The Saskatchewan Roughriders got back to work from the bye week with a Sunday practice at Mosaic Stadium and a new head coach at the helm.
Exactly 10 days after the firings of head coach Greg Marshall and offensive co-ordinator Doug Berry, Rider vice-president of Football Operations Ken Miller was directing the troops as the man now in charge of both roles.
Quarterback Darian Durant was vocal in his support of Miller after the moves and performed with a spring in his step on Sunday.
"It was a pretty good day," Durant said. "I'm glad and it's good to see Coach back out there. You can tell he's been itching to get back out there. He's having fun and the team's having fun. It's a new beginning, so to speak."
It's a new beginning but the situation hasn't changed. The Riders are a CFL-worst 1-7 and their first two games in the new Miller era are against the best team in the CFL, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers beginning with Sunday's Labour Day Classic.
"We recognize what we have to do," Durant admitted. "There have been changes
made but the game doesn't change. We still have to execute, make plays and get wins by any means necessary. That's our goal. Guys are excited to be back and we're just ready to get back to work."
Under Greg Marshall it was difficult to pinpoint the reason for the team's struggles. Was it too difficult to adjust to a new coach? Or had the team's talent pool dwindled to the point that we were foolish to expect any more than their record showed?
We can all agree the team's effort was sub-par in the majority of its games, however many feel Miller's return to the sidelines will give the squad the shot-in-the-arm it needs as they approach the remaining 10 games.
"You notice I'm smiling right now," said veteran DB Lance Frazier. "It's a different vibe right now. Coach Miller is like your grandfather and we call him Grandpa. It's just that fatherly touch, the looseness about him and his sense of humour. He gave a wonderful speech before the practice about what the Riders mean. You can feel the looseness in the locker room and there's a momentum swing already. He said the past is in the past and it's time to look forward."
With the firings, Miller has assumed a monstrous amount of pressure to turn things around and just as much onus is on the players to prove the ouster or Marshall and Berry was justified. Day by day Miller will try to motivate and guide this club to a third-straight Grey Cup appearance.
"First of all, to establish direction from this point forward," Miller said of his immediate task. "We're not accustomed to being in the position we're in. Just to take some steps to lay some groundwork for taking the first step today and looking forward to tomorrow."
And just how will it all turn out? We're about to find out.
(Rod Pedersen is the voice of the Riders on CKRM Radio)
