Season Preview: Durant aims high with long-awaited return

CFL.ca Staff

REGINA — Darian Durant and the Saskatchewan Roughriders are thinking big this season.

The Riders are aiming for a Grey Cup, as always, and the same goes for Durant – yet the veteran pivot has set a lofty personal goal: He wants to throw for 6,000 yards this season.

No kidding.

“I’m not joking,” Durant said in the off-season, asked about the milestone. “I think with anything you do in life, you should set your goals high. Students should strive to get all A’s, salesmen should strive to sell as many products or as many of whatever it is they sell.”

“It’s just a goal I set for myself – it’s not to take anything away from anybody else,” he continued. “Every team sets out to win the Grey Cup. That’s another goal. It’s just a goal that I have for myself.”

On the same afternoon the Riders earned a Banjo Bowl win over Winnipeg to improve to 8-2, Durant suffered a season-ending elbow injury to his throwing arm. The Riders struggled without him and wound up losing in the Western Semi-Final while Durant, fueled by the scene before him, rehabbed and vowed to return better than ever.

Durant and the Riders’ confidence should serve them well in the highly-competitive West Division where every team poses a threat heading into 2015, although confidence alone won’t do the trick. The team underwent a busy off-season marked by major underlying changes to the offensive and defensive schemes.

Defensive Coordinator Richie Hall was the first to go as Head Coach Corey Chamblin signaled a coming change to the outlook of the defence. On offence, meanwhile, the Riders parted ways with George Cortez, the brains behind the team’s 2013 Grey Cup Championship-winning offence and Grey Cup MVP Kory Sheets.

This year marks a change in personality for the Riders, once a run-heavy team that will now find itself leaning more on the pass with veteran offensive coordinator Jacques Chapdelaine drawing up the X’s and O’s. Chapdelaine focuses on a pass-heavy offence with high-percentage completions and more attempts.

Durant likens it to ‘basketball on grass’, where the goal is to put the ball in the hands of the playmakers and let them do the rest.

“I love it,” said Durant on the new-look offence. “I think that’s what this game is about, when you have two downs to get a first down you want to get the ball in the hands of your playmakers and not hold onto it yourself.”

“The longer you hold onto the ball, the lower the percentages are of something good happening. I like the direction we’re headed in. I like the talent we have within our squad. I expect big things.”

The Riders have the tools to make it work. Weston Dressler, Taj Smith, Chris Getzlaf and Rob Bagg are among returning veteran receivers while sixth overall CFL Draft pick Nic Demski could play an unheralded role in the Riders’ offence.

Anthony Allen, Jerome Messam and Steven Miller are the running backs in contention for carries entering the season, while Head Coach Corey Chamblin has noted Allen’s progression as a CFL back. The 26-year-old showed flashes in 2014 and if he can become the Riders’ lead back, he may be a top breakout candidate in 2015.

“He’s changed his body and a lot of his habits because he’s mentally ready for what the CFL brings,” Chamblin told Riderville.com about Allen, who arrived on the scene at the start of last year making the transition from playing both tailback and fullback with the NFL’s Baltimore Ravens. Chamblin compared Allen’s situation to that of Kory Sheets, who made a dramatic improvement from his rookie season to his sophomore season.

“Each day is not a new day to him,” Chamblin continued. “I definitely think you’ll see that Kory Sheets change. Will he have as great a year? I don’t know that, but training camp will tell and then the season will tell.”

While the offence is surrounded by plenty of promise, the bigger question mark hangs over the defence, equally responsible for the Riders’ late 2014 season collapse. That unit was the worst it’s been since Chamblin took over as head coach, going from second in total yards in 2012 and third in 2013 to seventh in the league in 2014.

A change at coordinator and the acquisitions of Shea Emry and Alex Hall give the Rider ‘D’ a different look this season, but that unit will have to more closely resemble its 2013 Grey Cup-winning form if the Riders are going to stay afloat in the West.

If that happens, don’t sleep on the Riders in 2014 — and especially don’t sleep on Durant, back in 2015 with a chip on his shoulder.