Three Saskatchewan Roughriders have the chance to take home the Canadian Football League’s highest honour.
Head coach Craig Dickenson, quarterback Cody Fajardo and linebacker Cameron Judge have been named Coach of the Year, Most Outstanding Player, and Most Outstanding Canadian, respectively, in the West Division.
All three will now go head-to-head with the best in the East Division for tops in the league at the year-end CFL awards.
Dickenson is up against Hamilton Tiger-Cats head coach Orlando Steinhauer.
In his first season as head coach, Dickenson led the Roughriders to a 13-5 record. It’s the first time the team has won 13 games since 1970.
“It feels goods. It means we’ve had a good a year. I’ve never seen a coach of the year on a losing team,” said Dickenson.
“To be recognized and applauded for that, I feel very lucky.”
Fajardo will face Tiger-Cats receiver Brandon Banks. Fajardo led the league in passing yards with 4,302 and threw for 18 touchdowns.
He added 611 rushing yards and ran in to score 10 times. Fajardo was also named a West Division All-Star.
“It’s been a truly incredible year. At the beginning of the year, if you would have told me I’d be the West nominee for MOP I would have laughed at you,” Fajardo said.
“It’s meant a lot for me personally, but it’s always funny when you talk about individual awards in a team sport. Without the offensive line that I have, without the receivers that I have, without a defence getting us the ball back, there is no quarterback, there are no stats.”
Judge is competing with Montreal Alouettes linebacker Henoc Muamba. Judge had a career-high in tackles with 61, 11 special team tackles, five quarterback sacks, one touchdown, two interceptions and one forced fumble.
“After last season ended, I committed to working hard all offseason and when I got up here I committed myself to the film room. Film was probably my biggest step and I feel it helped me a lot,” Judge said.
“It means a lot. Matched up with a guy like Henoc is pretty special. He’s a guy who was here in my rookie year, I really watched him and took notes on how he carried himself.”
Winners will be announced at the 2019 Shaw CFL Awards ceremony on Nov. 21.
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