By Mitchell Blair
For Riderville.com
Facing a 1-7 record right in the face, the Saskatchewan Roughriders are making changes hoping the man that took them to the last two Grey Cups can salvage the 2011 season. Mere moments after touching down in Regina Friday afternoon following the team’s 24-18 defeat to the Toronto Argonauts on Thursday night, it was announced Head Coach Greg Marshall and Offensive Co-Ordinator Doug Berry had been relieved of their duties with former Head Coach and Vice-President of Football Operations Ken Miller taking over effective immediately.
“Its my primary goal to get this team playing the way it needs to play, get them to the playoffs and win the Grey Cup.” Miller said in a Friday afternoon news conference. “I’ve had pretty good success in motivating the men in this locker-room and we’ve become a very cohesive unit where we have a lot of accountability within the player group. I have always said self-motivation is the best motivation and if I can help the players develop that motivation so we can play consistently and execute well, we will have an opportunity to be successful.”
General Manager Brendan Taman says it was not an easy decision to make in letting Marshall go with just eight games under his belt, but it had become evident there was no other choice.
“I’ve seen how hard Greg has worked to be a head coach over the years, so its tough to see this day come, “Taman said. “Its disappointing to everyone in this organization that we didn’t succeed with Greg. It surprises all of us that we didn’t.”
When it comes to who will become the offensive co-ordinator, Miller says it will be done as a committee.
“Steve Buratto, Bob Dyce and Bill McDermott will work it out between the three of them and then I will have a lot of input into the offence and call the plays immediately.” Miller said. “I will have a large role in that aspect as well overseeing the entire football team.
When asked what the missing ingredient might have been, Miller said it wasn’t hard to see.
“The inconsistent play,” Miller proclaimed. “If you look at our games, we would be good at offence and not good on defence one game and then it would be the other way around. We were also inconsistent on special teams. I wasn’t seeing an improvement in that over the past couple of weeks.”
When asked if he is ready to once again take the head coaching position after leaving it last year, the 69-year-old Miller says he is.
“Personal health was a factor in that decision being made, “Miller said. “I’m a lot healthier now than I was at the end of last year so I feel a lot better about taking this on again. The decision made last year was the right one at the time.”
Despite the team’s miserable record, Miller does not think the team needs to change the talent that is in the room and make an overhaul of players. He feels the guys in that room now can get the job done.
“We have plenty of leadership in the locker-room and plenty of skill players in the room for us to be successful.” Miller said. “We can look at a lot of things that might be considered excuses, but we are not interested in that. We are going to build on what we have and move forward.”
The move comes as the football team embarks on a break that does not see them back on the field until September 4 when they host the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in the annual Labour Day Classic. The team is not scheduled to be back on the practice field until Sunday, August 28 giving Miller and his assistants over a week to re-group and begin what will hopefully be a second half of the season that will be extremely different than what the first half was.
