It's been quite a stretch between CFL starts for Jarious Jackson.
The former Notre Dame star will be under centre Saturday when the Toronto Argonauts visit the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. Incumbent Ricky Ray will miss the contest due to a sprained medial collateral ligament in his left knee suffered in Sunday's 31-10 road loss in Montreal.
Toronto signed Jackson, who spent seven seasons in B.C., as a free agent in February as insurance in case Ray was hurt. Jackson has a 14-8 career record, but will make his first CFL start since Aug. 12, 2010, when he completed 18-of-31 passes for 194 yards and two inter-ceptions for B.C. in a 37-13 road loss to Saskatchewan.
"I feel fine, I feel normal, I feel great," Jackson said after practising with the first unit Tuesday. "I don't know how much different it [Argos offence with him under centre] is going to be.
"We still have some of the same plays, the same reads. I'm sure we'll have a few wrinkles here and there like most teams do, but for the most part, we're running coach's offence."
Fortunately for Toronto, Ray won't require surgery. Argos head coach Scott Milanovich hopes to have his starter back in the lineup Oct. 8 when Toronto hosts Saskatchewan.
"This is why we brought [Jackson] here, for this type of situation exactly," Milanovich said. "The positive thing is he basically played an entire game last week.
"It would've been tougher on Jarious had this happened to Ricky late in the fourth quarter. He got a whole game's worth of snaps and we kept him in for one extra series just so he could get some no-huddle experience."
