Milligan Jr., Hus win hardware at 2024 CFL awards

Rolan Milligan Jr. needed to be convinced by his wife to attend the CFL awards and he’s happy he listened.

Milligan picked up the Most Outstanding Defensive Player of the Year award on Thursday night in Vancouver

“The West Final kind of got me,” admitted an emotional Milligan. “But I needed (this) really so I wasn’t at home sulking.”

The 30-year-old Lake Wales, Fla. product was named the CFL’s Most Outstanding Defensive Player after a season where he had eight interceptions — the most in the CFL.

Milligan was named the Riders’ most outstanding player, defensive player, and special teams player.

Along with his eight interceptions, Milligan also has 10 pass knockdowns (tied for second in the CFL), 111 total defensive plays (fourth), and 71 defensive tackles. He also added 20 special teams tackles.

The Riders’ veteran defensive back underwent surgery that ended his season last year but never doubted he could achieve this award.

“I wrote it down in my notebook before the season even started that I wanted to be defensive player of the year. It’s always been a goal. I always felt it was an attainable goal but you have to prove that — and I proved it,” Milligan said.

Of course, that wasn’t the only thing in that notebook. Written above his goal of most outstanding defensive player was winning a Grey Cup.

Milligan is just the second defensive back to win the award that has historically been won by linebackers or defensive linemen until Jovon Johnson broke through to win in 2011.

That is something Milligan takes pride in.

“(Defensive backs) naturally get disrespected. That’s football, no matter what the level is or what league it is. You have to go above and beyond to get awards,” Milligan said.

As much of a fan his head coach Corey Mace is of him, Milligan says the feeling is mutual for Mace, who is also his defensive co-ordinator.

“He gives us the freedom to be who we are as players. He tries to unlock our strengths as players and elevate them even more. Coach Mace and coach (Josh) Bell push me a lot mentally to lead and just to be who I am. He challenges me each week to be who are and lead these guys,” Milligan said.

Milligan joined hall of famer Willie Pless as the only players in CFL history to lead a defensive category and also add 20 special teams tackles in a season.

Milligan is the fourth Roughrider to win the honour, the last being John Chick in 2009.

Mace and Ferland leave empty handed

The night wasn’t as rewarding for Milligan’s teammate and coach.

Logan Ferland finished runner-up to Ryan Hunter of the Toronto Argonauts for the top offensive lineman of the year. Hunter got 40 of the 56 votes.

It was a much tighter vote for Mace. He was outvoted 30-26 for the league Coach of the Year award. Jason Maas of Montreal Alouettes won the honour after leading the Als to the best record in the CFL following a Grey Cup Championship in 2023.

For Ferland, the nomination was a huge honour.

“I work extremely hard at my job, especially with the negativity that was the last four years and being a part of an organization that wasn’t doing well at all especially in the offensive line room,” said Ferland on the eve of the awards night in Vancouver.

“Going from that to this this year was a huge honour. I’m just very proud of the men in (the offensive line) room because I wouldn’t have done it without each and every one of them.”

This was the first league nomination for Ferland, who has been the team’s offensive line nominee for three straight years.

Corey Mace took the Roughriders from two years out of the playoffs to a home playoff game and a West Final appearance.

“In the first year taking over, it’s cool to see your vision of what you want it to look like and to be able to do that with people that you care about and you trust as I talk about the coaching staff,” Mace said ahead of the awards.

Hus named Jake Gaudaur Veterans’ Award winner

Jorgen Hus has joined a lengthening list of Roughriders to take home the Jake Gaudaur Veteran’s Trophy.

The long-snapper is the third straight Rider to win the award — Dan Clark won in 2022 and Brayden Lenius won in 2023.

The award is given to a player who best exemplifies the attributes of the Canadian veterans through strength, perseverance, courage, comradeship and contribution to Canadian communities.

But Hus believes this has become a team award more than any individual.

“There’s so many guys on our team who could win this award and so much that goes behind it,” Hus remarked. “There’s people that go above and beyond doing what’s required and it’s just become the standard now.”

He is very active in the community as he made 127 school appearances through two separate programs — Win with Wellness and Rider Reading.

Win with Wellness is a mental health initiative through the government of Saskatchewan. Rider Reading promotes reading and literacy, which reached 6,002 students across the province.

Hus has been to all corners of the province, including northern fly-in communities, but Hus has been doing trips since he started with the Roughriders and said his most memorable trip was to Nunavut in his first year with the Riders.

“We spent a lot of time with youth at schools and I spent one afternoon at a youth detention centre and that is probably to this day, like 10 years later, still the most impactful afternoon of my career. It affected me just as much as them and the (Roughriders) foundation does a good job of doing a lot of those things now,” Hus said.

Over his time in Saskatchewan, he’s had thousands of visits and many teachers and students reach out to tell the Roughriders about the impact they had, but one meeting really stands out for Hus.

“There was a little girl at an elementary school who was going through some things and she sent me a message on social media and she ended up trying out for the soccer team that she got cut from a bunch of times and she had more courage and made the team. She told me how much that meant to her and how much my message had a lot to do with that,” Hus said.

That’s not all for the work Hus puts back into his home province.

Hus also made several appearances with Grow the Game Football Camps and also serves as a Ronald McDonald House Ambassador and spends time with kids at the Jim Pattison Children’s Hospital.

Hus has also shown the ability to stay on the field. The Saskatchewan product is now the longest current serving member of the organization, missing just nine games over the course of the last nine seasons, and missing no games in the last seven seasons.

Saskatchewan Roughriders long-snapper Jorgen Hus was named the Jake Gaudaur Veterans’ Award winner at the 2024 CFL Awards in Vancouver. (Jamie Nye/980 CJME)

Brady doubles up

Two of the biggest awards of the night went to Winnipeg Blue Bombers Brady Oliveira.

The running back took home both the Most Outstanding Player award and the Most Outstanding Canadian award.

The list of award winners is as follows:

Most Outstanding Offensive Lineman – Ryan Hunter (Toronto Argonauts)
Most Outstanding Defensive Player – Rolan Milligan Jr. (Saskatchewan Roughriders)
Jake Gaudaur Veterans’ Award – Jorgen Hus (Riders)
Most Outstanding Special Teams Player – Janarion Grant (Toronto Argonauts)
Most Outstanding Rookie – Nick Anderson (Edmonton Elks)
Commissioner’s award – B.C. Lions owner Amar Doman
Jane Mawby Tribute Award – Carolyn Cody
Tom Pate Memorial Award – Adam Bighill (Winnipeg Blue Bombers)
Coach of the Year – Jason Maas (Montreal Alouettes)
Most Outstanding Canadian – Brady Oliveira (Winnipeg Blue Bombers)
George Reed Most Outstanding Player – Brady Oliveira