Glenn Rogers Jr. remembers it well.
Sept. 26, 2014. Tom Nix Stadium. White Station vs. Christian Brothers. Two of the biggest rivals in Memphis high school football clashing under the Friday night lights.
These are the games where legends are made, and White Station junior receiver Dillon Mitchell was about to do something that no one would forget.
“This is no lie: He caught a screen and made six guys miss. Six. Six defenders missed him and he went to the house 46 yards for a touchdown,” Rogers recalls.
“When I saw that, I was like, ‘Wow. Oh my gosh’. He essentially took that game over.”
Eight years later, Mitchell is set to make his Canadian Football League debut with the Edmonton Elks against the Ottawa RedBlacks at TD Place Stadium on Friday night, and no one is more excited than Rogers. The Green and Gold great, who played in Edmonton from 1993 to 1997, has known Mitchell since the speedy slotback was in junior high and has keenly followed Mitchell’s career.
“I’ve been trying to get Dillon to go to the CFL for the last two and a half years,” says Rogers. “That’s how much I believe in this kid.”
Following an All-Pac 12 junior year at Oregon, Mitchell was drafted in the seventh round by the Minnesota Vikings in 2019 and spent time on practice rosters in the NFL but never suited up for a game beyond the preseason. The 25-year-old signed with Edmonton on July 29 and has spent the last couple weeks practicing with the Elks before being added to the active roster for Week 11.
Rogers has long anticipated this day. A defensive back who won a Grey Cup and was a three-time CFL All-Star during his five seasons wearing Green and Gold, Rogers saw something special when he helped coach Mitchell in Grade 8 at Memphis University School.
“With Dillon, you could just tell he had it,” says Rogers. “Kids like that, when they touch the ball and they can make people miss at a young age, you think, ‘Well, they get some size and they get some more skill development, he’s going to even better as he gets older.’”
Mitchell reminds Rogers of a former Edmonton teammate, the legendary Henry “Gizmo” Williams, a Canadian Football Hall of Fame inductee whose name is all over the CFL record book for kick and punt returns.
“He’s one of the few kids I’ve seen in my 22 years of coaching high school football that when he catches the ball it’s like Gizmo,” Rogers says. “You’ve got to hold your breath because you don’t know what he’s going to do. He’s got speed like Gizmo, he’s very elusive like Jimmy the Jet (former CFL All-Star James Cunningham), somebody who can make a guy miss and just take off. He’s very elusive and when he sticks his foot in the ground, he goes from zero to sixty quick.”
Edmonton fans can catch Mitchell and the Elks take on the RedBlacks at the Coors Light Watch Party at 1st RND Downtown. Kickoff is 5 p.m. on Friday.