Trevor Harris leads Redblacks to 30-20 victory over the Argos, his former team

It seems that the learner has become the master after all. Former Argonauts' quarterback Trevor Harris was dominant in his return to Toronto Wednesday night, leading the Ottawa Redblacks to a 30-20 victory, while the man he once learned under, Argos' quarterback Ricky Ray, was more average. There was more to the Redblacks' win than just Harris, including a remarkable 75-yard punt return touchdown from Tristan Jackson, but his performance was a big part of why Ottawa came out with the win here.

Harris threw for 392 yards without an interception, but his accuracy was more remarkable still. He completed 28 of 31 passes, a stunning 93 per cent, and that illustrates just how locked in he was Wednesday night. Harris also picked up 18 rushing yards and a touchdown on five carries, and he spread the ball around well; while Greg Ellingson was the obvious receiving star of the night, collecting 218 receiving yards on nine catches, Ernest Jackson (six catches for 70 yards), Chris Williams (six for 63), and Brad Sinopoli (three for 21) all shone too. This was a pitch-perfect performance from Harris, and one that might make Toronto wonder if they made the wrong move by prioritizing Ray over him.

As for Ray, he certainly wasn't bad Wednesday, but he was far from exceptional. He completed 24 of 32 passes (75 per cent) for 249 yards and a touchdown, and while that's impressive accuracy, the yardage total leaves something to be desired. He also had at least one interception nullified by a penalty away from the play, and he couldn't consistently move the sticks. There were more issues for the Argos than just Ray, including the defence's inability to stop Ellingson and the special teams' poor tackling against Jackson, but they lost Wednesday's quarterback duel.

The Argos entered last offseason with both Ray and Harris as pending free agents, and they chose to focus on locking up the 36-year-old Ray rather than the 30-year-old Harris. That's not necessarily the wrong move; Ray has long been an elite quarterback in this league when healthy and a key part of Toronto's success, while Harris hadn't received much playing time with the Argos from 2012 to 2014 and only really took a big step forward last year while Ray was out, so there were some small sample size concerns with him. There also may have been the thought that there weren't many starting jobs open for Harris elsewhere, something which proved to be true. However, Ottawa made him a lucrative offer to back up Henry Burris this year and take over after that, and Burris' first-game injury paved the way for Harris to shine. His play so far certainly makes it look like he'll be a CFL star for years to come. The Argos' offseason approach had its own merits, but they may regret not offering Harris more and not focusing on locking him up first now. They certainly did Wednesday night.