“If you have anything left to give, now’s the time to give it.”

REGINA – Zach Collaros plunked down in a chair beside Chris Streveler in a media room in the bowels of Mosaic Stadium, a pair of microphones stationed in front of the pair with their names displayed on a small placard featuring the Winnipeg Blue Bombers ‘W.’

As much as we can simply describe the scene, it’s probably best to rewind a year to truly provide the proper context for the moment the veteran quarterback now finds himself in on the eve of Sunday’s Western Final.

If you recall, Collaros was supposed to start last year’s Western Semi-Final for the Saskatchewan Roughriders against the Bombers, only to be scratched the day before and replaced by Brandon Bridge following a cheap shot by Odell Willis in the Riders’ regular season finale that sidelined him.

And consider what’s happened to Collaros since then:

• He watched during the offseason as the Riders hotly pursued Bo Levi Mitchell in free agency, before circling back to sign him when the CFL’s 2018 Most Outstanding Player returned to Calgary
• He started the Riders’ regular season opener before a cheap shot by Simoni Lawrence on the first drive of the first quarter led to another injury
• He was traded to Toronto on July 31^st after the emergence of Cody Fajardo as his replacement in Saskatchewan
• He was shipped to Winnipeg on October 9, just before the trade deadline
• He started his first game for the Bombers – and his first since the opener – in a 29-28 win over Calgary on October 25^th, throwing for two touchdowns
• He helped lead the Bombers to a win over the Stamps in last Sunday’s Western Semi Final
• And now he will be leading the Bombers against the arch-rival Riders – the team he started the year with – for a chance to play in next Sunday’s Grey Cup.

What’s the old saying again about the ‘C’ in CFL standing for ‘Crazy’?

“It’s been a long season, for sure,” began Collaros when asked about leading the Bombers against the Riders on Sunday. “These last four to five weeks have been awesome. I’m just trying to live in the present right now and enjoy that.

“… It’s a really good organization, a really good group of guys, group of coaches. I’ve really enjoyed it. It’s been exciting. I’ve been excited for the opportunity. Obviously, moving a couple spots during the season isn’t ideal. But I told my wife going into (the trade deadline) if there’s a place I’d like to end up if I’m going to get traded, (Winnipeg) is a really good place to be knowing Coach O’Shea, Kyle (GM Walters) and I’ve watched the offence over the years and admired that from afar with the things you hear about LaPo (offensive coordinator Paul LaPolice) and Buck (Pierce, quarterbacks coach).

“If it was going to happen, this was a good place.”

Asked later about providing the Bombers with some intel on the Riders, Collaros offered up a lighter moment in an afternoon of straight faces. Tongue firmly planted in cheek, he said. “Oh yeah… we had a two-day seminar.”

After the chuckles subsided, Collaros added:

“I’ve watched a lot of games this season, on TV especially. But coach Hall (defensive coordinator Richie Hall) does a great job getting those guys ready. There were a couple of questions here and there, but when you play a team three times – four times including the preseason – there aren’t a lot of secrets.

“I offered any wisdom I could bestow upon them in that respect, but they do a really good job.”

As was the case a week ago, it seems just about every angle has been explored and revisited in the last few days leading up to kickoff Sunday afternoon. That said, four Bombers –Collaros, Streveler, Andrew Harris and Willie Jefferson, along with coach O’Shea – met with the media on the eve of the Western Final and were quizzed on a variety of subjects.

With that in mind, here are the other key talking points from Saturday’s session with the press…

1. THE STREVELER UPDATE

Chris Streveler, who has such an impact in the win over Calgary last week, was a spectator at practice on Wednesday and Thursday, with Friday’s session closed to the media. Here is the second-year QB on his health status:

“Good to go. We had a great week of practice. I think we’re really prepared and ready to rock n’ roll tomorrow. I did what I needed to do to be ready for the game. I feel ready, the team feels ready. Feel good.”

2. GIVE WHAT YOU GOT

Streveler was asked to riff on a point made by Fajardo earlier in the day, after the Riders QB said the season has two games left and he would do his best to go knowing he would soon have the entire off-season to rest.

“Everyone’s different at this point of the season,” said Streveler. “There are a lot of guys dealing with different things on every team at this point. I kind of touched on it last week after the game… Osh (O’Shea) said last week, ‘If you have anything left to give, now’s the time to give it.’ That’s the mentality of not only me, but everyone on this team. If you’ve got anything extra to give, anything left in the tank, now’s the time to do it because it’s do or die at this point.

“That’s the mindset of everyone in our organization.”

3. OLD HOME WEEK

Collaros isn’t the only ex-Rider who will be suiting up on Sunday. Jefferson is back as well after authoring a sensational first year as a Bomber.

“I love playing in this stadium,” said Jefferson. “I love being around these fans, but situations change and me being here and getting the team right back to the Western Conference Final and being able to play here at Mosaic and in a place where I just left and people know my name very well… I’m very happy to play here.”

4. NERVES? WHAT NERVES

“I don’t get too nervous before games,” said Andrew Harris. “Probably the last time I felt nervous was the last time I played in a Grey Cup (2011). I wouldn’t call it nerves. It’s more anxious to get out there and anxious to go play. I feel if you’re nervous… ‘nervous’ is probably the wrong word to use. I’m just anxious.”

“The butterflies come in warm-up, right before the game, first play,” said Jefferson. “Like they say, if you don’t get them, you don’t enjoy the game.”

5. WEATHER IMPACT

The forecast for Sunday is much better than the frigid conditions the Bombers saw in Calgary last week and call for a high of 6C, mainly cloudy with a 60 percent chance of showers overnight and low of 3C.

“Anything’s better than last week,” said Collaros. “It was pretty cold last week. We’ll see. You never know with the weather. The forecast looks good.”

6. RIVALRY GAME, PLUS-PLUS

If you think the Labour Day Classic and Banjo Bowl are intense, imagine a winner goes to the Grey Cup/loser goes home scenario…

“We’re in Riderville right now,” said Harris. “No matter what the game is, it’s going to be a big one and when there’s a chance to go to the Grey Cup on the line, that’s even bigger. The magnitude is definitely amplified. We’re ready for it.”

7. FAJARDO, HARKER, BENNETT AND/OR ALL OF THE ABOVE?

The Riders said Saturday that Fajardo would start on Sunday, even though he has been limited in his work since injuring his oblique muscle. Here’s Jefferson when asked if his job changes with Fajardo injured and the possibility of seeing multiple quarterbacks:

“My job doesn’t change at all. First and foremost, my job is to get off the ball and get after the quarterback. It doesn’t really matter which quarterback is back there. If they choose to put an injured quarterback back there and expect great things out of him, that’s their decision.

“Me, Jackson (Jeffcoat) and the rest of our defensive front six have been warned about his injury, been warned about him potentially having subs. We’ve been practising with Strev for a whole year, so we’re not really worried about a running quarterback. We face Strev all week and with Zach coming in we’ve dealt with a pocket-passing quarterback and with Andrew and (Nic) Demski coming into the backfield we’ve dealt with scatbacks, the screen game, the draw game. So, we’re pretty much ready for anything they can throw at us.

“We’ve had a great week of film preparation and know where they want to go with the ball.”

8. THE LAST WORD…

Goes to Bombers head coach Mike O’Shea, responding to a question about needing to fail to learn how to win…

“There’s enough failure during a season that you learn from all of it,” he said. “And there’s enough success during a season that you learn from that, too. Everything we’ve done this year has been perfect. It’s gotten us to this point.

“Every year has its ups and downs and because of where we’re at right now, I don’t know if I’d change anything. One of the things we value as a team is the ability to learn, not just post-game but hopefully in-game and throughout the week you learn and get smarter as a football player.

“At this point our guys have done a lot of learning and hopefully it comes out in this game.”