Corey Mace is ready for double duty after moving over from the Double Blue.
Mace, the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ newly appointed Head Coach, will also serve as the Defensive Co-ordinator — having excelled in that capacity with the Toronto Argonauts before joining his new CFL team in late November.
“It was something that I thought about balancing, being the Defensive Line Coach and the Defensive Co-ordinator for the last couple of years,” Mace said on Monday from Nashville, where the league’s winter meetings are being held.
“I find that the toughest part is that I am a relationship guy and I always want to be in contact with everybody. The Number 1 thing that’s on my mind, calling the defence and also being the Head Coach, is making sure that I allow myself to trust the coaches that we’ll have specifically on the defensive side so I can let go of the reins a little bit and spend time with the guys in the other phases of the football team. It’s extremely important for me to have those relationships with everybody on the team.
“As far as calling the game defensively and staying in tune with the flow of the rest of the game, I’m not too concerned about that. It’s more about being able to spend the proper amount of time with everybody on the team.”
Mace began his non-playing football career on Dec. 10, 2015, when he was named the Calgary Stampeders’ Defensive Line Coach.
After six years on the Stampeders’ staff, he was introduced as the Argonauts’ Defensive Co-ordinator on Dec. 30, 2021.
His first season with the Argonauts was punctuated by a Grey Cup championship.
In Year 2, Mace choreographed a defence that helped Toronto post a 16-2 record and tie a CFL single-season record for victories.
Next stop: Saskatchewan, where Mace quickly immersed himself in assembling his own coaching staff for the first time.
A week after being introduced as the 48th Head Coach in Roughriders history, Mace announced that Marc Mueller would be the Offensive Co-ordinator and Kent Maugeri would continue to handle the special teams.
Maugeri, a member of Saskatchewan’s coaching staff since 2016, was promoted to Special Teams Co-ordinator in 2022.
“Kent has been on the team for quite a while now and I think having his pulse on the roster and on the returning guys is very important,” Mace said.
“Having (Maugeri) retained and having some fluidity, even for myself and understanding some of the guys, he’ll already have a great foundation of that.
“From my experience with him, and from talking to anybody around the league about him, it has been nothing but positive.”
Maugeri was a Quality Control Coach in 2016 before spending the next three seasons working with the running backs.
From there, he transitioned to special teams, assisting then-field boss Craig Dickenson, and ultimately took charge of that facet of the team.
“With his time spent coaching multiple positions, and with his time spent under Craig, who has been a well-respected special teams coach in this league, seeing what he was able to do with his implementation of what that looks like last year, he did a heck of a job,” Mace said.
“I’m looking forward to really giving full control to him to go ahead and do what he’d like to do with that special teams unit. We’ve talked a little bit about that and it’s another thing where we align and see eye-to-eye.”
There is a well-established compatibility with Mueller, who was a member of the Stampeders’ coaching staff from 2014 to 2023. Mace was a defensive tackle with Calgary from 2010 to 2015.
“With Marc, our relationship started years ago, when he was a little runt — coming over when I was still playing,” Mace recalled. “He was on the defensive side of the ball in ’14 (as a Defensive Assistant).
“I’m extremely proud of him and of how he has grown. You saw that with how he conducted himself in his first year of coaching on the defensive side of the ball with the likes of Juwan Simpson and Deron Mayo and those types of guys, who are big personalities.
“For him to be able to take that in and really see the game from the other side of the ball was a major step for him in becoming the offensive mind that he is now.
“You talk about the time that he spent in that (Calgary) organization with the brains that have been in that facility for the amount of years that he has been there, I mean, he’ll tell you.
“You guys (in the media) know Marc. He’ll tell you how smart he is, anyway.”
Mace was speaking lightheartedly of Mueller, who became well-known locally as a star quarterback with the Sheldon-Williams Spartans and University of Regina Rams.
He also served on the Rams’ coaching staff for one year before relocating to Calgary and eventually becoming part of the Stampeders’ offensive coaching staff.
“I’m really excited to see what (the offence) looks like when he’s got full control of what’s happening,” Mace said.
“From talking to Trevor (Harris) and some of the other guys on the offensive side of the ball, they’re really excited to work with Marc. I know everybody is going to love him.”
An announcement regarding all the Roughriders’ Assistant Coaches is expected “soon,” according to Mace.
“What I can promise you is that everybody on that staff is a great person,” he said. “That’s what I love to be surrounded with myself.
“I love to be able to go to work and enjoy myself and certainly want to have that for the guys in the locker room as well.”
