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“I’m proud of that and everything, but it just doesn’t feel as good just because we came out with a loss,” the 24-year-old said of a 25-22 defeat Saturday’s Labour Day rematch. “To me, it just doesn’t mean much yet.”

A product of Minnesota’s Concordia University who rose from NCAA Div. 3 obscurity to make an impact with over 500 yards in six games after spending two-thirds of last year’s schedule on the Eskimos practice roster, the six-foot-three, 220-pound native of Spicer, Minn., is no longer an unknown commodity across the CFL.

But that’s nothing compared to the surprising 1,500-yard pace he’s on this season. Surprising, maybe, to everyone else, at least.

“Not really, it’s something I’ve always known that I can do. It’s just getting the right opportunity,” said Zylstra, who was named a CFL player of the week. “And I could never do it without my team, I’ll never take all the credit for this and they know that too, because the coaches just put in too much work and everybody has a job to get another person open.

“And I’ve been fortunate enough to get a couple of those this year.”

A couple? More like six 100-yard games to his credit on the season, and eight in his career. Three more over the final seven games and he will tie the club record of nine in a season to join a club also occupied by Bowman.

Bowman, of course, has been around for 10 years, while Zylstra still has yet to get a full season’s worth of games under his belt.

“I don’t know, that’s not really anything to me,” Zylstra said. “I mean, if I get it, that’s cool, I’m going to rub it in his face, but other than that I really don’t care.”