Jamie Nye
CFL.ca
Last week the Saskatchewan Roughriders succeeded when they won one for the fans.
This week they’ll try to send their coach into retirement on a winning note.
The fact that Vice President of Football Operations and head coach Ken Miller resigned earlier this week came as no surprise.
When Miller walked off the field at the 2010 Grey Cup in Edmonton, he thought that would be his last game as coach.
Miller’s working agreement with President and CEO Jim Hopson was that he’d step aside following the 2011 season from his role as V.P. Little did Miller know he’d be back on the sideline to coach the team’s final 10 games of the season when he dismissed Greg Marshall, the man he hired as his head coaching replacement.
This week he’s back at Commonwealth Stadium with a lot less on the line, knowing for sure this time it’s over after Friday.
Miller will be retired, ending an era those who follow the Roughriders won’t soon forget.
A Grey Cup title as offensive coordinator in 2007, 6-0 record to begin his tenure as head coach in 2008, first coach since Eagle Keys to lead the Roughriders to back to back Grey Cup appearances in 2009 and 2010, and more importantly a man who embodied the Saskatchewan way.
Friendly, unassuming, professional, hardworking and even knows a thing or two about farming. The only thing not Saskatchewan about Miller was the fact he grew up in Oregon.
So it’s time his players, ‘the men in the locker room’ as he called them, show coach Miller the loyalty and respect that he’s shown them in the past five years on Friday.
“I know the players definitely respect him a lot, especially us veterans,” spoke running back Wes Cates after the news broke Monday.
“We want to go out there and see him off the right way and get him a win. We’re going to be out there playing hard. I doubt anybody is going to walk off that field without leaving their best effort out there.”
What’s next?
The retirement of Ken Miller does leave a lot of questions now about who will make up the next regime in Saskatchewan.
Over Miller’s time in Saskatchewan things have stayed very consistent. While the departure of Kent Austin and Eric Tillman shook Rider Nation, the team decided consistency within the organization was the best way to go. Miller took over for both men as coach and then later as an administrator.
Will the Roughriders continue that trend of allowing the next guy up within the Roughriders to take over?
If so, that would mean General Manager Brendan Taman would move to the top of the football operations food chain. But after a five or maybe six win season, staying with what’s got the team there may not be the best move and surely will be a hard one to sell to season ticket holders.
Although in this writer’s mind, Taman has done very well in the role he’s been tasked within a very peculiar structure of being a G.M. that has to answer to the head coach.
Jim Hopson told News Talk Radio that the organization has been evaluating the structure of football operations and the personnel within football operations since the team hit a tail spin within the first eight games of the season.
On Monday, during Miller’s press conference, Hopson would not speculate on what moves he and the Board of Directors have planned when asked about Taman’s future with the team.
After all those decisions are made, the new boss will have a head coaching search on his hands. Yes, it’s going to be a very interesting offseason in Saskatchewan.
But that’s days, weeks and months ahead.
Right now they have a game to win for a man who’s helped set the new standard of professional football in Saskatchewan.
As Miller said many times, “I don’t talk about perfection because perfection is unattainable. I talk about excellence.”
And excellent he has been.
