CFL.ca Staff
REGINA — The off-field distractions that come hand-in-hand with Grey Cup week isn’t something that’s new for Kent Austin.
As a result, the head coach of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats is planning on giving his team a detailed lesson on both the good and the bad that the days leading up to the big game can offer.
“We will talk about all of the distractions tomorrow definitely,” said Austin, whose Ticats earned a berth in the Grey Cup last Sunday with a win over the Toronto Argonauts.
“We will have to go through point by point on what some of the distractions are, at least on what our experiences are as coaches being in the Grey Cup and during that week,” he added.
While keeping your team in line during Grey Cup week is a challenge in itself, the Ticats have the unique test of doing so in what’s expected to be an incomparable environment in Regina, where they’ll be up against a sea of green both and off the field.
Austin, who helped bring two Grey Cups to Saskatchewan as a player and a coach, believes he has his bases covered.
“Then the unique distractions you will have playing in a Grey Cup in Regina. We will discuss all of that with them.”
There will be plenty of discussions going on inside Hamilton’s meetings rooms this week, as the coaching staff aims to get their respective units set for the 101st edition of the CFL’s championship game.
Winners of 11 of their last 15 (including the post-season), the Tiger-Cats have been arguably the league’s hottest team as of late.
A lot of the credit for Hamilton’s success has been credited to Austin, who will be gunning for his second-straight Grey Cup championship as a head coach, his last coming in 2007 as the head coach of the Roughriders.
Austin, however, believes he and his coaching staff are getting far too much recognition.
“I think we make way too much of the coaches impact of winning it, it’s about the players and the players win football games, not coaches,” he said.
“It takes a lot of people for things to go well and a lot of people to do their job at a really high level. The truth of the matter is that the head coach gets way too much credit. If you want to give credit where it is properly due, start with the players first and then go to our assistant coaches those are the ones that deserve it,” he added.
In order for their success to reach the next level, however, the Ticats know they’ll have to overcome a dangerous and motivated Roughriders team, who will literally have an entire province in their corner.
“They are a really good football team, they are deserving of being where they are at. It is going to be a big challenge for us,” Austin admitted.
“Come game time I expect us not to be able to hear ourselves call plays or to even think on the sidelines. It’s going to be really loud.”
