Jyles’ reunion run continues; Esks QB facing three former teams in first three weeks

Chris O’Leary
Edmonton Journal

The reunion games aren’t quite finished for Steven Jyles yet.

The Edmonton Eskimo quarterback had his highest profile welcome-back game in Week 1 of the Canadian Football League season when Ricky Ray and the Toronto Argonauts came to Edmonton.

This week, the 29-year-old goes into Mosaic Stadium to face his former team, the Saskatchewan Roughriders. Next week, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers – Jyles’ team in 2010 – comes to Edmonton, completing a hectic first three weeks to his season.

“That’s great, man. I enjoy it,” Jyles said. “I’m looking forward to it, but you take it one week at a time and, this week, we’re focused on Saskatchewan.”

With a convincing 43-16 win over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, the Roughriders will play their first game at Mosaic Stadium this season. Having spent 2008 and 2009 in Regina, Jyles knows what to expect from what promises to be a rowdy crowd.

“Saskatchewan, they have a good football team and with Darian (Durant) as their leader, he’s an explosive guy offensively, so you have to go and be ready to match points for points with this guy,” Jyles said.

“We’re pretty confident in our game plan and we’re looking forward to going into Saskatchewan.”

The Eskimos will be going into a stadium that’s just been equipped with 7,000 more seats, making the league’s most passionate fans that much louder. Jyles acknowledged the fans’ antics, saying that they are a creative lot.

“You’re going to hear it,” he said. “You laugh at times because these guys are very creative. Some of the things they say, it’s funny, but I dealt with it throughout my college career. You go play in the SEC and these guys are packing 90,000, 100,000 in the stands and you’re going to hear a lot of noise and fans are going to try and get at you.

“So in a way, I’m a bit used to it. You hear it and you laugh about it, but stay focused on the ball game.”

“It’s a rabid crowd. They’re always very passionate,” Eskimo Head Coach Kavis Reed said.

“Our thing is to go in there and get a good start and temper the crowd a bit, that’ll help our young team.

“We know it’s going to be electric in there, we know they’re going to be full of energy, we know it’s going to be a lot of talking going on behind our bench. Our guys have to stay focused and concentrate on the 12 guys on the field.

“Those fans are one of a kind,” Jyles added. “I think that’s a student section right behind the bench. They get pretty creative and they don’t care what they say.”

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