Canadians Oliveira, McInnis on the cusp of CFL history

History could be made in the final week of the Canadian Football League season.

Since the league began publishing stats in 1950, there has never been a season where Canadian players finished the regular season leading the league in both rushing and receiving yards.

Heading into Week 21, Blue Bombers running back Brady Oliveira, who was born in Winnipeg, leads the league with 1,318 rushing yards, while BC Lions’ receiver Justin McInnis, who grew up in the suburbs of Montreal, is atop the receiving charts with 1,469 yards.

Andy Fantuz in 2010 was the last Canadian to lead the league in receiving yards. Canadians have been much more prominent in the run game, having led the league in nine of the past 12 seasons.

McInnis, who leads this year's race by 126 yards, and the Lions are off this week. Justin Hardy of the Ottawa Redblacks is in second place, but won't dress this weekend. 

McInnis called it a “tremendous feeling” to be on the cusp of the season receiving yards crown.

“It goes to show how much the Canadian talent is on the rise,” he said this week. “Brady over there rushing the ball, too. It’s just good to see Canadians really upping their game and filling in those roles that are not typically meant for Canadians.”

Oliveira, whose Blue Bombers face the Montreal Alouettes to close out their regular season on Saturday, said he was inspired by the previous era of Canadian running backs. He leads this year's race by 143 yards.

“I take great pride with that,” Oliveira, who is in contention for the league's Most Outstanding Player honour, said. “Those guys before me like Andrew Harris and before that, Jon Cornish, setting the way, leading the way for our younger generation. Now, I’m in a position to do the same.”

Oliveira and McInnis are far from the only Canadians succeeding this season in skill positions normally dominated by Americans.

Nic Demski, Samuel Emilus, Kiondré Smith, and Kurleigh Gittens, Jr., are also among the top 10 in receiving yards. Tyrell Ford has had a good season at cornerback for the Blue Bombers. His brother, Tre, has shown flashes of brilliance behind centre in Edmonton.

McInnis, who played his college football at Arkansas State, has a theory for the rise in Canadian talent.

“Just the exposure of the game in Canada,” he said. “Football is growing everywhere. There’s a lot more people getting a lot more opportunities to go down south and do their collegiate career in the States…a lot of young guys are able to take that transition to the States at a younger age than what it used to be. It’s a testimony to the game growing and us just putting in the work and just breaking that barrier.”

Greg Dick, the CFL’s chief football operations officer, said that coaching in Canada has improved and that more kids are getting introduced to the sport in untraditional ways.

“After COVID, there’s been a real pick-up in registration in contact and non-contact football,” he said. “Coaching is better across the country…and non-contact football is helping kids who might not have picked up contact football play football earlier. To me, that’s a real key for the skilled guys, because they were probably playing flag football in Phys. Ed. class in elementary school.” 

Dick said that coaching at the Canadian university level has also improved.

“The level of play at U Sports universities gets better and better each year,” Dick said.

Oliveira said going to Canada Prep Academy in St. Catharines, Ont. for a year when he was in high school helped enable him to get an NCAA Division I scholarship with the University of North Dakota and develop his talent under American coaches. He starred for the Fighting Sioux from 2015 to 2019. The Bombers took him 14th overall in the 2019 CFL Draft. 

“It allowed me to get a step ahead, get good, proper film against American talent,” he said, of his time at Canada Prep Academy. 

He also said that early exposure to the Canadian game made him comfortable with his position.

“In high school, having to catch the ball out of the backfield and, with this being a three-down league, you’ve got to be efficient on first down,” Oliveira said. “You’ve got to be able to do it all. There’s no third-down back in this league.”

The league's ratio rule states that there must be a minimum of 21 Canadians on each team's 45-man roster.

Previously, Canadians have been most prevalent in non-skill positions like fullback or on the offensive line as clubs used Americans for the more skilled positions like receiver, cornerback, and quarterback. If they were receivers, they’d line up on the boundary instead of the slot and were rarely thrown to. 

Oliveira said that to continue the trend of Canadians in starring in skill roles, coaches need to have open minds and not designate certain positions as “American positions.”

“I think that should change,” he said. “Unfortunately, I think some teams already have those certain roster spots as, ‘This is an American, this is a Canadian. We’re going to keep it like that.’ It does make it tough on Canadians that are coming into this league.”

Oliveira and McInnis hope that more young Canadian football players will see their success this season and follow in their footsteps by making an impact in the league. 

“You’ll be able to see it more if more Canadians get an opportunity to have those starting roles and those bigger things,” Oliveira said.

McInnis stressed patience and learning from others.

“This is year five for me,” he said. “It’s not like it just happened instantly. It’s just being a student of the game, watching the people in front of you. It doesn’t really matter where you’re from, honestly…it’s a copycat league. You see something [other Canadians] do, you just try to replicate it. You try to work your tail off to do exactly what they do. 

“They had success doing it. There’s no reason I couldn’t see myself having the same type of success.”