Saskatchewan Roughriders RB AJ Ouellette details 23-hour road trip with CFL veteran QB Trevor Harris

AJ can you take us through your drive up with Trevor Harris I think it was 23 hours yeah yeah uh 23 hours um I mean he lived an hour from me in Ohio so we kind of hung out a few times um I stayed the night at his place so we get up bright and early that day and leave um so kind of hang out with the family had dinner with him and all that played video games with his uh with his uh boy TJ um but it started off you know just talking football like football guys do like soon as we get in the car it's football um one of the issues we kind of ran into was my Thor hammer it has a button on it that kind of makes thunder sounds so he hit a bump the hammer moved in the back seat and it hit the button so for like an hour of the drive it was just thunder noise in the back and I'm like trying to reach back and get it I can't reach it and uh finally we hit a bump and it moved to a different like spot so um I apologized for him having to just deal with the hammer for about an hour or two hours um but after a few hours you know couple stops it just got into family life like what's after football um and it was a good way to just kind of bond with someone figure out what they are passionate about the sies football and when that happens you kind of get a a closer Bond and a Brotherhood that helps correlate to the field so like I told some guys today like I've been out for a while and knowing the guys on the team like when I get out there it's like no holding back like no trying to see how my body feels it is Full Throttle by die I die like something like that and it's just do what you can for your brothers and I think that's the bonding that kind of happens with this team is like a tribute to that that that drive there 23 hours of just Family Faith football and uh it's kind of what this family or this team's been about how did the idea for the training camp Drive come to fruition um I mean we talked right before I signed here kind of trying to figure out um you know what team I wanted to be on and I called Trevor and um we we were kind of talking and just in our before my even decision here his uh he's like hey man you're an hour from me like training camp I'll drive you like we we'll go to sass together and like that's kind of how the the snowball started and we were just like yep let's go um I'll find a vehicle when I get there I'll uh I'll have someone bring me something but it was just good good time I mean anytime you can chat with one of the smartest quarterbacks in the league 23 hours about football and family and all that you got to take it did him offering that drive help seal you signing in Saskatchewan um not the drive just to be honest who he is as a person um I knew who coach mace was um outside of football and how close he is with his family and all that and that was you know taking one step closer to this team and then Trevor calls me and he tells me what he believes in and all that I'm like yeah this is full board like you those two together that's what you want leading your team um and I'm happy to just follow follow what they say What's it been like for you and Trevor to work together to get back into the lineup yeah uh I mean since we've been down it sucks um I played a couple games when he was down I could just see how like you know each week it was like deflating him um but then he got a new spark like just like he's like oh I'm closer maybe three weeks into it he was I'm closer I'm closer I'm closer so that like that urge to come back was there and that's when I was kind of sitting out and it was us talking about what's good for your your body at this point in your career I've been in in the league four or five years I don't know if you co count Co year or not but um been in the league a while he's been longer so just kind of talking to him learning different methods on how he takes care of his body so I started doing that with him talking to him in the weight room in the morning before meetings and just trying to get a whole rehab plan the dude's too smart um Co years gets a nutrition degree so he can figure out what to eat um better for his body so just picking his brain on anything um that that helps Sports Performance and how much can this help boost the team from an energy standpoint for as well as sheay Patterson and Frankie Hixon did but the fact that you being a star Trevor Harris being a veteran come back into the lineup for the stretch run yeah it's a it's a leadership thing so like um Trevor coming back like everybody's energized me coming back just with uh my my my style of play my my my kind of leadership since I've gotten in here like it just brings a little bit more spark um and it doesn't matter who's in there everybody has their you know what they're good at what they're not so good at like me and me and Frankie are different running backs and the stuff that he could do on the field I wish I could do um so like tribute to him he bowled out when he uh when he got an opportunity and I told him 2022 that was up down up down end up being a starter for great cup so told him keep his head up um we're going to need him in the long run so it's just just spark a little different mentality coming at him final one for you how can you run the ball consistently against Montreal's defense um the guys up front last time we played them they they kind of bullied them around so I'm hoping I can add into that um by the fourth quarter I'm hoping the D Lin's tired of facing our our guys and I'm hoping the linebackers are tired of stepping in front of me um and you know that's going to have them drop in pass and just kind of push keep pushing so um hopefully we make it a dog fight and at the end we're going to see who wins