By Riderville

Riderville Report – November 7

Nov 7, 2011 | 1:46 PM

The conclusion of the Riders season Friday night was probably the perfect metaphor for the 2011 season. Make a bad decision and blow the game.

However the ending was not without its silver lining. The loss ensures we have a number one draft pick, but our consensus pick – OL – Ben Heenan of the University of Saskatchewan, may consider offers down south, he may be that good.

Before the Riders consider any draft selections, this week they will apparently straighten out their structure by naming Brendan Taman GM, eliiminating the vice-president of football operations and concentrating on searching for a new head coach. The interesting thing about this is whether the new coach will have to stick with the current assistants or be allowed to bring in their own people, which is apparently one of the factors that hampered Greg Marshall.

Ken Miller will not be involved in this process and will wind up his job at the end of the year­. While Taman has been criticized, it seems through anecdotal evidence that his hands were tied because he reported to Miller, who was the coach halfway through the season.

People are nervous about Taman, considering his record in Winnipeg and are afraid he will bring the same ineptitude to the Riders.

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Well, a good sign will be the signing of a head coach and the freedom the coach has. If you argue the Riders have been stagnant, keeping the old staff around would seem to make 2012 a rerun of this year, and when you are hosting the Grey Cup in 2013, that is not a formula to get people on board.

The short list of candidates right now consists of Richie Hall, Craig Chamblin (defensive coordinator for the Tiger-Cats) and Craig Dickenson (Rider special teams coordinator). There are probably others who are interested, but with the CFL playoffs about to take place, other candidates may not emerge until after Greg Cup and depend on what happens with their respective teams.

Jason Clermont seems ready to step down from his three years of not being used properly. I think regardless of what happens in the provincial election today, Gene Makowsky will not be back, along with Barrin Simpson and perhaps a few other offensive linemen like Dan Goodspeed, Alex Gauthier or George Hudson.

If Wes Cates returns, he will likely see a reduced role and I think guys like Sean Lucas or Lance Fraser may find their time reduced or cut from the team. The Riders will likely lose Jerrell Freeman to the NFL, Andy Fantuz will likely come back and the Riders will get Rob Bagg back next season.

You will hear the post mortems on this team for awhile, but I believe in the end it was the players who are responsible for what happened. In Regina you hear a lot of rumors of players with drug problems, but there was an attitude of entitlement this year, not passion nor hunger for redeeming oneself or the team. The Riders stood pat for the most part with this roster from last year, making a few changes, but perhaps in retrospect, making the wrong decision.

That is where a qualified football mind, either in the front office, or sideline is critical. The coaches were out of sync with the players and the players resented changing the way the new coach operated, went into the tank, and then couldn`t sustain the changes when Ken Miller came back.

The Riders forgot what it took to win and ended up a team full of bad attitudes and head cases. The Riders need an offensive coordinator and a quarterback coach to help Darian Durant who in a phrase from my dating days, may be a bit high maintenance.

It`s a brave new world for this team as they pack their stuff in garbage bags along with the playoff dreams of Rider Nation. This time people will not stand for anything less than the best the Riders can do, otherwise, the scene of empty seats in Mosaic Stadium will become more common than sell outs.