620 CKRM's Mitchell Blair was at the Rider year-end interview session at Mosaic Stadium today. These are the quotes he received from head coach Ken Miller:MILLER: It was a good year and certainly the men in this locker room make me feel good. They're a great group of men and it was tough in that last meeting but having a chance to talk with them individually is good. There's an optimistic outlook among them.
ON HIS MESSAGE TO THE TEAM
MILLER: Basically I told them I'm really proud of them and they attacked this season and the final game as a team. Maybe they weren't the most talented but they're certainly the best team still in the league and they were very cohesive in times of trouble, and stayed cohesive and accomplished some really good things. They played a great Grey Cup game and basically came up short.
ON HIS FUTURE
MILLER: I have some thoughts on that but it would be premature to tell you what those thoughts are now. I talked with Brendan this morning and have a meeting scheduled with Jim later today. Things should clarify and I should quit what seems to be a waffle situation. We should have some clarity by the end of the week.
ON GETTING OVER THE HUMP
MILLER: First of all I'd just like to say that it's an honour to be able to get there. It's a hard thing to get to the Grey Cup and you just think how many years this organization has NOT gotten there, and you think how many teams didn't get there this year. It's a tremendous achievement to get into that game and once you get there it's a one game series and that game can go either way. We played very, very competitively and I've heard some people refer to a 'Saskatchewan jinx' so for crying out loud we won a big game to get there and won several big games to get into that game. If we continue to grow and develop and believe and work hard, we'll get there.
ON THE RIDERS BEING THE CFL'S BEST ORGANIZATION
MILLER: I think so and one of the things I said to the people at Mosaic is that the one person who's been consistent over the years is Jim Hopson who established a platform to allow us to have excellence and be among the top teams in the CFL and I'm really proud that I've been part of this growth to this point.
ON BRINGING PLAYERS BACK
MILLER: Our free agent situation, although I don't know numbers as we stand here today, is a lot better than last year at this time. The important people, the core people, we'll have them back. As we go into a season there are always personnel changes and it seems like we've had considerable coaching and players changes and we'll continue to have growth in both of those areas. Yesterday Lance Frazier spoke and he's one of the up and coming leaders on this team along with James Patrick and Darian Durant. So we really have young players in this organization which will form the nucleus of our veterans as we move forward. I really feel we have a bright future.
15 comments:
Come back for one more year Kenny! Please!!
We have great leaders! Coach Miller is the greatest one. He allows our players to grow. One more year!
Jim Hopson made some tough decsions to get us to were we needed to be. He is outstanding man. Go Riders Go!
Yes agree totally... need KM back for one more "kick at the cup" at least... our nucleus of players should be here so no reason not to expect another great year of CFL football here in the Saskatchewan!!!
Bill W
PLEASE don't quit Kenny. You are the foundation of this team, the GLUE! If you still want to coach, and feel you can give the time, then for god's sake STAY!!!
If I had to guess, I'd say Coach Miller will step aside.
It's just a guess. I don't have any inside knowledge. I think if he was planning on staying, he might elude to that, don't you think ?
My hope is that if he does step aside, they hire a solid coach and get some other assistants. I am not sure Richie Hall fits that bill.
I don't want Doug Berry coaching our Saskatchewan Roughriders and I sure don't want Jim Daley as a coach at all.
Russ from Saskatoon
Who exactly are the free agents this year? For all teams?
pat
He should get 1 more year, He is an outstanding Leader for this team, and has brought them so far. Perspective is this. Montreal played in 8 Grey Cup games this decade and ONLY won 3. Our organization has won 3 Cups total in 100 years. It is an extermely difficult task to accomplish. So my 2011 wish is 1 more year for Coach Miller.
Obama
Whether or not Miller goes will be decision alone. Unfortunately in his three seasons as head coach he has not delivered a Grey Cup. Trestman has won it two of the three years he has been in Montreal. Let's not forget we were one regular season loss from being a mere .500 team, and how lucky were we in the semi's. I has always boathered me when we reward failure, and we've had plenty of that. In fact, we have had decades of that.
The biggest problem I have with Miller is that the GM reports to him, and as such he controls all on field football decisions. Miller is one of those stick by your guy no matter what, even if he isn't getting the job done. It's the Barrett/Shivers syndrome all over again. Miller stated they may not have had the best talent over all but were the best team. That's debateable and doubtful! My question to miller would be "if your in control of on field personnel, why wasn't it upgraded if you knew it was inadequate?" Miller coddles his players while Austin would demand better, hence benching Fantuz. Look what it did for him that year and into the future. This needs to be run as a pro football team, and not a beer league hockey team. We are rapidly drifting back to being the lovable losers from bumpkinville. We have had too many decades of that.
Reality check folks: if he leaves Ken Miller will be remembered for one thing: he was the coach of the team who lost the grey cup because of too many men on the field.
Rumour has it Gene Makowsky is retiring as soon as tomorrow. Is this true?
Our 2 major free agents are Sean Lucas and Lance Frazier.
Tie the can to Lucas and sign Frazier asap.
Scenario #1: Miller stays, fires Daley, keeps Etch & Berry for offensive/defensive scheme familiarity with vets and brings in younger HC candidate to mentor for one year.
Scenario #2: Miller steps down as HC. Hires Berry to be HC. Daley given raise and promotion to OC. Berry hires Milt Stegall as ST coach. Daley makes Dinwiddie starter touting his 2007 run as proof he can be "the man".
/sarcasm off
Lucky in the semi's? 7 seconds to go we are up by 7 and BC had to complete a hail mary to even tie the game. I would say BC was lucky to extend the game.
whether Coach Miller stays or goes is less important than upgrading talent in key spots. 10-8 is a regression. New blood on o-line, d-line, kick returner and unfortunately for Omarr Morgan, a replacement for him. new special team coach as well. not sure who cut Armstead for Dorsey then Grice-Mullen, but that is serious regression.
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