The Saskatchewan Roughriders will be without the team's best defensive player Roland Milligan Jr. for Week 16 against the Calgary Stampeders -- he welcomed his daughter into the world with family. Milligan Jr. and his wife had a baby girl, Suni Rebecca on Tuesday.
Head coach Corey Mace is confident his defence will rally together while Milligan Jr. is away.
"Everybody has to do their job," Mace said. "If anything the guys take from him it's how he prepares himself every single day. You don the helmet with the Green and White, you got to get it done."
The five-foot-11, 200-pound defensive back is in his fourth season with the Riders and been having a career-best season in 2024. He's played 13 games so far registering 62 defensive tackles, 18 special teams tackles and six interceptions.
Meanwhile, Milligan Jr.'s defensive cohort, Jameer Thurman, is confident his teammates can pull together against the Stamps in Milligan Jr.'s absence.
"We have great communication with our guys in the back end," Thurman said. "We just got to go out there and communicate. Of course, guys are in different spots that they haven't been before, but we go out there and communicate; there shouldn't be a lapse at all."
Through Week 15, Saskatchewan's defence ranks second in the league in interceptions with 16 and tied for first in fumble recoveries at 10. The Roughriders are also third in the league in sacks with 31.
Offensively, the Riders have running back Ryquell Armstead starting in the backfield with Frankie Hickson being placed on the one-game injured list. Armstead was signed on Monday and Mace was excited about his eagerness to play and how much he learned in less than one week with the team.
"He's done an unbelievable job spending time learning with the coaches, the things that we have asked from him," Mace said. "I believe he can help us. He's as excited as ever to play. I know the guys around him are excited as well."
One of those players around Armstead, quarterback Trevor Harris, who has an unwavering belief in his new RB.
"[Ryquell] has done a good job in his first week with us," Harris said. "I always tell him: 'If we screw up, we'll screw up together.'"
The Roughriders' game against the Stampeders starts with Countdown To Kickoff at 4:30. You can catch the call from Dave Thomas and Luc Mullinder with kickoff at 7:30 p.m. Everything can be listened to live on 620 CKRM. Saskatchewan tries to snap a seven-game (0-6-1) winless streak.
