Austin puts Rider past on hold
R EGI NA — To Canadian Football League followers of a certain age, the sight of the main entrance to creaky old Mosaic Stadium (the ballpark formerly known as Taylor Field) flanked by 40-foot colour images of players not named Ron Lancaster and George Read is ... well, jarring.
But a Saskatchewan Roughriders franchise whose Hall of Fame icons won only one Grey Cup — 47 years ago — during their long careers decided last season that it was time to move on, to update the folklore a tad. Nice timing. A year later, one of the guys it moved onto, Kent Austin— though undeniably deserving of the honour, having both quarterbacked (1989) and coached (2007) the Roughriders to CFL championships — is back in town for Sunday’s Grey Cup game ... coaching the enemy. Against the beloveds.
Is there no local bylaw that could be passed? Couldn’t the club take Austin down and put old George back up, even if he’s a little faded, just for the week?
“Yeah, I don’t make those decisions,” the Hamilton Tiger-Cats’ coach chuckled Wednesday at the CFL’s first formal function of Grey Cup week. “The (Saskatchewan) organization will do what they want to do, but we’re very honoured to be recognized.”
Asked what it felt like to have to walk past Austin’s gigantic poster every day on the way to work, Riders coach Corey Chamblin didn’t miss a beat:
“Well, I actually come in the other way, so ...,” he said.
The last thing he wanted to do, he said, was see the “ancient landmarks” of the club’s rich history removed.
“That’s part of the foundation. The Riders wouldn’t have the Cups they have without Kent and Richie (Hall, the defensive co-ordinator) and all those guys,” Chamblin said, “and we’re just trying to build on all the things those guys did in the past.”
Austin’s place in team, league, even pro football history is unique: no other championship-winning quarterback has ever guided the same franchise to another title as head coach.
And considering his fingerprints are all over two of the only three Grey Cups the Roughriders have won since they were invented 103 years ago, it’s a wonder the stadium hasn’t been named after him.
Austin, though, is downplaying all of it.
“Any time you’re in it, it’s an awesome experience, it’s hard to get here,” said the 50-year-old, second-most famous quarterback ever to come out of Natick, Mass. (some guy named Flutie is No. 1).
“And every one of the Grey Cups are special. That being said, if we were going to play somebody ... I would want it to be Saskatchewan. If we’re not going to win it, which we hope very much we do, it would be good to see Saskatchewan in there.”
Henry Burris, the voluble quarterback who was shunted off by Calgary two years ago, says the players have all noted the coach’s likeness on the front of the stadium and teased him about it, “but you don’t want to piss him off, because he might get upset and have us running bleachers out here.
“The thing is with Kent, he’s such a focused guy, he’s so dialed-in this week.”
The chance to take another team, again in his first season as head coach, to a championship is certainly somewhere in Austin’s consciousness, but Wednesday he was spreading the glory around to Burris and running back C.J. Gable, to Ticats owner Bob Young and CEO Scott Mitchell, to his assistant coaches ... anyone but K. Austin.
Maybe it’s because he knows that whatever heat he and Burris and Andy Fantuz and kicker Luca Congi — former Riders, all — might be feeling in coming back to the prairies as the villains this time, the home team is under considerably more stress.
“There’s a lot made of (the pressure), but Kent’s been here. He understands Regina. He lived here longer than I have,” said Chamblin. “He understands the fans, he understands his name, he understands his place in Regina and in the hearts of people in Regina. So he understands how it will be and I think he’ll do a good job of letting his team know that.”
It certainly felt that way, Austin said, when the first icy blast hit his players Tuesday evening at the airport. Hence, the decision to practice on Mosaic’s snow-covered field in sub-20-below weather Wednesday, while the Riders drove 45 minutes to Moose Jaw to practise indoors.
“The (indoor) option was and is available to us and we might take advantage of it one day this week — not today,” said Austin.
Burris rated the cold “about a six” on a scale of 1-to-10 and if his hands were stinging Wednesday, he wasn’t about to admit it to the coach, who said he’d be on the lookout for anyone who might be leaning toward making an excuse.
“I’ll be able to see which guys are teetering and make that correction,” said Austin. “This is for a championship. We can all weather three hours of cold weather.”
And by the way ... the Roughriders issued a statement on the Kent Austin banner. It’s staying up.