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TSN CFL Analyst

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How high can Ricky Ray climb on the all-time records lists?

First of all, before Ricky Ray can attack the record books anymore he must fully heal and recover from off-season shoulder surgery. Subsequently, head coach Scott Milanovich, has taken the "bull by the horns" and named Trevor Harris (Edinboro) the starting quarterback … for now!

I love this strategic move by Milanovich. It puts Harris in a different state of mind knowing it's his team until Ray is a go. This allows him to deal with all the pressures of being "The Guy,"  early. There is a difference, and the earlier the better to start experiencing the reality of those pressures.

Harris takes control of the Argos offensive ship with 94 career pass attempts under his belt. That’s 6,123 less than Ray; just saying!

Mitchell Gale (Abilene Christain), with a whopping 10 passing attempts as an Argo, will now be one play away from being "The Guy," and this will have his full attention and increase his heart rate just a tad.

The Argonauts are not in an ideal situation once again this season, particularly early on where they will be on the road for the first seven weeks of the season (including preseason). An anomaly for sure, especially when you are minus one of the best quarterbacks in the history of the CFL.

As a player or coach you are always looking for ways to overcome some type of adversity and/or challenge, in this case it will be overcoming a real quirk in the schedule. I believe Milanovich will present this as a positive to Harris and his team. There's really no other choice than to embrace the opportunity and attack the challenge one day at a time.

Look, this is not the Argos first "rodeo" when it comes to adversity due to displacement of facilities and dealing with quirks in the schedule. They will find a way to embrace the challenge, as always! Not putting the cart before the horse here because with leaders like Chad Owens, Andre Durie, Chris Van Zeyl, Matt Black, Ricky Foley, and James Yurichuk, these guys will find a way to compete and work through an extremely difficult scenario.

If they can come out of first half of the season still in the hunt and relatively healthy, Harris will have gained some valuable experience and Ray will be 100%. Then it only makes this team stronger when it counts down the stretch!

Oh, to answer the question, attacking the record books is not Ray’ss mantra or what makes him tick. Capturing his fourth Grey Cup title is all that matters to this champion!

Competing for a roster spot is Logan Kilgore (Middle Tennessee State) and Blake Sims (Alabama).