REGINA -- There was a time many, many years ago when Saskatchewan Roughriders' quarterback Trevor Harris was on the verge of giving up on the sport of football altogether.
Back in his freshman year of high school, the Waldo, Ohio native had little interest in continuing to play the game and was looking to get away from the gridiron. His mom came up with a plan, though, and it’s safe to say Harris found his way from there.
Heading into the West Final, the veteran is playing some of the best football of his career -- and he has another major team award to show for it. Harris was named the Riders’ Most Outstanding Player for the 2025 season, marking the fourth time he’s won a team MOP honour in his career.
“I was telling somebody this morning that for my freshman year, I tried to quit football and my mom paid me 50 bucks to play in my high school first year,” Harris said. “It was probably a pretty good investment at this point. It's been fun and I'm really thankful to be in a good spot to accomplish what we want to accomplish.”
Harris had a career season with the Roughriders, finishing with 4,549 passing yards, 24 touchdowns and 11 interceptions. His quarterback efficiency rating (110.7) is second among quarterbacks who have seen action in more than half their games and he's been among the top three in the league much of the season. That all led to him being named the unanimous selection as the Roughriders MOP.
“It's a huge honour, I'm very thankful, but we have a lot of deserving candidates and this is the ultimate team sport,” Harris said. “It's like the turtle on a fence post. If you see a turtle up on a fence post, he didn't get there on his own. I know it's a cliche, but it's the truth… it’s the o-line, it’s A.J. [Ouellette], it’s the receivers, it's people filling in, stepping up. It's a very, very big honour, but if it scored us points in the playoffs, I'd like it a little bit more.”
Regardless of how a question was asked about Harris’ performance this year, he was always quick to defer to the team aspect of the game. That included when he was asked about living up to the potential and then some from when the season started.
“It’s not really like the end thing I envisioned, but it's pretty darn cool,” he said. “Shoot, I think you could probably sit quite a few people up here next to me with [offensive coordinator Marc] Mueller and the quarterback room with everything we've done preparation-wise. A.J. protect and block and catch and everything that he's done, and the receivers with KeeSean and Dohnte and Sam and Schaffe and Pic."
“The list goes on and it's been great. I think this group knows what we're capable of, what we're aiming toward and we've maximized the regular season. We've got tunnel vision on what we want to accomplish as a group together.”
As well as things have gone as a unit, there’s still little question Harris has been playing some of the best football of his long career, by his own admission. That includes multiple 4,000-yard passing seasons prior to this one, in addition to being named a East Division all-star in 2016 and West Division all-star 2024.
Asked what has changed and improved, Harris pointed to layering throws and using different touch on his passes in various situations. That, combined with a dedication to improving all season long as an offence on the whole has led to his gaudy quarterback numbers.
“We've done a tremendous job of getting on the same page and it's been a lot of hard work,” Harris said. “I really feel like this last month, since the second half of the Edmonton game, I feel like we've started really pushing the envelope and pushing toward where we want to get to.”
The fact Harris is doing all this as a 39-year-old quarterback is impressive, especially given how he’s been able to avoid injury most of the season.
“I've tried to always tell myself that you can continually get better and age truly is just a number,” he said. “When you start losing mobility in your body and your joints and stuff, that's when you start to age and I still feel great. I feel like I've always wanted to say that age was not gonna be what made me retire, it was gonna be when I didn't have the desire to do it anymore. The fact that you can get to this age and still feel like you have a higher ceiling and you can play better football in the future is a credit to the people that have helped me along the way in those ways.”
For all he’s accomplished this season, there are still the big games ahead -- including the West Final at Mosaic Stadium on Saturday, Nov. 8. Harris is confident there’s still much more in the tank, and the goal remains to give the Roughriders fans something special to remember from the 2025 campaign.
“I still honestly feel like my best football is right in front of me,” he continued. “I really do. I know that you probably get sick of hearing that and roll your eyes probably, but I really believe that.”
