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Photo by Nathan Denette / THE CANADIAN PRESS

“The funniest thing to me right now is all the people doubting us,” said defensive back Antoine Pruneau, a Day Oner who’s been with the Redblacks since their 2014 debut and three months ago signed a three year contract to remain in Ottawa. “As players, we feel confident. Nobody here is doubting this team. I have a lot of trust in (GM) Marcel (Desjardins). We tried to bring as many people back as we could, I have a lot of respect for that.

“I totally understand where the doubt is coming from. But I think we’ll be just fine. It’s not about one player (or two players). We always say this is the ultimate team sport. Our coaching staff is all back – we’re pretty lucky, we have two great co-ordinators (offensive, Jaime Elizondo and defensive, Noel Thorpe). Both of them, I think, could have easily gotten jobs as head coaches.”

Photo by Errol McGihon / Postmedia

Head coach Rick Campbell is obviously going to stand behind what his team is doing. But he also has a pretty good handle on the makeup of the 2019 Redblacks.

“I fully understand (why people are upset that key players have moved on),” said Campbell. “Those guys were really good players and did a lot of good things for the Redblacks. From an emotional point of view, it’s tough. But at the same time, we look at the big picture. Because we didn’t overspend on a few individual players, we feel our depth and our team is stronger as a whole. We feel we have some young guys coming in that can fill the void – that’s not a disrespect to the guys that have been here.