The B.C. Lions will have their largest crowd of the season — either a sellout or very close to it — backing them when they entertain the Saskatchewan Roughriders in Sunday’s Western Division final.

But Kent Austin, rookie head coach of the Riders, is a former B.C. quarterback who spent much of this week figuring out ways for his players to combat the Lions’ crowd.

According to sources, Austin taught Saskatchewan quarterback Kerry Joseph et al a sophisticated new set of hand and foot signals designed to handle what he figures will be excessive noise on Sunday.

Austin, a shoo-in for the CFL’s coach-of-the-year honours, also had his players practice in Regina this week under extremely noisy conditions, courtesy of eight rented speakers blasting 110 decibels of sound. Along with the decibels, which were measured at the centre of the field, the speakers also pumped out 5,000 watts of power.

“You’re not going to simulate it exactly,” Austin said. “We understand that. It’s just the process of how we handle it rather than how loud it actually is.”

• While the Roughriders are concerned about crowd noise in B.C., the Winnipeg Blue Bombers are concerned about the noise coming out of the mouths of the Argonauts for their Eastern Division final in Toronto on Sunday.

Toronto linebacker Kevin Eiben had the audacity to tell a reporter that he doesn’t think the Bombers will score more than 10 points, while Argos quarterback Michael Bishop announced that he is looking forward to meeting the Bombers because he’d like to make amends for his mediocre performance against them a few weeks ago.

In that game, a victory in Toronto, Bishop completed only 10 of 29 passes.

“I didn’t play well that last time,” Bishop told the Toronto Star. “I just couldn’t get in the groove. It was all me. Now, I get a chance to redeem myself, help my teammates out.”

The Bombers’ reactions?

“He’s saying he’d rather play Winnipeg,” cornerback Juran Bolden said. “Our thing is, you don’t want to give anybody any locker-room reading material. You don’t give somebody something to read, but they’ve given us some fuel. It’s a blatant challenge. He’s got to be careful what he asked for. You know, I’ve never been one of those guys who shied away from putting things in people’s locker-room, but these guys are ready and I’m ready.”

“He had a pretty bad game last time,” defensive back Kyries Hebert said. “I think we had something to do with that. And if he’s excited about seeing us again then I’m excited about seeing him, too. The feeling is mutual.”

• Don’t know about the game, but the menu for Sightlines at the Rogers Centre during the game sounds fantastic.

I got a press release yesterday saying Sightlines chef Rodney Meynert is ready to lend support to the Argos in the kitchen by preparing:

• Char-grilled, beer-basted bratwurst, served with sauerkraut, hot mustard, red hot pepper rings, sliced red onions, egg poppy seed bun.
• Spicy hot chili con carne, slow cooked in a cast iron pot, served with warm sliced wholegrain bread
• Braised colossal beef short ribs, juicy and fork tender braised short ribs, served with corn griddle cakes
• Rack of Ontario lamb, Provencal, accompanied by mint jelly chutney.

“This has been an amazing season for the Argonauts,” said Meynert, who has worked at Rogers Centre since the stadium opened in 1989 and witnessed the Argonauts capture the Grey Cup in 1991, 1996, 1997 and 2004.  “At Levy Restaurants, we’re also stepping up our game for the playoffs and have incorporated even more great football food into the menu.”

And, hey, all this matters to me.

• I wrote this in one of my