It's been a hell of a rise for Zach Collaros and Bo Levi Mitchell.

Each entered the league and played sparingly in 2012, got an opportunity and showed their potential in 2013, entered the year as starters for the first time this season, and now are playing for the Grey Cup in just their second career post-season starts. They're flying through many a player's career goals list.

The league has seen a changing of the guard at their most prominent position of late. Five of the league's nine teams entered the year with quarterbacks in just their first or second year as starters. And the young guys are having success as well. Of the five new starters, only Winnipeg and Drew Willy failed to make the playoffs. And the QBs in the Eastern and Western Finals had a combined two career playoff starts, gained just the week before in the Division Semi-Finals.

Heading into last year's Grey Cup, the quarterback comparison pieces were very different. Darian Durant was in his fifth year as full-time starter for the Saskatchewan Roughriders and about to start his third Grey Cup game. Not to be outdone, Hamilton had 14-year veteran Henry Burris and his two Grey Cup rings leading the Ticats into the big game.

But then Ticats head coach and general manager Kent Austin took a chance in the off-season, signing Collaros and letting Burris walk, and it's paid off nicely for the Black and Gold. While Collaros wasn't a finished product like Burris, at just 25-years-old to Burris' 38, he offered a shot at more sustained success.

For the Stamps part, they took a bit of a chance with Mitchell as well. Despite leading them to the Grey Cup just a year earlier, Calgary left steady veteran Kevin Glenn unprotected in the expansion draft, and started Mitchell over the more experienced but slightly less enticing Drew Tate.

Much has been made of the Ticats' rough 1-6 start, but that fairly closely coincided with Collaros' stint on the six-game injured list. Since his return on Labour Day weekend, the unofficial start to the CFL season, the Ticats are 9-3 (including playoffs), almost as impressive as the Stampeders' 8-2 record during that time.

A head-to-head comparison reveals similarities as well. While both Collaros and Mitchell missed some regular season time due to injury, they finished with comparable stat lines. Mitchell had a better touchdown to interception ratio, 22: 8 compared to 15:9, and finished with more passing yards (3,389 to 3,261) but Collaros had a higher per-game yards average and was more accurate (65.8 percent to 63.3 percent).

The comparables in their first games as post-season starters begin and end with the W. While Collaros played the role of game manager, finishing with a clean and mistake-free 200-yard performance, Mitchell exploded for 336 yards and four touchdowns.

It's a new era in the CFL with a growing number of young quarterbacks taking the helm and making names for themselves across the country. One of Collaros and Mitchell may get a head start on the rest of the pack with their first Grey Cup win on Sunday.