For the first time in six years, Bo Levi Mitchell stepped up to the podium on Friday night as a 5,000-yard passer and no amount of feigned ignorance could hide his pleasure in the moment.
“Oh, did we hit it?” he grinned knowingly following Hamilton’s 42-20 dismantling of the Calgary Stampeders.
This is the third time Mitchell has crossed the 5,000-yard mark in his career but the first since 2018. In fact, no quarterback in the CFL has accomplished that feat in the four seasons since, marking the longest such drought since 1990.
Nobody has struggled more through those lean years than the now 34-year-old gunslinger, who followed up his last M.O.P. campaign with a string of devastating injuries that appeared to rob him of his previous arm strength. He lost his starting job and had to leave the only franchise he’d ever known in search of opportunity, only to be sent to the bench in the playoffs in his first year with the Tiger-Cats.
Nobody predicted this type of resurgence when Mitchell took a hefty pay cut to remain in Steeltown this offseason but it is a virtual certainty that he’ll finish 2024 as the CFL leader in passing yards by a country mile. With one game remaining, he has connected on 395-of-578 attempts for 5,026 yards, 31 touchdowns, and 17 interceptions.
“It’s a milestone. I don’t even know if Ricky [Ray] got that when I was with him, I know AC [Anthony Calvillo] hit it a few times,” head coach Scott Milanovich said after the game, referencing the two other Hall of Fame pivots to play under him.
“I know probably more important than that was how important that game was to him with his time in Calgary and I was told he was a little emotional after the game.”
There could have been no more fitting backdrop for Mitchell’s accomplishment than a game against the Stampeders — the franchise with which he spent the first 10 seasons of his career and won two Grey Cups.
In just his second-ever meeting with his former team, the Katy, Tex. native completed 24-of-37 passes for an incredible 450 yards and five touchdowns. Four of those scores came in the first half as he soundly outdueled opposing QB Matthew Shiltz, the man for whom he was benched in last year’s East Semi-Final.
While he gave no indication of the sentimentality that his head coach alluded to, Mitchell could not deny that this particular victory was especially sweet.
“It’s something I’ve wanted to do since I left there. I didn’t get the opportunity to go back there last year and play against them, so it feels good,” he smiled. “It’s not something where I have a vengeance against those guys, but it’s your old team. I’d be lying if I didn’t tell you that I wanted to go out there and just beat the brakes off them, because I did.”
“For myself, it felt good to go out there and do it and just put that to bed.”
Dicing up familiar faces wasn’t the only challenge that Mitchell faced entering this game. With Hamilton already eliminated from playoff contention, Milanovich had indicated a desire to see backup Taylor Powell get reps in order to evaluate for the future. The second-year pivot played the majority of the 2023 season in place of an injured Mitchell and was set to replace him in 2024 as well, before a concussion suffered early in his first game as starter thrust Bo back into action for his best stretch under centre in half a decade.
However, there would be no chance to look to the future once Mitchell became the man of the moment. The veteran signal-caller kept one eye on the milestone in front of him and one looking over his shoulder en route to one of the best performances of his career.
“I knew this week how far out we were from [5,000 yards], but I was more worried about just keeping the game close so Scott didn’t take me out,” he joked.
“I just had a mindset of going out there and attacking. I think you can tell Scott did too. I just appreciate that trust from him to go out there and be able to put the ball in the air like that.”
Milanovich commended his quarterback for ignoring the comments earlier in the week and acknowledged there was no chance he was going to pull him after the way the game started.
“I was proud of the way he played. That’s not the easiest thing for a starter. I thought Bo handled it beautifully and played really well,” the coach said.
“I really, truly didn’t have a plan and as hot as Bo was, I was not going to take him out of the game. That would be unfair to him and everybody else in this organization. He earned the right to stay in there, for sure.”
All the impressive numbers won’t extend the Ticats’ season but it now seems a foregone conclusion that Mitchell will be the East Division nominee for Most Outstanding Player, as voters debate whether a non-playoff quarterback should win the award. It is a remarkable accomplishment for a player that many fans and pundits had already put out to pasture.
“It means a lot to show the work put in in the offseason. It means a lot to show what this offence has done all year, despite the record. When we play good football, we are hard to beat right now,” Mitchell said.
“The milestone, the 5,000 yards, that’s something I’ll appreciate later on looking back at the career, resume or whatnot, but it feels good to get there as an offence and just continue to try to be the number one offence in the league.”
The Tiger-Cats (7-10) will wrap up their regular season on Friday, October 25 when they visit the Ottawa Redblacks at 7:00 p.m. EDT.