Winless Roughriders sack coach, GM
REGINA — Oddly enough, Saskatchewan Roughriders head coach Corey Chamblin weathered misfortunes that befell his first- and second-string quarterbacks. But when Chamblin pulled third-stringer Brett Smith, management simply had to pull the plug.
In his first headline-grabbing act as the CFL team’s president-CEO, Craig Reynolds cashiered Chamblin and GM Brendan Taman on Monday night.
Not even a month earlier, Reynolds had expressed confidence in both gentlemen — collaborators on a landmark home-field Grey Cup victory in 2013 — but the team’s continuing descent left the community-owned team’s ruling class with little choice but to initiate change.
Much of the focus had been on Chamblin since Sunday, when the Roughriders’ record fell to 0-9 courtesy of a 35-13 loss to the host Ottawa Redblacks. Chamblin might have been able to survive the loss — really, what is the difference between 0-8 and 0-9? — but the engagingly inept handling of the quarterbacking situation incited a mammoth public-relations imbroglio that had to be resolved by emphatic action of some sort.
Chamblin’s dismissal coincided with the ouster of the very man who had championed his cause from the outset — Taman, who had doubled as the Roughriders’ vice-president of football operations. Taman identified Chamblin as head-coaching material when few others were touting his candidacy. After Taman was granted full autonomy following a messy 2011 season, he seized the opportunity to hire Chamblin as the field boss.
Chamblin and Taman made history together on Nov. 25, 2013, when the Roughriders defeated the visiting Hamilton Tiger-Cats 45-23 in the 101st Grey Cup game.
Not even two years later, they were fired together — thereby becoming Saskatchewan’s first coach/GM combo to walk the plank on the same day since Dec. 8, 1986, when head coach Jack Gotta and general manager Bill Quinter were swept up in a housecleaning.
Chamblin coached on Sunday like a man who was determined to provide his critics with ammunition. Midway through the second quarter, Chamblin pulled Smith — who had become the good-news story of a generally gloomy 2015 season — and after he was intercepted in the Redblacks’ end zone. The Roughriders were trailing 14-10.
With Tino Sunseri at the controls, the Roughriders erupted for three garbagetime points. A fuming fan base erupted in another fashion, excoriating Chamblin for banishing Smith to the sideline in favour of a quarterback whom the Roughriders had released in mid-June.
Sunseri returned to Riderville after Darian Durant, the Roughriders’ franchise quarterback, suffered a ruptured right Achilles tendon June 27 in a trendsetting, 3026 loss to the visiting Winnipeg Blue Bombers. Durant, who had missed the final nine games of the 2014 campaign with a torn tendon in his right elbow, didn’t even make it to halftime of the Riders’ 2015 lidlifter before being injured once again.
Taman had the foresight to sign 36-year-old pivot Kevin Glenn, who was leading the league in passing yards (with 1,483) when he, too, was sidelined by injury. After Glenn sustained a torn right pectoral muscle July 26 against the visiting TigerCats, Chamblin was forced to turn to the third quarterback on the depth chart.
Smith proved to be pleasant surprise, engendering some optimism despite the Roughriders’ habitual losing. Yet, it was ultimately Smith who unwittingly played a role in Monday’s housecleaning.
He was intercepted and, a day later, Chamblin and Taman were sacked.
Perhaps their jobs could have been preserved, at least in the short term, if the Roughriders had merely bowed to the Redblacks without inflaming the fan base and select commentators.
However, Chamblin had to go a step too far and now the nameplates are being changed. Jeremy O’Day, the assistant GM, is now the interim successor to Taman. Bob Dyce, the special-teams co-ordinator, is to handle the head-coaching for the remainder of 2015 — barring more unexpected developments, which are always possible during this mindbending season.
rvanstone@leaderpost.com Twitter.com/robvanstone