By Mitchell Blair
For Riderville.com
When Greg Marshall took over from Ken Miller as Head Coach of the Saskatchewan Roughriders, he couldn’t have envisioned that the first third of his initial season as the top dog would see the team sitting with a 1-5 record. The reality is though is that is what Marshall is facing. Despite the tremendous adversity his team has faced in 2011, the rookie Head Coach remains confident his team can get out of its doldrums and be a force in the Western Division before the season is done.
“I’m like everyone else. I’m not enjoying where we’re at now and I’m very frustrated over some of the things that have gone on to this point, “Marshall told reporters this week as the team prepared for Friday’s home game against Calgary. “At the same time though, I’m not discouraged and I haven’t gotten to the point where I think we can’t turn things around.”
Frustrating is the word that surrounds the Riders as no one expected a team that was in three of the last four Grey Cups to take such a free-fall to the point that they are tied with B.C and Toronto for the league’s worst record. Its something President and CEO Jim Hopson is not taking lightly. After building this team to a position of CFL elite since taking over the position in 2005, Hopson is concerned over the on-field product, but like Marshall he remains confident that better times are in the not to distant future.
“This whole season has been frustrating,” Hopson admitted. “The win in Montreal gave us hope that we were getting back on track but then we lost a game to Calgary we could have won, and we just didn’t get it done against B.C. When you’re used to the success we’ve had, and you love the team as much as we do, it’s tough to take. We know we’re going to get better, but the thing that we have is an organization. We have a lot of depth, tremendous resources and tremendous fan support. We tend to live and die with the Riders, even ourselves. We understand the seriousness of it and we’re going to turn it around and get it back on track.”
The bad start has fans clamouring for change whether it be General Manager Brendan Taman, Marshall or Offensive Co-ordinator Doug Berry. Hopson feels it is too early to start talking about firing someone midway through the season.
“I don’t think you make sacrificial lambs out of anyone. If there needs to be a change, then we’ll do it but I’m not in a position to say that right now because we haven’t sat down as a group to see where we’re going,” Hopson said. “I really have to trust the football guys. We hire them to run the football side and to provide direction and leadership. We won’t make a change just to appease people. The reality is if you make a change and don’t get better, what’s the next change? We’d better have a plan for what we’re going to do rather than have a knee-jerk reaction.”
Marshall also agrees that the team isn’t in need of a major shake-up, but he does believe the roster has to be massaged in certain areas to make the team better. With receivers Andy Fantuz (NFL camp), Rob Bagg and Cary Koch (injured) out of the lineup, it has made what was once a strength of the team, a weakness. With that being the case, the team traded veteran defensive end Luc Mullinder to Montreal for receiver Dallas Baker while bringing in former Bowling Green pass-catcher Freddie Barnes who holds the NCAA record for most catches in a season. Marshall says it’s something that had to be done and he denies that a message was sent by trading Mullinder much the way he did when Tad Kornegay was released earlier this season.
“I’ve said before that I’m not into sending messages and doing things to shake things up,” Marshall said. “What I’m into is trying to identify where the problems may be and try to fix them. If that means making more changes, we will, but to sit here and say there’s a magic number, we’re going to do this, we’re going to do that, I can’t say that. We’re just going to keep exploring our options and make sure we have the right combinations and we’re doing the right things. I don’t think there’s any secret we need better production from our offence as a whole. It’s no secret we like to throw the ball so if you’re going to throw the ball you better be as strong as you can be at receiver. That’s what we’re trying to do by bringing Dallas in to see if we can make an improvement in that area.”
The team will try and turn its fortunes around Friday night and start feeling better about themselves as the Calgary Stampeders come back to Mosaic Stadium for the 2nd time in two weeks. Game time is 7:00. It will be on TSN with radio coverage as always provided by 620 CKRM with Rod Pedersen and Carm Carteri.
