THE CANADIAN PRESS
The 2014 season was thrown in the trash for the Riders as they cleaned out their lockers on Tuesday.
The players said their goodbyes, signed autographs and memorabilia for each other and addressed a disappointing end to what was a promising season.
Then Darian Durant went down.A season that, at 8-2, had the Riders among the best in the league and a Grey Cup favourite.
“When you lost the best player in the league, it’s going to be tough,” uttered Ricky Foley, still feeling the pain of defeat in the Western Semi-Final.
“I don’t care who you are, what sport you’re in, when you lose the best player in the league, you’re going to have trouble.”
It was the reality of the season for the Roughriders. Without Darian Durant, they went 2-6 and saw an offensive collapse on Sunday.
While no one player makes a team, losing the quarterback was the key factor in the Riders season ending the way it did.
“It obviously didn’t help. He’s a guy that has proven what he can do, especially in the playoffs. He’s been a guy that’s been the heart and soul of this team for how many years now,” explained Weston Dressler.
When you lose the heart and soul of a team, bad things happen and the bad things started to pile up on the Riders in the back half of the season.
The offence started to sink, and now real questions are being asked about the future of some members of the team.
Those tough questions come each and every year when a team doesn’t get to the ultimate goal and it won’t be any different for Saskatchewan going into 2015.
Tough decisions have to be made and Head Coach Corey Chamblin is going to take a few weeks to settle down to make decisions on reflection, not emotion.
That includes his coaching staff and Offensive Coordinator George Cortez.
“He had some challenges this year, dealing with the quarterbacks we had and all the changes that we had.”
Chamblin also explained that Cortez always takes about a month or so to reflect on his career and whether or not there are other opportunities he’d like to pursue elsewhere but Chamblin will also evaluate if the current coaching staff can get the most out of the team.
As for Darian Durant, he’s hoping for one change this off-season and that’s a designated quarterback coach.
“I would love to have a quarterbacks coach. That would be good to have a guy who has played the position and have that sounding board so to speak. I’ve had my best two years with Khari (Jones) here so I think it is something that I would love to have but we’ve also made it to a Grey Cup without one.”
It won’t only be the coaching staff that could see change over. The Riders have over 20 players on the free agent list and the reality is, the team is going to look a whole lot different than the one that walked out of Commonwealth Stadium.
Chamblin has even said the ‘rebuild’ word a few times after Sunday’s lost but clarified what he means by a rebuild, because too often that word brings on a connotation of having to lose before you win.
“What I mean by rebuild is, just like this team ended up 10-8 and eight points short of going to the West Final, I’ll never put a team out there that shouldn’t be a Grey Cup quality team. So when we talk about rebuilding, it’s rebuilding to win a championship.”
So when the Riders reconvene in 2015, they will hope to learn a lesson from this season and get them back to where they were last year, cleaning out their lockers with the Grey Cup at the front of the room.
“That’s what you’ve got to stay focussed on in the off-season, that’s what you have to think about is learning from this and coming back and when you get in a close game where it’s effectively one play away, you make that one play,” stated Foley.
One thing is for sure, they’ll have their heart and soul back throwing the ball.
