Riderville Report: December 6, 2010
By Greg Urbanoski
That was an interesting first week of the post season.
First Rider offense lineman Gene Makowsky announced he was running for the Saskatchewan Party in the provincial election next year. Then Rider Head Coach Ken Miller announced he was stepping down as head coach.
Both announcements came out of left field and there is a bit of a connection between the two. Makowsky in making his announcement seemed to leave the door open to continuing as a Rider next year, although with a provincial election for November 7, 2011, you have to wonder about campaigning will interfere with getting ready for the playoffs. Premier Brad Wall said there won’t be any problem, but if a week is a lifetime in politics, then a year is a light year or two.
The announcement Ken Miller is stepping down was a surprise, but probably less so in retrospect. Miller had been giving clues about leaving and if you saw him in the warmth of your living room at the Grey Cup, you noticed he was giving his players hugs at the start of the game.
But then again Ken Miller is going to be 70 next year. Coaching in Saskatchewan is a high stress job, probably the most high stress job in Saskatchewan because you have over a million fans who are now not shy about letting their opinions be known about every little move the club makes. If you are 70, would you put yourself through that?
Miller is staying on as vice-president of football operations which is reassuring news, but to what extent he occupies that chair will be interesting. The Riders has a weird structure where the coach was also the VP and the general manager reported to the VP where you would expect the coach to report to the GM.
Miller’s move now makes that more interesting and easier to follow. Miller and GM Brendan Taman will now be looking for a new coach, with an eye towards nailing someone down by the end of January. The reason for that is the college football season ends the first week in January, and the NFL season wraps up with the Superbowl which is either the end of January or start of February.
This allows the search to identify coaches from outside the Riders immediate staff, which is something I don’t have a problem with, nor does apparently many other Rider fans.
I have met Ken Miller a couple of times and he has been a class act on each and every occasion. Every one of his player wanted him to stay on and they loved playing for him. Kent Austin showed the Riders how to win, and Ken Miller made them into a team. If I still played football, I would have loved to have played for Miller.
The early front runners for the Rider coaching job were Richie Hall and Doug Berry, the Riders offensive coach. Hall is well known to the players and people of Saskatchewan and the feeling is that Hall had his hands tied by former Eskimo GM Danny Maccocia. People note Hall managed to turn the team somewhat around after a dismal start and almost made the playoffs.
On the other hand, Hall got passed over twice here for the job. I’m a little ambiguous on Hall’s record, going 4-28 here didn’t stop Ron Lancaster from winning Grey Cups in Edmonton and Hamilton as a coach.
However, in drinking with Edmonton friends and Eskimo fans last week, there seemed to be a feeling Hall had lost the respect of the team which had gone to Maccocia. I’m kind of dismissive of such talk, because rumors, losing and football teams seem to go hand in hand. I won’t question Hall’s defensive credentials, but as head coach?
Berry did a good job with Darian Durant, kind of pushing him to expand his game. Berry has previous head coaching experience with Winnipeg, and people here remember Berry as a powderkeg ready to explode.
There has been the odd insinuation that Berry is a bit of a lone wolf and not capable of getting the most of a team the way Miller did, but again, I kind of don’t buy this.
I remember when Kent Austin was brought in as coach, people said they remembered Kent Austin used to rag on the receivers on the sidelines after bad plays, and thought he would be the same as a coach and that would backfire on the team.
I didn’t think that was so important because Austin was a natural leader, and he won wherever he went. Berry went to the Grey Cup with Winnipeg in 2007 and might have won if Kevin Glenn hadn’t broken his arm, but then again, I don’t think much of Glenn as a big game quarterback.
Berry might be a candidate for Edmonton, although I hear Kavis Reed is all but hired as the Eskimos new coach. I don’t think Berry would be a bad choice, he has seen how the Riders handle things, he has seen how the players responded to Miller, and if Berry wants to show he is a better coach than what Winnipeg believed when they let him go, he would do well not to screw up what the Riders have got going for them.
Rod Pederson, the voice of the Riders and former voice of the PA Raiders, had a poll which asked people who they wanted to see as QB. Pederson put Dave Dickinson’s name on it to spark conversation but said he didn’t expect Dickinson to leave Calgary.
Dickinson has been cited as a potential replacement for Wally Buono in BC or John Hufnagel in Calgary. I think Dickinson has married a Calgary girl and that would seem to be a natural spot for him to leave the offensive coordinator position and coaching from Hufnagel for moving up to the top job.
With Wally indicating he is staying on for another year, and Hufnagel giving no sign of going, Dickinson is apparently interested in coaching in Saskatchewan. Dickinson did a good job with Henry Burris and the Calgary offense, although when it mattered most, the Stampeders did choke against us. A plus for Dickinson is his brother is a special teams coach and that fits in with what the Riders need the most, better special teams.
Another Calgary assistant, Chris Jones, is also apparently on the Riders radar. Jones was a defensive coach in Montreal before going to Calgary and has build some pretty good defenses. But again, when the chips were down, the Riders prevailed. Jones is a candidate in Edmonton as well, but let’s be honest, the Riders are the better choice.
Another candidate is Scott Milanovich, the offensive coordinator of the Montreal Allouettes. Milanovich has helped Anthony Calvillo improve his game, which would be exactly what Darian Durant needs. But Montreal coach Marc Trestman is rumored to be a candidate for his old alma mater at the University of Minnesota, and well, if we remember Kent Austin, turning down the alma mater is easier said than done and if that is the case, Milanovich would step into the top job in Montreal.
Speaking of Trestman, it has been highly suggested the Riders look outside the box for a Trestman type who would relate to the players, and help elevate Darian Durant’s game to avoid the mood swings he had this season.
The one outside the box I like is Tom Clements. I believe Clements is in Green Bay, and Clements is a former Rider, who also played in Ottawa, Winnipeg and Hamilton, winning Grey Cups in those locations. Clements has been working with quarterbacks at a high level in the NFL, and his hiring would be kind of along the lines of Kent Austin.
And speaking of the NFL, this is the other thing to consider, whether it is coaches or players. The NFL will likely lock out its players next year, which means I would expect no players will make the leap to NFL camps next year because I don’t expect those camps to be going, unless they bring in replacement players.
So while that will hold up the movement of players, it will also free up coaches whose contracts also expire in January/February. If you know you were going to lose a year’s pay, and a job came up as top dog in Saskatchewan, you would have to be foolish not to consider it.
Now to tie this back to Makowsky. When he announced he was running for office, he made it sound he was coming back for another year. But depending on which coach is hired, that might not be likely.
Depending on who the new coach is, Makowsky may have to learn a whole new scheme, which will cut some serious time into campaigning. So Makowsky may choose to retire before next season.
If that is the case, the Riders should go after Brenden LaBatte. He plays for Winnipeg, but comes from Weyburn and played for the University of Regina Rams. He is good enough to play in the NFL and from what I understand would have tried out for the NFL next season.
However if the NFL locks out its players, LaBatte may sign and play one year here to be closer to family before he heads south. And LaBatte would be an upgrade on our offensive line. And if we get Wayne Smith back and he is healthy, a problem area for our offense just got better.
And that was the first week of the CFL off-season.
