10 MONDAY THINGS
1 – MAKING HISTORY: By now you know the Saskatchewan Roughriders captured 1st place in the CFL West and will host the Conference Final two Sundays from now. Craig Dickenson captured the pennant in his rookie season as head coach and is just the 5th person to do it in Saskatchewan, as he’s preceded by Harry (Blackjack) Smith, Eagle Keys, John Payne and Ken Miller. These are franchise icons! (Source: Rob Vanstone). If you’ll recall in January when the Riders were looking for a successor to Chris Jones, I labelled Dickenson as “the only correct choice”.
2 – HOLD THE PHONE: I also predicted the Riders would finish 4th, then amended that forecast at Labour Day to 2nd. So many people have asked my prediction on how this is all going to turn out (culminating with a Grey Cup pick) but my response is, “How the hell would I know? I’ve been wrong on everything else so far”. In this case I’m more than happy to have missed the bulls-eye.
3 – LUCKY: Calgary Stampeders podcaster, blogger and chief punk Ryan Ballantine says the Riders got lucky by finishing in 1st place. “The luck the Riders had all year when it came to scheduling when they won the division by a single game,” Ballantine wrote on Twitter. Right! Luck! And the Calgary Stampeders just started to get lucky in 2008 when John Hufnagel arrived. Perhaps there’s a new sheriff in town.
4 – TOP OF THE O’DAY: During Grey Cup week we’ll be running a series of polls on the RP Show for awards we’d like to see the CFL hand out (although Twitter’s maximum of only 4 options is a bit of a pain). Still, the job done by rookie Rider GM Jeremy O’Day should put him at the top of any such vote after Chris Jones left him in the lurch in mid-January, bolting town without a succession plan for a head coach nor QB. O’Day responded with hiring a Coach of the Year candidate and signed not one, but two, QBs who would prove they can win in the CFL (Cody Fajardo and Isaac Harker).
5 – COORDINATOR OF THE YEAR: This would be a highly-coveted award and in the NFL, the guy who wins this generally ends up as a head coach the following season. In the CFL, there are so many quality candidates in 2019 but off the top of my head, the three finalists could include Hamilton OC Tommy Condell, Winnipeg OC Paul Lapolice and Saskatchewan DC Jason Shivers (today’s his birthday btw). I’d love to hear in the comment section who you’d nominate and why.
6 – FOR THE W: Bold predictions – Winnipeg will beat Calgary in the Western Semifinal and Montreal will knock off Edmonton in the Eastern semi. New Bomber QB Zach Collaros has beaten Calgary in 3 straight games and if he doesn’t start this one, coach Mike O’Shea should be fired on the spot (despite the fact O’Shea said on Oct. 9 “this is Chris Streveler’s team”). As for the Als, they’ve got too much mojo going and then the Eskimos loss will start the dominos falling on the coaching carousel. (Excuse the double metaphor).
7 – OH YA, CODY: All year long Cody Fajardo has carried the Riders on his back so it’s fitting that his back is the focus going into the postseason. The 27-year old team MVP missed the last game of the year with an oblique muscle strain but he’s professed himself fit for the playoffs. (Players wouldn’t fib this time of year would they?) Google doctors are sending me info on this type of injury and the recovery time appears to be anywhere between 3 weeks to 3 months. Cody’s told us he prays up to 15 times per day. Methinks that’ll increase exponentially in the next little while.
8 – HUMAN NATURE/FAN NATURE: Fajardo is a wise fox and told me he knows the adulation from Rider fans will end fast if he’s not producing on the field. That’s the type of wisdom that comes from someone who was raised in a football-crazed market like Orange County, CA. And Fajardo saw the ugly side of the Rider Nation during the razor-thin win over Edmonton on the weekend, when fans got on him for not playing despite signing a fat new contract. It’s a tough lot around here.
9 – BUMS IN SEATS: CFL fans around the continent have bemoaned the lack of sellouts down the stretch when the games have meant the most. In most cases, nowhere near sellouts. No doubt there’s concern in the league office and with the member clubs but it doesn’t seem to be anywhere near crisis mode, yet. And it dawned on me that this league will never be extinct. If things get too bad, the NFL will step up with a cash infusion like it did in 1997 with an interest-free $3-million loan to keep the league afloat. And in true Sask fashion, the Riders were the only team to pay the NFL back.
10 – RANDOM THOUGHTS: Congrats Ryan Getzlaf on 1,000 career games! We are so proud of him. … The notion of scrapping the 3rd QB on CFL rosters for a Global player is so ridiculous that it seems like a trial balloon simply floated for reaction. Similar to the idea of reducing the number of starting Canadians from 7 to 5 like was floated prior to the new CBA. If you’ll recall, that didn’t end up happening either. … We are in the Austin-San Antonio area of Texas for the week, where country king George Strait was born and raised. He still lives here. I literally feel like I’m floating on air. … The Rod Pedersen Show has a new partnership with SeatGiant.ca where you can save 5% on tickets by using the promo code “RP Show”. Pay Canadian dollars for U.S. sporting events and concerts all over the continent! We did on Sunday for the Lakers/Spurs and it makes a huge difference on your credit card. … The P.A. Raiders won the WHL title last year and are in the Top 10 again this season. When does GM Curtis Hunt get consideration for a pro job? … There are more pro hockey teams in Texas than in all of Canada. Stop and munch on that one for a second. … See you in a week.
RP
@rodpedersen
3. Ballantine’s a homer. Nothing wrong with that, so is Gasson etc. Bottom line, there is a certain amount of luck involved anytime a team finishes 1st in the West because of the competitiveness. Injuries certainly play a role & had a major “reverse” kind of role in the Collaros situation. But you take advantage of your opportunities or you don’t. The Stamps pretty much knew they had to win the last 3 & didn’t. The Riders were in the same situation & did. Ballantine obviously thinks the Stamps deserve to be 1st every year. Sore loser. Didn’t deserve it… Read more »
More pro hockey teams in Texas than in all of Canada? What?
By my count Texas has the Stars (NHL), Rampage (AHL), Stars (AHL), Americans (ECHL). That’s four. Ontario has five.
WPHL
Come on now Rod, I love the Riders but they definitely got lucky with the schedule. How many back up QBs have they played this year?
We played one all year. You can’t have it both ways saying what you said.
Thankfully it turned out very well!
Just how is Cody Fajardo the backup? To who? Bennett? Harker? Can Collaros be a Rider starter while an Argo or Bomber? So who is Fajardo the backup to? You found your starter 3 plays into the season. Zach wasn’t the starter when he was ready to play or he wouldn’t have been traded. He lost his job. Suggesting Fajardo was the backup to Collaros makes no sense when that QB is on another team. NO, the Riders played their starter all year but for the final game. It’s pretty disrespectful to keep referring to Cody Fajardo as a backup,… Read more »
Vanstone just said Cody Fajardo succeeded Chris Jones as “the face of the franchise.” Anyone else think it strange when a coach/gm is given that title?
That Texas comment is interesting. Find it odd that there are not more options in Canada for all those talented players that come out of junior. They are so young and must have a lot of good hockey in them. We once had a senior league that at a time was pretty successful. (Recall watching the famous Gerry James playing senior in Yorkton) The Regina Caps were a hockey fixture for many years. A lot of players came from the Pats. (That senior hockey league once produced our Olympic teams if I recall)