Stamps’ Murphy has talked with Riders about big job
Scouting background and cap skills make assistant GM strong candidate
Branches of John Hufnagel’s coaching tree will be on full display when Chris Jones and Rick Campbell match wits in the Grey Cup on Sunday.
His front office tree could be sprouting another limb in the near future, too.
After the Calgary Stampeders’ general manager — the head coach title is no longer attached — confirmed assistant GM John Murphy is a candidate for the vacant Saskatchewan Roughriders GM job following Sunday’s 45-31 West Division final loss to the Edmonton Eskimos, Murphy met with the media Monday morning at McMahon Stadium to discuss the situation.
The 43-year-old personnel guru made it clear he’s listening and there have been two phone conversations with the Riders up to this point, but by no means is he overtly trying to escape his situation in Calgary.
After eight seasons with the Stampeders, Murphy, however, does believe he’s ready to take on a GM role.
“When the first person that offers you an opportunity is Jim Popp and then Jim Barker and then I’ve had (Tom) Forzani and Ted Hellard and Huff and Lyle (Bauer) along the path, so to be able to interact with those people over an eightyear period of time, I would think, by now, ready would a good word for it,” Murphy said.
As Riders president-CEO Craig Reynolds kick-started his search for the right man to lead the 3-15 Riders back to respectability a couple weeks ago, much of the focus centred around big names such as Hufnagel, Jones and Hamilton Tiger-Cats GM and head coach Kent Austin.
Quietly, Murphy’s name — thanks to an extensive scouting background, as well as a reputation as a prudent capologist, handling most contract negotiations — was bandied about in the background. Now, it’s front and centre. “You have to at least, professionally, take a look at it and see what they have to say and share your thoughts,” Murphy said. “From a professional standpoint, it’s just time to take a look.”
The prospect of turning around the Riders in a football-crazed city like Regina with a new stadium on the way excites the Long Island, N.Y., native.
Some might call it a difficult environment to do business. Not Murphy. “Only if you make it difficult,” Murphy said. “And you make it difficult if you don’t win games. It’s going to be difficult in any one of these nine (CFL) cities if you don’t do what’s asked for, which is win football games.”
That’s exactly what Murphy and the Stampeders have done a whole lot of recently, rolling up a 43-11 record over the past three regular seasons, all the while dealing with a litany of injuries.
It was Murphy, who broke into the league as a U.S.-based scout for Popp and the Montreal Alouettes and also spent one season as director of player personnel with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, helping to fill those roster voids, uncovering gems such as Bo Levi Mitchell, Charleston Hughes, Eric Rogers and Stanley Bryant.
“I don’t think it’s a project,” Murphy said when asked about the current state of the Roughriders roster. “And if it was, that would, to me, be all the more reason why people would be interested in a job like that. You’re interested in it not only for the opportunity, but to kind of put your mark, I guess, or put your stamp — no pun intended — on the roster. But there’s a lot of quality players there. There’s guys who have won football games and they’ve suffered through injuries, just like we have, and games just went a different way. It’s not like they lost 50-0 every week this year.”
Hufnagel wished Murphy good luck in the quest, adding that his role will stay the same for the time being as the Stampeders do their final season evaluations and start off-season work.
“John is excellent at what he does and I wish him the best in his pursuit with this job in Saskatchewan,” Hufnagel said. “We need to be able to move on and we will move on. We’ll still be getting good players up here.
“His role is unchanged. John and I have a great relationship and when they first requested permission, John and I talked first before I granted the permission, so we will set the ground rules. Again, the program’s built on trust and integrity and John is doing his job as a Calgary Stampeder until further notice.”
Even Mitchell threw his support behind Murphy’s candidacy for a job with the enemy.
“He’s a great guy and he’s one of the first guys I talked to with the organization (about) bringing me in,” the Stampeders’ 25-year-old quarterback said. “He definitely understands players. He’s very smart when it comes to scouting and players and their abilities and bringing in the kind of talent that fits the right scheme. It’s something I’ve always respected about the guy. Sometimes, he talks a lot and we always tease him for that, but he’s always done an amazing job and if he gets a chance I’m sure he’ll get it.”