Roughriders’ running back Frankie Hickson ready to run it back

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Frankie Hickson made the most of his opportunity last week.

With running back A.J. Ouellette on the one-game injured list with a hip issue, the Saskatchewan Roughriders called upon Hickson to start their Week 8 contest against the Montreal Alouettes on Thursday.

And while Saskatchewan ultimately lost the game 20-16, Hickson was a bright spot for the Riders in the defeat as he racked up 117 rushing yards and a touchdown on 16 carries in his first start of the season.

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“It always feels great just to be able to contribute to the team in any way that you can,” said Hickson, who also had one catch for 16 yards. “Obviously my role has been a bit different for the start of the season but when they call on you, you better be ready.

“And the saying is if you stay ready, you don’t have to get ready and that’s all you can really do is just stay prepared.”

The 27-year-old Hickson — who is in his third season with the Roughriders — started the season on the practice squad before getting activated for Saskatchewan’s Week 5 game against the Toronto Argonauts, where he had one carry for six yards.

After heading back to the practice roster, the 5-foot-8-, 200-pound Hickson was called back up last week with Ouellette — a two-time East Division all-star — heading to the injured list.

And Hickson rose to the occasion.

“I missed A.J. out there but just another guy stepping up and being ready for that opportunity,” said quarterback Shea Patterson. “Frankie has worked his tail off all camp and all year and even all last year as well.

“I was really happy for him. I’m really happy to see guys who put in the work and then eventually get to show what they can do, so that was really cool to see.”

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In his rookie season in 2022 as a backup to Jamal Morrow, Hickson racked up 533 yards and a touchdown on 85 carries while seeing action in 13 games.

Last year, he was limited to just 10 games, where he got the ball 35 times for 157 yards, while spending time on the practice roster mostly due to ratio management.

Despite the limited playing time, Hickson has tried to keep his mindset the same.

“It’s always going to be a hard thing with the ratios and things of that nature but as players, all we can do is control what we put on the field and what goes on film,” said Hickson.

While Roughriders’ head coach Corey Mace wasn’t with Saskatchewan last season, he has seen what Hickson can do given an opportunity and wasn’t surprised to see him perform in a big way on Thursday.

“That’s Frankie, man,” said Mace. “People who have been fans of this team for the last little bit have seen his explosive ability and we’ve seen it since camp started.

“It was fun to see him really take advantage of the opportunity.”

With Ouellette’s status this week up in the air, the 27-year-old Hickson could draw a second straight start when the Riders (5-2) host the Edmonton Elks (0-7) on Saturday (5 p.m., TSN) at Mosaic Stadium in Week 9 of the CFL season.

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And if he does draw the start, he’s going to be ready for it.

“There’s lots of things that I still need to work on and things that we as an offence and as a team that we want to be better at,” said Hickson. “It’s always frustrating to come out not victorious but that’s why we come back out here this week and that’s why we get better at what we do every single day.”

Moving forward with Ouellette’s injury not appearing to be long term, it might be hard for Saskatchewan to keep Hickson off the roster if he keeps performing the way he did against Montreal.

However, that’s not a bad thing according to Mace.

“It’s a good problem,” said the head coach. “And how can we maybe get them both on (the roster)?

“If we can shake the roster to be that way, it’s definitely another dimension to our offence.”

Injury report

Ouellette was among a number of players who didn’t practise on Day 1 on Tuesday.

Also not participating was linebacker Adam Auclair (shoulder), defensive lineman Bryan Cox Jr. (lower back), defensive lineman Nic Dheilly (personal), defensive lineman Micah Johnson (personal), defensive lineman Anthony Lanier II (knee) and receiver Mitch Picton (upper back).

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tshire@postmedia.com

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