Riderville Report

By Greg Urbanoski

Well, the announcement of a plan to revitalize downtown Regina with an entertainment complex including a domed stadium was somewhat anticlimatic, considering it was nothing new and no new money or plans to raise money came out.

The lack of a substantial plan for a stadium is not something that inspires confidence and the urging of posters on various Rider fan boards to “just get 'er done” reveals a certain lack of connection to reality. The truth of the matter is for this plan to work, they need major corporate sponsorship to make up for the lack of federal funding. Without the corporate sponsorship, the province will not get involved, and people are concerned about their property taxes going up i case nothing comes from the corporate sector.

The Riders do need a new facility, but I think the fact of the matter is they are overstating the concerts and other events needed to make this thing viable. Taylor Field does one major concert a year, ever since the Rolling Stones broke the ice, but really, how many stadium acts are there?

So while the City of Regina vision is anticlimatic, seeing how it was a rehash of the original plan, the Riders signed two wide receivers this past week in Efrem Hill, a 6'1″ wide receiver who spent two years in Edmonton and was previously on the Cleveland Browns roster.

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The other guy is pretty interesting in even his name, Ernie Wheelwright, which is a pretty cool name for a receiver. Wheelwright spent two years with Baltimore and is 6'5″ and 225 llbs. This seems to be a signing to bring in a big receiver the Riders feel they will need with the departure of Andy Fantuz to the NFL.

The Riders are not limiting themselves in the search for what their receiving corps will look like, but a combinaton of size and speed is what they seem to be considering. For the Riders free agent camp in Orlando, qb Cole Berquist, wr Jordan Sisco and rb Hugh Charles went down to get some work with the potential agents, and although the big story was some 59 year old guy trying out, the Riders seemed pleased with how the camp turned out.

I was pleased they also brought some veteran players in to get som extra work, something they could do under the CFL players agreement.

The rumor mill has the Rider potentially signing DB Derek Pegues from Mississippi State. he is 5'10″ and from Mississippi State and apparently is a two time all South Eastern Conference player as a corner and a safety. He is also a kick-off and punt returner and had 12 interceptions in his collegiate career. Apparently his size works against him, in addition to his thinking on returns. He also may have gotten into some off-field problems in college, but apparently has straightened out.

The Riders can have 75 players under contract in the off-season, but need to be at 68 at midnight before training camp starts which I believe in about a month or so. Whoever the Riders pick in the draft will not count to that number, nor will any invites to junior players or university players not drafted.

Which means there may be a cut or two before training camp, which will be interesting. The Riders are reloading, and one area of interest will be the back-up quarterback position.

Ryan Dinwiddie holds the back up job now and offensive coordinator Doug Berry likes his intelligence but fans are not impressed with his arm.

Chris Leak, formerly of the Montreal Allouettes may get a look at quarterback, but then again, we may see someone like Adam Taffralis, a Hamilton back up quarterback who was released. The Riders are wondering whether or not to go with developing quarterbacks or perhaps having someone who has had snaps in CFL games in the hopefully never event that Darian Durant goes down.

Either way, it seems like a bit of a shake-up in how the Riders are doing things, keeping with the Eric Tillman dictum that for teams to be successful, they need to turn over 10-15 per cent of their roster. The Riders cannot afford to be complacent after two consecutive appearances in the Grey Cups (and yes, two losses, but I am not counting 2009 in Calgary), because other teams will be gunning for them and their depth, talent and character will be what determines if they make it again to the Grey Cup in Vancouver this year and win it, getting their second 100 years off to a flying start.