CFL legend Andrew Harris has signed with the Saskatchewan Roughriders as the team's running backs coach and knows it's the first step in the right direction for his post-playing career.
"I want to, eventually, either be a GM or a head coach in this league," Harris said. "I felt like if I would have waited any longer, then maybe this opportunity would have went away."
He has experience when it comes to the management side of football as the director of football operations for the Vancouver Island Riders in the Canadian Junior Football League. According to Harris, he is eager to learn and gain as much knowledge as possible.
"I'm going to be a sponge, try to learn this process and be as impactful as I possibly can," Harris explained.
Watching last year's CFL playoffs with no team affiliation brought Harris back to football, which helped him pursue a coaching or management career.
"Honestly, I wasn't really missing football that much until the playoffs started last year," Harris said. "That's when I first really started missing football and was thinking I want to get back into it."
Harris is already familiar with the Green and White coaching staff because while he was with the Argonauts from 2022 through 2023, Corey Mace was the defensive coordinator and Edwin Harrison was the running backs coach.
"I need guys that you can trust that'll bring you along and will support you. I feel like this is a good situation for me," Harris said." It's football and I know football really well; I'm excited to help contribute to the success of the team."
The five-foot-nine, 215-pound former running back spent 14 years in the league, playing for the B.C. Lions, Winnipeg Blue Bombers and Toronto Argonauts. His crowning achievements in the CFL are his four Grey Cup rings: one with the Lions in 2011, two with the Bombers in 2019, 2021 and one with the Argonauts in 2022.
He earned individual accolades during two Grey Cup games, the Most Outstanding Canadian in 2011 and one in 2019 plus winning Most Outstanding Player. In total, Harris rushed for 10,380 yards and scored 51 touchdowns in his career. He was a four-time CFL all-star in 2012 and 2015 to 2018 while winning the league's Most Outstanding Canadian award in 2017.
One of Harris' former teammates is A.J. Ouellette and he already has plans to challenge him in the upcoming season.
"Let's try to challenge him now to be a little more mobile, dynamic," Harris said. "That'll bode well for longevity to help him break more tackles because he'll be able to bounce off, have more balance, contort and move in different ways that it wasn't able to.
Harris believes there are great things to expect from Ouellette and his running back group this upcoming season.
"A.J. still has a lot of years left; all of our backs are still relatively young and have lots of life left," Harris said. "We're gonna see some great things from A.J. and all the backs this year."
Harris is excited to be around Rider Nation and all of the excitement that they bring.
"​​The fan base is a great one, it's always one of the toughest places to play," Harris said.”There's a bigger purpose there because you have people that are expecting you to win and be great -- that pressure makes diamonds."
