By Mitchell Blair
For Riderville.com
The Saskatchewan Roughriders have been used to being one of the last teams in the CFL to clean out their dressing room. This year, they are one of the first and to a man, they admitted it was a strange feeling to do so when there is a lot of football to be played in the league this season.
The football team is still puzzled as to how such a talented team could take such a disastrous dip. Receiver Weston Dressler says it’s something he’s been trying to figure
out for a while.
“This is something that I haven’t experienced since I got here,” Dressler-who is the team’s nominee for Most Outstanding Player -said. “We just got into an early funk and no matter what we tried; we couldn’t dig ourselves out of the hole we created. I don’t know if it was a Grey Cup hangover or not, but sometimes guys get complacent and forget what you need to get to those championship games. I don’t think that happened here, but I can’t say for sure.”
Defensive back Lance Frazier didn’t get a chance to play the final games of the season thanks to a hamstring injury. He admits he’s glad that this nightmare he has been living is over.
“Its been a season full of torture, despair and panic,” Frazier said. “I will admit that the mentality changed a little. We have had change over the years, but this year it caught up to us. We had a great run—five years of pretty good football, but this year it just didn’t mesh early and you have to have that.”
As for Darian Durant, he was just as down as anyone packing up their belongings and getting ready to do whatever during the offseason. However, the Riders quarterback feels he can use the disappointment of this season as a positive going forward.
“I honestly will look at this year as a learning experience, “Durant insisted. “After all the success this team has had over the past few years, being brought back down to Earth is sometimes good for you. I will definitely use what happened this year as a learning experience and I’ll look forward to moving on.”
After being in the Grey Cup the past two years, Durant admits that packing up earlier this year hurts, but he adds the pain isn’t increased because of the dramatic dip the team took.
“I’m not going to make excuses, but like I have said before, we weren’t at full strength all year. I don’t know where we would have been had Andy Fantuz, Rob Bagg and Brent Hawkins been here all year. I leave disappointed because we weren’t a playoff team, but we were never at full strength and if we had been, I know things would have been different.”
As for Ken Miller, it was his last chance to speak to “the men” as he gets set to begin retirement at the end of December. Miller, who said he will have no role in the choosing of his successor, believes he leaves this football team with a solid nucleus of players, but he does believe a lot of questions need answering before this team breaks for training camp next June.
“There are a lot of questions,” he said. “A lot of questions that will centre around the coaching staff, free agents, retirements and who goes and who stays. I would say there are probably more questions than there has been in some time.”
As Miller spends his final days in office before heading home to North Carolina, he says Regina and Saskatchewan will always leave him with a smile on his face.
“I have said many times that it’s great working in an environment where what you do means so much to so many people,” Miller said. “I leave with no regrets. It has been a tremendous opportunity, and I’m extremely appreciative to the organization and to the team and to the fans. I’m really appreciative to everyone for the opportunity I have had to interact with everyone over the years. The Riders will never be far from my mind.”
