Harris goes green Former Bomber joins Roughriders coaching staff By: Jeff Hamilton Posted: 6:49 PM CST Monday, Jan. 20, 2025

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This article was published 20/01/2025 (607 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The magnitude of the move is not lost on Andrew Harris, nor is the fact that many who share his hometown won’t be all that pleased with his new football home.

Harris might not have started his CFL career in Winnipeg, joining the B.C. Lions as a fresh-faced running back in his early 20s, but it is where he grew up and where he cemented himself as one of the greatest running backs ever to play the three-down game.

It’s also where Harris first harboured a healthy hatred for the Saskatchewan Roughriders. That disdain for all things green would take on a whole new meaning after Harris signed with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in 2016, returning home to lead the Blue and Gold to a pair of Grey Cup championships and plenty of victories against the Riders — the Bombers’ most-hated rival — before joining the Toronto Argonauts in 2022.

It should come as no surprise Harris’s decision to join the Roughriders coaching staff, announced Monday as the club’s new running backs coach, was met with mixed reviews from both sides.

Love it or hate it, Harris said he’s simply focused on the new opportunity ahead of him and none of that stuff from the past. Make no mistake, his allegiance is now with Riderville.

“The fan base is a great one. It’s always been one of the toughest places to play, but always an exciting place to play, and I think there’s a lot of energy and passion for the team, which is amazing,” Harris said. “When you have 30,000 on your side, and then a whole province behind you that really cares about the team… there’s a bigger purpose there, because you’ve got people there who are expecting you to win and be great, and that pressure makes diamonds. I’m looking forward just getting into the group.”

Harris noted a few times during his media conference the Riders were the ones to offer him a job, adding he had spoken to a few teams in the process. What he didn’t say was he attempted to contact the Bombers but his calls were not returned.

It’s unclear why the Bombers were seemingly uninterested in adding to their coaching staff someone as decorated as Harris, who is the league’s all-time leader in rushing yards by a Canadian. He’s also a four-time Grey Cup champion and a five-time CFL all-star who is well respected across the league, particularly in Winnipeg.

Part of it would certainly be that the Bombers already have a quality running backs coach in Jason Hogan, who has done an admirable job with Harris’s replacement, Brady Oliveira. Oliveira, who has talked glowingly about his relationship with Hogan, has led the league in rushing the last two years and was named the CFL’s Most Outstanding Player in November.

“It’s just football. The rivalries are amazing, but as a coach, all you’re expected to do is prepare your athletes to play the best they can and try to take the emotion out of it as much as possible.”–Andrew Harris

Part of it could be a lack of trust between Harris and Bombers head coach Mike O’Shea that first arose when Harris showed up to training camp out of shape ahead of the 2021 season. With Oliveira ready to take on a bigger role the following year, the transition from one Winnipeg-born tailback to another led to a messy breakup between the Bombers and Harris, who was given a low-ball offer at the 11th hour before eventually signing with the Argos.

“It’s just football. The rivalries are amazing, but as a coach, all you’re expected to do is prepare your athletes to play the best they can and try to take the emotion out of it as much as possible,” Harris said. “Being a Winnipegger, that’s going to be hard to do, but at the end of the day, they’re the team that wanted to give me the opportunity to coach, which I wanted to do. Ability is nothing without opportunity, and they’re the ones giving me the opportunity, so I’m going to do whatever I can to make sure that I’m giving the backs, the offence, the run game – the whole team – the best I can.”

While Harris might be in enemy territory, there are a few friendly faces in Regina who should provide a soft landing.

Riders head coach Corey Mace was the Argos’ defensive co-ordinator when Harris was there for two years. It’s the same with Edwin Harrison, who is now running the offensive line in Saskatchewan after two years as the running backs coach in Toronto.

“When I was speaking with Mace… it’s about finding the opportunity with the right group of guys that I could gel with. I’m a rookie again now, as a coach, and you need guys that you can trust, that will bring you along and will support you,” Harris said. “I feel like this is a good situation for me, and one I never would have expected. But at the end of the day, it’s football, and I know football really well and I’m excited to contribute to the success of the team this year.”

Harris will also be working closely with No. 1 running back A.J. Ouellette, Saskatchewan’s prized free-agent signing last winter. Harris and Ouellette began as teammates in Toronto, but have since grown into close friends, with Harris sporting a Riders Ouellette jersey while attending a game in Hamilton last year.

It was nearby, in London, Ont., where Harris had been working a sales job as he prepared for life after football. But once the summer ended and fall arrived, with the leaves changing colour and the weather dipping, Harris knew he wasn’t ready to leave the game just yet.

“After I retired, I wanted to step away from the game a little bit and just re-evaluate what I wanted to do,” he said. “I wasn’t really missing football all that much until the playoffs started last year. That’s when things really gear up and I just know how that intensity kicks in and the attention to detail, and that’s when I first really started missing football and was kind of thinking maybe I wanted to get back into it.”

Another exciting development for Harris is that he’s moved his young family, including his partner Danica and their two sons, Axton and Eastyn, back to Winnipeg to be around a bigger support group. Harris also looks forward to seeing more of his teenage daughter, Hazel, who lives in Winnipeg.

“I’m excited just to be back home. Having two young boys and no family or support… it’s tough not having that, so really looking forward to having the family back with grandparents and my daughter and aunties and uncles and everyone around,” Harris said. “Family will stay there, and I’ll go back and forth for the first bit and then we’ll see how this year plays out.”

Jeff.Hamilton@freepress.mb.ca

X and BlueSky: @jeffkhamilton