
The true test of whether Harris is MVP material will likely play out in the coming weeks in a head-to-head battle with Collaros and the Ticats.
The Argos are in Hamilton on Labour Day on Sept. 7 and have a rematch at Rogers Centre on Sept. 11.
Collaros has thrown for a leagueleading 2,339 yards to lead Harris, who is the runner-up with 2,253 yards. But Collaros has also thrown one more interception, with six to Harris’s five.
The last time a first-year starter at quarterback — Harris’s only previous start was at the end of last season — won the league’s outstanding player award was in 2004 when Casey Printers was a rookie with the B.C. Lions.
Not only is Harris putting up Ricky Ray-type numbers, but he is near the pace of Doug Flutie’s franchise record for touchdown passes. Harris has19 so far, which would work out to 42 over a full season. Flutie threw 47 touchdown passes in 1997.