Jamie Nye
CFL.ca
The Saskatchewan Roughriders playoff hopes were dealt a serious blow last week. Their 42-5 loss to the B.C. Lions puts Saskatchewan six points from grabbing a playoff spot with only six games remaining on the schedule.
There is certainly one man who isn’t going to let the standings, the naysayers and the pundits put doubt in the minds of his players.
Head coach Ken Miller made it clear to his team and to the media this week that he still believes in the men in the locker room.
A power point presentation on Tuesday delivered a message to the team about confidence and performance.
Later that day, he delivered an even more abrupt message to the media.
“I’m not going to tell you they’re flat’,” in reference to an inquiry about the team’s inability to explain why they played ‘flat’ against B.C.
“You watch our game video. You see guys fricken playing with great effort for the duration of the game. We weren’t playing well collectively. I don’t know the reason for that,” Miller bristled.
“But you even watch the very final plays of that game and offensively and defensively we’re playing with tremendous effort. We’re not playing like a team that is ‘flat’.
“For some reason we were unsynchronized and not playing well together. That’s the thing I have to get figured out because they played with tremendous effort.”
How easy would it have been for Miller to come back on the team’s first day of practice and declare his team was ‘flat’ and they need to pull their socks up because they embarrassed themselves?
Very easy.
The fans, media, and maybe even his players may have been expecting it.
But Miller stood his ground and made sure the message he delivered the team about confidence, ability and performance and the belief he has in them was the same one he delivered the Rider Nation in that media scrum.
Despite not wanting to acknowledge that they read what’s being written about them, some of the players acknowledged Coach Miller deserves praise for standing up for a team who likely had already beaten themselves up over Saturday’s defeat.
“He just wanted to have everybody know that it wasn’t because of a lack of effort. We never step on this field and not give it our all. We appreciate Coach standing up for us and we’d do the same for him,” explained Nick Graham.
Defensive tackle Dario Romero also feels Miller would do anything to protect his players, “He is here for us and we are here for him.
“It’s a mutual working relationship where he shows us he’s with us and he expects more from us because just in knowing that he has the belief in us that we can get it done. That’s big.”
Miller acknowledges that respect is a two way street.
“It’s just as important that they have my back. Coaches all the time ask for loyalty from players and then if you don’t display loyalty to them, then it becomes a one-sided thing that doesn’t work.”
So, now it’s up to the players to show Miller some loyalty and that the confidence their coach has in them is merited.
A win on Saturday at McMahon Stadium would be a great start.
