When former Saskatchewan Roughriders coach Don Matthews passed away last month, he was remembered fondly as a gruff-on-the-outside type who still had a heart of gold and was great individually with people.
He won elsewhere before and after his tenure with the Roughriders, although success eluded the brash, bold coach during his early '90s stint with the Green and White.
I can only hope something similar is going on behind the scenes with Chris Jones and the 2017 version of the Saskatchewan Roughriders. Because like the team during the Matthews era, this version of the Roughriders is sputtering with player personnel and coaching decisions.
For as long as Jones has been the Roughriders head coach, general manager, director of football operations and defensive co-ordinator,聽 he's been 5-15 in 20 regular season games. The decision to remove longtime starting quarterback Darian Durant to save money to build other positions seems to not be paying much in the way of immediate dividends. Durant, dubbed 鈥渕oderately successful鈥� on his parting by Jones, has one more win this season with the Montreal Alouettes than Jones has pieced together thus far.
Durant led the Riders to a Grey Cup win and a few other appearances in the big game during 11 years in Riderville. He's been replaced by Kevin Glenn, an older pivot who just simply doesn't have the athletic abilities Durant does while running nor does he have the leadership Durant commanded. I like Glenn a lot, and I respect what he's brought to the team as of now. but he'd be a great backup/insurance plan for a good starter.
The number of Riders that parted after the Corey Chamblin era was not surprising. The latter Chamblin era was also a mess and there were far too many high priced veterans holding things up. Weston Dressler, John Chick, Tyron Brackenridge and even Chris Getzlaf were all not going to be part of a rebuild.聽 As fans, we understand that some of these guys had to go in order to make way for new talent.
Instead, what do we see? A succession of mediocre backups with other teams failing to click immediately, only to be replaced by further mediocrity when they've failed to win football games.
We see a team fined more than any other for on-the-field infractions (two fines in the first week) and fined last year for have a preposterous amount of players hanging around on a taxi squad for the practice roster.聽
Fans just opened the season with the new Mosaic Stadium but that place will be a ghost town if the on-field product has many more 5-13 seasons.
There is only one way out of this mess. During the offseason, a respectable starting quarterback must be either recruited or traded for. Going with another year of the personnel currently under contract won't do it. The person for the job must have some experience, but also enough left in the tank for a serious Grey Cup run in the next couple of years.
I hope Jones is having a positive impact in the football community as a whole because any further losing will have more and more fans howling for his job, and not remembering him with the fondness Matthews recently was.聽
