The Calgary Stampeders won’t have Bo Levi Mitchell under centre when they take on the Montreal Alouettes Friday and his replacement isn’t the player anyone expected.
The Stamps released their official depth chart on Thursday and it is American rookie Jake Maier, not Canadian Michael O’Connor, who has been given the starting role.
After Mitchell was placed on the six-game injured list with a broken leg on Tuesday, O’Connor was included in his media availability with both signal callers at the podium at the same time. And the 25-year-old national has been dressed as Mitchell’s backup for the first two games of the 2021 season and was widely considered a shoe-in for the job.
Not so, as Maier — a true CFL rookie — impressed enough in training camp to leapfrog Calgary’s listed backup in the event of injury. Maier played 36 games over three seasons at the University of California Davis, where he completed 992 of 1,495 career passing attempts for 11,163 yards and 88 touchdowns with 33 interceptions. He was the Big Sky Conference’s newcomer of the year in 2017 and in 2018 he was the conference’s offensive player of the year and first-team quarterback.
Mitchell compared O’Connor to a ‘young Ricky Ray,’ but the UBC product will have to wait for his chance at CFL stardom. He remains listed as the backup for Friday’s game.
