CFL locals: Former Eastern Washington quarterbacks Bo Levi Mitchell, Vernon Adams Jr. meet in season opener
The Canadian Football League season hasn’t started, but it’s already thick with intrigue for a pair of former Eastern Washington University quarterbacks.
And their stories unfold together on Sunday, when Hamilton’s Bo Levi Mitchell and Calgary’s Vernon Adams Jr. square off in the season opener.
Mitchell has 99 regular-season wins and a pair of Grey Cup wins under his belt, but the next victory will be a particularly significant milestone. The former Walter Payton Award winner could be the fastest quarterback to hit win No. 100 in CFL history, a fact not lost on Mitchell or his wife, Madison.
“She reminded me that every time I do something it could be the last time,” he said on the cusp of his 13th CFL season. “So you always enjoy it and attack it that way.”
To break the record Sunday, he’ll have to win on the home turf of his former team, the Calgary Stampeders – who are quarterbacked by none other than Adams, who will make his debut for the team.
Despite two productive seasons with the B.C. Lions, Adams was traded in the offseason to Calgary, which is still looking to recapture the success it achieved with Mitchell almost a decade ago.
“That’s going to be a big one – I have a ton of respect,” said Adams of facing Mitchell. “We have to get ready and keep getting better, and myself, I need to take care of the ball and do what I need to do.”
The CFL season kicks off Thursday with Ottawa at Saskatchewan. This year’s Grey Cup – the 112th – will be played Nov. 16 in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
A year ago, both Hamilton and Calgary missed the postseason, with the Tiger-Cats going 7-11 and the Stampeders finishing 5-12-1. Mitchell, in his second season with the Tiger-Cats, passed for a franchise-record and league-leading 5,451 yards, with 32 touchdown passes to earn CFL All-Star honors for the third time. He finished second in the voting for the league’s outstanding player – edged out by Canadian native and former University of North Dakota running back Brady Oliveira of Winnipeg.
Mitchell is not only focused on getting the Tiger-Cats to the playoffs again, but has higher ambitions.
“There is no rebuilding in the CFL because there is so much movement in the league,” Mitchell said of his team’s chances to win a Grey Cup it hasn’t won in a quarter century. “When you are playing for this team and this city, you hear all the murmurs about 1999. Our job it to go out and be the next group (to win a Grey Cup).”
Only nine quarterbacks in CFL history have won 100 games, and it’s taken Mitchell just 140 starts to win his first 99 (overall record of 99-39-2). The record he’s chasing is 100 wins in 149 starts, so even if Adams gets the better of him in the opener, he still has some leeway to set the mark.
Mitchell won 60 times in his first 72 starts while with Calgary, helping the Stampeders to Grey Cup titles in 2014 and 2018, and he was the game’s MVP in both. He won CFL MOP honors in both 2016 and 2018 when he won his first two league all-star awards.
Over 12 CFL seasons, Mitchell is 12th in passing yards with 39,023 and TD passes with 226, while completing 64.9% of his passes.
Adams, meanwhile, starts his ninth CFL season – and first with Calgary.
“I’m excited for the opportunity for the guys, the team and the organization to get out and put on a good show,” he said. “And that’s what we intend to do.”
The two-time Big Sky Conference MVP was an East Division All-Star in 2019 with Montreal before joining B.C. in the middle of the 2022 season as an injury replacement for Nathan Rourke. He took over in 2023 as Rourke courted interest from NFL teams.
After passing for a league-leading 4,769 yards and 31 touchdowns in 2023, Adams led the 12-6 Lions to the West Division final – one victory away from the Grey Cup.
Entering 2024, Adams was a bona fide MVP candidate and had B.C. – which was hosting the Grey Cup that season – buzzing after a 5-3 start.
But Adams injured his knee and was replaced by Rourke. Once healthy, Adams beat out Rourke late in the year, and guided the Lions to the playoffs – including a regular-season-ending 27-3 victory over his former team, Montreal.
But after bowing out in the first round, the team decided to hand the reins back to Rourke, and sent Adams to Calgary, where he’s being coached by Dave Dickenson – a former Walter Payton Award winner while at Montana. Dickenson was offensive coordinator when Mitchell won his first Grey Cup, and was head coach for the second.
“I’ve always wanted to play for coach Dave,” said Adams, now in his ninth season. “I almost did in 2018 before going back to Montreal. I can’t wait to have the Calgary fans on my side.”
It seemed Adams would also get to play for his former coach at EWU, Beau Baldwin, who was serving as quarterbacks coach. But he stepped away in March for what he called “personal reasons.”
• Another former Eagle, T.J. Lee III, is out of the league after a 10-year career – all in British Columbia. He was released by the Lions on Feb. 11, but said he hasn’t officially retired yet, hoping to play “one last year or two, who knows?”
Lee had 66 tackles, two interceptions, a sack and a touchdown in 12 games in 2024 after recovering from the second ruptured Achilles of his professional career. Lee is a two-time CFL All-Star.
• Two former EWU and CFL players now serve as coaches. Ryan Phillips is the secondary coach and defensive passing game coordinator for B.C., and former Pullman star J.C. Sherritt is in his second season as linebackers coach and defensive running game coordinator for Saskatchewan after spending his entire playing career as a record-breaking linebacker for Edmonton. He played on EWU’s FCS championship team in 2010 along with Mitchell and Lee.
• New to the CFL include offensive lineman Wyatt Hansen with Edmonton and defensive lineman Da’Marcus Johnson in Toronto. But Hansen was released prior to the regular season and Johnson was assigned to the practice squad.
Idaho
David Ungerer III, a receiver who played at Idaho from 2014-18, is entering his third season in Toronto after playing for Hamilton in his first three seasons in the league.
He had a breakout season in 2023 with 54 catches for 579 yards and three touchdowns for the Argonauts.
In 2024, he played in 12 regular-season games for the Argonauts and had 32 receptions for 425 yards and a touchdown, giving him career totals of 106 grabs for 1,460 yards and six scores. He caught four passes for 29 yards in the Grey Cup to help Toronto take the title with a 41-24 victory over Winnipeg.
Three other former Vandals started the season with CFL teams, including British Columbia wide receivers Hayden Hatten and Jermaine Jackson, and defensive lineman Juliano Falaniko.
Only Jackson was kept on the team’s regular-season roster.
Washington State
Washington State has a pair of former players in the CFL – offensive lineman Christy Nkanu with Calgary and linebacker Devin Richardson on the British Columbia practice squad. Nkanu played the 2023 season in Pullman after transferring from Southern Utah. Richardson played at New Mexico and Texas before playing his senior season in Pullman.
Former Cougars wide receiver Lincoln Victor was with Ottawa in the preseason but did not make their regular-season roster.