This is a weekly newspaper, and as such this space focuses on issues of interest to our local city.
And that is exactly why this week we are applauding the decision Monday by the Saskatchewan Roughriders to fire head coach Corey Chamblin and general manager Brendan Taman.
Anyone spending time in a restaurant in Yorkton in recent weeks would have overheard multiple discussions regarding Chamblin, most suggesting his termination was weeks overdue.
While the ‘Riders might be based in Regina, they are very much a team embraced across the province with fans emotionally invested in every win and loss.
Of course that is the issue this season. Two seasons removed from a province-lifting Grey Cup victory our beloved Roughriders are 0-9.
Saskatchewan has a 0-9 record for only the third time in franchise history. The previous 0-9 starts were in 1959, when the Riders were 0-10 en route to a one win season and 1979 when they lost their first 12 games and went 2-14.
Granted the franchise has rarely won the league crown in a small league, but they have generally kept it competitive.
This year starting quarterback Darian Durant went down in the season opener, but in a good off-season move the team had signed veteran Kevin Glenn as insurance.
But Glenn couldn’t lead the team to any wins before he himself went down to injury.
Actually, that is unfair to Glenn. He played well enough to have put up at least a couple of wins, but questionable coaching decisions scuttled those chances. Chamblin is ultimately responsible for those decisions.
Now people make mistakes, but when those bad decisions continue changes have to be made.
Chamblin kept making them including Sunday when the Roughriders lost 35-13 to the host Ottawa Redblacks.
Chamblin pulled starting QB Brett Smith after the rookie pivot threw an ill-timed interception, opting to play Tino Sunseri who was bad enough last year he was cut this spring and resigned only after Durant and Glenn went down, the signing clearly another bad decision by Chamblin and Taman.
Chamblin had spent the past 3 1/2 seasons as the head coach. Taman was appointed the Roughriders’ general manager in 2010 and four years later added the title of vice-president of football operations. The tandem found the Holy Grail in 2013 winning the aforementioned Cup with a veteran team. But since then talent renewal has been questionable, Chamblin’s handling of players and game situations simply awful.
Taman will be replaced on an interim basis by assistant general manager Jeremy O’Day, while special-teams co-ordinator Bob Dyce takes the on field reins as the interim head coach.
The moves have come too late to save the 2015 season barring a miracle of biblical proportions, but at least it shows the players that consistently bad effort will have ramifications.
Hopefully Dyce can at least get the players back on-side in terms of effort, and stabilize things by making decisions which are more common sense, something Chamblin seemed incapable of doing.
With a new stadium on the horizon the ‘Riders need to find a way back to respectability, something lost in only two seasons by Chamblin and Taman. The firings are a good start.
Let the rebuild begin.
