Playing in rain just another test under watchful eye of coach

REGINA — The Saskatchewan Roughriders dealt with Mother Nature like it was second nature Wednesday.

With a thunderstorm raging and rain pelting down, the CFL team started its practice inside Mosaic Stadium. The offence climbed the first two ramps of the west-side grandstand and did a walkthrough on the concourse, while the defence worked in another location.

After heading into meetings for a bit, the Roughriders finally took the field — about an hour after the scheduled start time — and completed a normal practice despite the non-stop rain.

“At first, we were teetering with probably going to the U of R and trying to go inside and then it was like, ‘No, let’s do it (and practise),’ ”

Roughriders head coach Corey Chamblin said. “It wasn’t so much the plays I wanted to see. I wanted to see how they handled the situations.

“The team we had toward the end of last year, I thought they did a very good job of handling the situations, especially the weather. I want to see how this team handles it and I thought they did pretty good today.”

There were a few incidents where the rain got the better of the players — footballs sometimes slipped through the hands of punters, quarterbacks, receivers and defenders — but that only helped Chamblin’s cause.

Asked after practice if the weather was a distraction, the head coach replied: “It’s actually a plus.”

“If we play in a wet game, (the quarterbacks) are going to have to be able to field those balls,” Chamblin said. “Same thing with the running backs and defence. It could be a negative, but we try to turn it into a positive.”

Safety Tyron Brackenridge concurred with Chamblin, noting that the Roughriders simply tried to do their normal work despite the downpour.

“It’s all a mindset,” said Brackenridge, whose team is to face the Edmonton Eskimos in a pre-season game Friday at Mosaic Stadium. “It doesn’t matter what the weather is, we’ve got to get work done.”

The Roughriders played the Ottawa Redblacks on Saturday and face the Eskimos six days later.

That compressed schedule, particularly at a time when the Roughriders are still trying to evaluate players, could hamper Saskatchewan’s ability to prepare for an Edmonton team that features a new coaching staff for 2014.

For Chamblin, the focus of the preparations is on his team and not the opponent.

“Chris Jones runs a lot of different things on defence and we don’t know exactly what they’re doing on offence yet,” Chamblin said of the Eskimos’ first-year head coach, a longtime defensive co-ordinator in the CFL.

“There’s not a lot of prep, but the thing I’m looking forward to is seeing the guys’ effort, see how they play and see how they win the one-onone matchups and how they get themselves out of situations.”

Defensive back Dwight Anderson missed practice for the third straight day Wednesday as he attends to a personal matter.

Chamblin said Anderson will play Friday, provided he returned to Regina on Wednesday and participates in today’s walk-through.

Slotback Chris Getzlaf, meanwhile, was a spectator again Wednesday as he nurses an injury.

Chamblin said Getzlaf could play against the Eskimos, but the coaching staff plans to hold him out of the lineup.

The Roughriders are still in the process of grading players and filling some holes in their lineup, but the team appears to be getting close to finalizing things.

With that in mind, Chamblin was asked if all of the team’s questions this off-season have been answered.

“I think even in the regular season, we still may have one or two,” he replied. “They’ll be minimal, but I think we’ll have them.”