Matt Nichols has waited a long time for an opportunity to be a starting quarterback in the CFL.

And with Mike Reilly out of the Edmonton Eskimos’ lineup for the next 10-to-12 weeks, Nichols is going to get a chance to take ownership of the offence.

While Eskimos head coach Chris Jones would not confirm Nichols will start against the Ottawa RedBlacks on Thursday at Commonwealth Stadium, the veteran backup is likely to get the call.

“I’ve never had the opportunity to play multiple games in a row and get into a rhythm and that kind of thing, so I’m excited,” Nichols said following practice on Sunday. “I’ve played this game for a long time at a high level. There have been a couple of tough games — I’ve played against Calgary a lot when they’ve been very good — but I know I can go in and win games. I think I’ve played pretty well every time that I’ve gone in and played, so I don’t look for anything different.”

Nichols, 28, had essentially five starts for the Eskimos last season, completing 62.3% of his passes, throwing four touchdown passes with five interceptions. He missed the entire 2013 season after sustaining a knee injury during the preseason.

Nichols has never had an extended run as a starting quarterback with the Eskimos.

“The one time I did have the opportunity was in 2013 and I tore my ACL in the preseason,” he said. “I’m looking forward to it. It’s been a six-year wait for the opportunity. I hate to see Mike go down, he’s one of my good friends, but that being said, this is an opportunity for me to go and play some football, which is what you play this game for. You don’t play to be on the sidelines.”

There was a time when Nichols was considered a strong candidate to be the Eskimos starter before he went down with his knee injury. He battled back from the setback and has since moved into the backup role behind Reilly.

“Certainly he’s the consummate professional, he’s been the eyes for Mike for the entire time he’s been here,” Jones said. “He’s the first guy to be here and the last guy to leave-type guy and we believe in him.

“He did a good job for us (last season). Nobody is ever perfect; I’m not always satisfied with Mike either. Certainly there’s things he had to work on and he did a good job in the off-season working on them, so we’re looking forward to what all our guys bring.”

With Nichols taking over, the Eskimos are expected to make minor adjustment to their offence coming off a bye week.

Reilly is considered more mobile than Nichols, who prefers to stay in the pocket.

“I think Mike and I — aside from Mike likes to take off and run a little bit more — we play the game pretty similarly, we talk about the game the same way,” Nichols said. “I think the reason that we have a great rapport is that we see things the same way, so when he comes up to the sidelines, he understands that I’m seeing things that maybe he can see while he’s on the field and vice versa.”

Having lost their opening game of the year 26-11 to the Toronto Argonauts and their starting quarterback in the process, there is a perception the Eskimos’ season will be an uphill struggle.

Nichols, however, is confident in getting the Eskimos back on the winning track against a RedBlacks team that has won two consecutive games for the first time in franchise history.

“People are going to say whatever they want to say, if Mike was in or that type of stuff,” Nichols said. “But for me, every starter in this league was a backup at one point until they got their opportunity and I plan on going out and playing well and showing that, in my mind, I’m a starter in this league.”

BACK TO WORK

The Edmonton Eskimos had a week to digest a bad start to their CFL season.

Following their 26-11 loss to the Toronto Argonauts in Fort McMurray, the Eskimos had a scheduled bye week.

They returned to practice Sunday in preparation for their home opener Thursday against the Ottawa RedBlacks at Commonwealth Stadium.

“That’s probably one of the worst feelings you can have as a coach,” said Eskimos head coach Chris Jones. “We had a tremendous (training) camp, we had two good weeks of camp, we played extremely fast, everybody I talked to told me our team plays fast and that wasn’t what we saw in our most recent outing.”

Jones and his coaching staff had plenty of time to go over the game film to see what went wrong. They also had to digest the loss of starting quarterback Mike Reilly, who went down with a knee injury. Rielly is expected to be out 10-to-12 weeks, opening the door for Matt Nichols.

“We just didn’t execute defensively,” Jones said. “I think we played fast in special teams, but then we want to congregate in front of their returner and the two times we allowed guys to get outside the framework of our defence and not set the boundary.”

The bye also allowed some veterans to get healthy as training camp took its toll on the team.

“Anytime you have your A-group guys that worked hard to get back, the bye was timed up pretty good for us,” Jones said. “We could get a little bit healthier in a couple of different spots, but that wasn’t the reason we lost that last ball game.”

Coming back from the bye week, the Eskimos will play 17 consecutive weeks.

“We had a lot to look at,” Jones said. “After that football game we looked at what we were doing not only schematically, but what we’re doing as far as practice is concerned just to make sure we’re doing all the right things. We tweaked a few things here and there.”

derek.vandiest@sunmedia.ca