How do you spell relief? W-I-N.
Or perhaps, D-Y-C-E.
Because you couldn’t have had one without the other.
Let me explain. The Saskatchewan Roughriders were 0-9 in the first half of the 2015 CFL season which led to the dismissal of General Manager Brendan Taman and head coach Corey Chamblin last week.
Their replacements – on an interim basis – were former Roughrider player and Assistant GM Jeremy O’Day and Special Teams coordinator Bob Dyce, respectively.
The new duo’s first game in charge of Canada’s Team would be Sunday’s Labour Day Classic XLIX at a sold-out Mosaic Stadium in Regina against the 3-6 Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
A few years ago the Roughriders’ marketing campaign was “It’s Better In The Stands” which was an effort to get the Rider Nation off the couch and buying tickets for the games. Well, the slogan continued to ring true on Sunday as 33,427 fans packed the stadium despite a forecast of rain and it turned out to be a spectacular afternoon of Canadiana between two prairie football rivals.
However, unfortunately, the game started out similarly to all the rest for the Green & White. The Blue Bombers jumped out to a 10-0 lead in the first quarter thanks in part to a muffed direct snap to Saskatchewan running back Jerome Messam which the Bombers pounced on at the Rider 20-yard line.
Less than a minute later it was in their endzone.
But no one – that I could hear – allowed themselves to think ‘Here we go again’.
Then the game changed. Rookie Rider receiver/returner Nic Demski turned the game around with a 60-yard punt return touchdown midway through the second quarter which tied the game 10-10 and Saskatchewan never trailed the rest of the game on the way to a 37-19 victory.
Paradyce!!
Interim coach Dyce got the Gatorade shower from players Tim Agbaje and Alex Suber in the waning moments of the contest and the stadium erupted when the clock hit 0:00.
Finally!
“It felt good!” Dyce said afterwards about collecting the win in his CFL debut. “But it’s cold! And sticky.”
If it’s true that Labour Day Weekend is the unofficial kickoff to the CFL season, then sign me up. They say that because the rest of Canada finally wakes up to the fact CFL football is on while the rest of us have known it since June.
No matter. It’s a brand new season here in the Wheat Province and it’s nothing but blue skies ahead under Bob Dyce. The Riders were a different team on Sunday than they were under Corey Chamblin. Calm, resilient and composed.
Make no mistake – this game was as much about Bob Dyce as it was about facing the Winnipeg Blue Bombers no matter how differently the Riders would like to frame it.
“Feels great,” the Riders’ Nic Demski gushed amidst the smoke of the postgame fireworks. “Bob’s such a great guy, such a great leader and we really feel a change. We’re excited to take the next step with him.”
We learned it was as much about Dyce as anything because that’s what the players were talking about in the locker room afterwards. The reviews were universally positive.
“Honestly Coach Dyce has been trying to hide it but he looked nervous all week,” admitted Messam after the game. “We’re happy to get the win for him. We all love him.”
There were those who said Sunday, September 6, 2015 would be an historic day in Roughrider history. Would the franchise’s fortunes change on the shoulders of Dyce and O’Day or would they lose another game, fall to 0-10, and be at perhaps the lowest point in the franchise’s 105 years?
Well they got that first win. That’s a start. And this tandem of O’Day and Dyce just feels right. At some point O’Day’s going to have the interim tag removed and Dyce was going to be one of the candidates for the head coaching job at the end of the season anyway. Now he’s got a headstart on the rest of the field and already looks like a star. And, he remains humble.
“I’m happy for the guys in that room,” Dyce said afterwards. “They went through nine hard weeks of great effort. For that to materialize into a victory, I’m ecstatic about it. I’m happy for Jeremy and I’m happy for (head scout) Craig (Smith). I’m just happy. It’s probably the first time where I’m happy for myself as well. But I’m happy.”
What a nice change.
Rod Pedersen is the Voice of the Riders.
900 CKBI is broadcasting every Rider game this season. SportsCage can be heard from 4 to 6:30 p.m. on 900 CKBI
