Riders Report

Six and a half of years of the Roy Shivers regime have come to an end. Unfortunately the timing of Roy Shivers release couldn’t have been much worse. It never looks good when your top management is released after your biggest blowout win of the year (although against, arguably, the weakest team in the CFL).

The week after the Edmonton game would have been the perfect timing. But in my opinion change was needed. The Riders have 13 option players this year and 30 next year. They are also $700,000 over the salary management system. It’s time to look to the future, it’s time to resign some of these key option players, and it’s time to start figuring out how to lose $700,000 worth of salary so the Riders are in line with the $3.8 million salary cap.

Roy Shivers was a good gm. He brought hope to a franchise that had none under the Al Ford years. No longer was making the play-offs the Riders goal. No, the Riders had far loftier goals than that. He made Rider fans believe that a home play-off date and a Grey cup win were attainable. As the Riders got better over the last 6 1/2 years, Rider fans asked for and expected more and more out of the Riders franchise. It’s been 17 years since the last Grey cup win, far to long in a small league like CFL and the Rider fans know this. But over the last little while the Riders seem to have gotten stale. If it wasn’t for Ottawa folding we would still be stuck with Crandell and Greene at the controls and to win at the CFL level, in my opinion, you have to someone more talented leading your team then either of those two (And I do realize Crandell has won a Grey cup). Our top quarterback of two years ago bolted to one of our rivals and another quarterback, Kevin Glenn, who was not deemed good enough by the Riders is having a good year (up until his injury) in Winnipeg. The Riders are currently 4-5 and are threatening the league with another mediocre season. This is unacceptable, after 6 1/2 years I expect more out of this franchise than mediocrity.

So the Riders are bringing in Eric Tillman, which is a good move in my opinion. I believe the Riders had to bring in an outside source (not someone from the “old boys club’) to become the top football mind in the organization. Tillman has as many Grey cup titles to his name as the whole Rider franchise. Can he bring greatness to the Riders? Only time will tell that answer. But what he will definitely bring is a fresh perspective. This change will help the Riders from growing stale, it’ll help the Riders continue their pursuit at a home-playoff game and a Grey cup. This is the second time Tillman has been offered the position (he was offered it 1999). But what Tillman has to know things are different from 1999. Rider fans are hungry for wins and they now expect the best out of this franchise. Just making the play-offs will no longer suffice.

As far as the head coaching situation goes I would like to see Danny Barrett stay on for the rest of the year to see how he fares under Tillman. If he fails I hope they promote George Cortez to head coach. Cortez has the experience and knowledge to be a head coach in this league. I do not want to see Kent Austin as the head coach, he failed as an offensive coordinator and I strongly believe he would fail as a head coach.

One fan’s opinion

Devin Sandor