O’Day is ready to take lesser role with Riders
He’s ‘ready to roll’ under new GM, VP Football Operations Chris Jones
Jeremy O’Day got over it.
O’Day, who finished the 2015 CFL season as the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ interim general manager and vice-president of football operations, applied after the season in hopes of filling those jobs on a full-time basis.
The former Roughriders centre went through the interview process and was one of four finalists for the job, but president-CEO Craig Reynolds instead hired Chris Jones.
On Tuesday — after O’Day was introduced as the Roughriders’ new assistant vice-president of football operations and administration — he was asked if there was a time when he considered leaving Saskatchewan instead of joining Jones’ staff.
“Those five minutes probably happened before I talked to Chris,” O’Day replied. “I’d met Chris before, but you have a lot of things going through your head when you’ve been here a long time.
“I reached out to Chris after about 24 hours of pouting a little bit and he said, ‘Pick me up.’ So I picked him up and, five minutes into (the meeting), it was pretty obvious about his message. “We’re ready to roll.” O’Day joined the Roughriders’ front office in 2011 as football operations co-ordinator after wrapping up a playing career that spanned 14 seasons, including 12 in Saskatchewan.
In 2012, he was promoted to assistant general manager and director of football operations. On Aug. 31 of this year, he was named interim vice-president of football operations and GM when Brendan Taman was fired after the Roughriders started the season with nine straight losses.
O’Day, 41, hoped to succeed Taman on a full-time basis and was believed to be the front-runner in the early stages of the search process. But then Jones became available after he guided the Edmonton Eskimos to the Grey Cup title — and he surpassed O’Day in the race.
On Dec. 7, Jones was introduced as the Roughriders’ vice-president of football operations, general manager and head coach. That led to what O’Day called “a trying time” for him, but he eventually accepted it.
“It’s tough to beat the decision that was made,” he said. “I had some opportunities to sit down with (Jones and assistant VP of football operations and player personnel John Murphy) over the last number of days and feel very comfortable about what we’re doing, the direction of the team.
“Obviously there will be some changes, but I had an opportunity to go through all of that with these guys and we’re all on the same page. We’re all working together. (Jones) made it very clear right in the beginning, from the first five minutes of meeting him, what his vision was and how it was going to work. It’s everything you want to hear.”
While Jones is a coach who dabbles in player personnel and Murphy is a personnel expert, O’Day brings to the table an understanding of what Saskatchewan is all about. He believes he can learn a lot from Jones and Murphy when it comes to the personnel side of things, which can’t help but look good on his resumé. But the fact remains that he has gone from running the Roughriders as GM — albeit on an interim basis — to being an employee of Jones. O’Day also faces a period of change as he meets new co-workers, including a raft of assistant coaches who have followed Jones from Edmonton. “It’s always an adjustment,” said O’Day, who noted he and Jones played “musical offices” after the latter was hired. "For anyone who has a new job (and who) loses all the people around them, there will be some change. “But I signed up for it. I understand it. I knew that there was going to be a change made, so I’m fine with it. I’m ready to go.”