Roughriders

Well, just when you think you have the Saskatchewan Roughriders figured out, they throw out a new curveball. Last week the talk was of Scott Milanovich, the offensive coordinator of the Montreal Allouettes, being in town for an interview. However, the rumor mill indicated that the inteview was not all it was cracked up to be.

Enter Greg Marshall, the moustached guy, not the former coach of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. Marshall is the Susan Lucci of the CFL, being up for many coaching interviews but never landing the job. The Riders asked Hamilton for permission to talk to him, and he was in town last week for his second interview.

I got an email from a friend of mine who indicated Marshall did very well and Rider GM Brendan Taman is pushing for him being hired. The difference between the interviews was who Marshall was planning to retain and bring in for his coordinators and assistant coaches positions.

One of the criteria the Riders are looking for is someone who has a knowledge of the football culture here. Marshall was defensive coordinator here back in the 1990s and he is apparently going to bring in Richie Hall as the new defensive coordinator, replacing Gary Etcheverry, who may be going off to either Hamilton or Winnipeg. Doug Berry will be offered the offensive coordinator position, and Cory Chamblain, Calgary's defensive back coach, is expected to be coming here in some capacity.

There is a chance for Rider offensive line coach Bob Wyle will be coming here, and may also still be a candidate for the head coaching position, once the Denver Broncos, who he currently works for, finish their season. Wyle was brought in by Josh McDaniel's who was fired as Denver coach, so his assistants are not expected to be retained after their season concludes this weekend.

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The reaction in Riderville to Marshall coming in has been interesting. There is a strong feeling about bringing in new blood, but there are also those, and I suspect this is more in the Rider upper management, who do not want to overly upset the apple cart regarding the atmosphere the team has developed with its players.

The Riders are not the most talented team, but in terms of the definition of team, they are better than most and Rider CEO Jim Hopson and Ken Miller, VP of football operations, do not want to upset that edge the team has. Marshall apparently wants a bigger defensive line and better defensive back play, and with Hall back in the fold, that may work to attract a player like Maurice Lloyd back from the Edmonton Eskimos should they let him go.

Marshall is expected to leave the offense in Berry's hands and perhaps let him do a bit more with it, while working on shoring up the defense. While the Riders may be looking at the loss of Andy Fantuz, there are more signs the NFL will be locking its players out probably starting in March with the prospect there will be no NFL football in the 2011 season. So if Fantuz gets signed and then locked out, he doesn't get paid and he sits out a year. I would wager he comes back and tries again next year.

So if Fantuz and Weston Dressler return, that leaves the offense in pretty good hands. The Riders signed four Canadian college offensive linemen and there is the expectation that probably Gene Makowsky will be retiring before the start of the season to start his political career as the Saskatchewan Party candidate in Regina Dewdney.

The Riders will also likely be saying goodbye to Joe Womack, the head scout, who is apparently headed to Hamilton. The release of the Eric Tillman emails indicated a rift between Womack and Ken Miller, and while Womack is a good player personnel guy, if he can't get along with Miller, then both he and the Riders would be better off going in different directions.

The Riders resigned Mike McCullough this week, a wise resigning since he has done well when coming in to play middle linebacker. The Riders will likely close out the deal for a new head coach in about two weeks, which will allow then for a staff to be assembled, and then the team can move on resigning free agents and figuring out what it wants to do with American college players and the Canadian draft.

In terms of the Canadian draft, while it is incredibly early, the Riders do have their first round pick, but not their second or third round picks if memory serves me correctly. The Riders will likely go with an offensive lineman, but then again, if there is a player they really like, they will go for that one.

So if Greg Marshall is our head coach, will that be enough to get us over that hump and clinch a Grey Cup title instead of the close but no cigar reward? That will be interesting because some of the rumoured assistant coaches sound very interesting, others less so. For all the angst over Etcheverry, he did deliver in the stretch and I would argue got the defense working well enough to get us into the Grey Cup and even to win it if Chris Getzlaf could hold onto the ball. The Riders need to make some changes because the status quo is not quite good enough, which is a Grey Cup title. And the window of opportunity for this current bunch is starting to close, which means they need to take the step to be a dominant team.

Interestingly enough, Marshall holds that philosophy. He wants a dominant defense and he wants to blow the other teams out of the water at the start of the game, instead of relying on fourth quarter comebacks. I would be happy if Marshall can deliever on that.

I would also be happy if Darian Durant also takes the next step. Over the last few weeks, I've been watching the NFL and in particular, Brent Farvre and Tom Brady. Farvre is a legend of an NFL quarterback, but he has the ability to throw late interceptions which hurts his team. Also, he has only won one Superbowl.

Brady on the other hand has set a record for passes thrown without an interception and has led a rebuilt New England Patriot offense to first place and threatening to win his fourth Superbowl. Tom Brady is a student of the game, while Farvre relies on instinct. Given a choice in a big game, I choose Brady. And I think Durant needs to make a similar choice and go the Brady route and cut down the interceptions and work the whole offense, and not the Farvre route of occasionally performing miracles but also hurting his team at the worst possible time.

This is an interesting offseason. And it's not quite January 1st yet.