RIDERS CAN'T TALK TO ELIZONDO/LAPOLICE & 5 REASONS TO HIRE DICKENSON
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| Photo: The Morden Times |
TSN’S Dave Naylor reported on Saturday the Saskatchewan Roughriders asked for – but were denied – permission to speak with Ottawa RedBlacks offensive coordinator Jamie Elizondo about their vacant head coaching job.
Elizondo made 3DownNation’s list of six of the top candidates to replace Chris Jones on Saskatchewan’s sidelines, but is now obviously off of that list. The Mexico product is highly-regarded as a coordinator in the CFL and has prior stops in Toronto and Montreal as well as Columbia University and Syracuse.
However the request to speak with Elizondo was a curious one to this blogger. It’s fairly well-known that whomever is the Roughriders’ next head coach, he’ll inherit Chris Jones’ staff. That staff was announced 10 days ago and with the new salary cap on CFL football operations, there’s no financial way the new Riders coach will be able to make significant changes by throwing existing coaches overboard.
Not to mention, if the new coach is offensive-minded – like say Paul LaPolice, Marc Trestman or even Elizondo – would his philosophies and concepts mesh with current Riders O.C. Stephen McAdoo?
Very likely not.
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| With Craig Dickenson in Vero Beach, FL in 2017 |
So for that reason, it says here that the next head coach of the Saskatchewan Roughriders should be current Riders special teams coordinator Craig Dickenson.
The Great Falls, MT product is the perfect choice and here are five reasons why:
1) He’s already on staff.
2) It eliminates the headache of replacing current assistant coaches.
3) He aspires to be a CFL head coach in the right situation one day and this is it.
4) Chris Jones has built a culture here (for sure his own but it’s a winning one) and Dickenson has been lock-step in that movement.
5) Dickenson is universally liked and respected (even loved) in the Rider locker room and his transition into the head coach’s office would be a seamless one.
*I could actually go on with several more reasons but these are the top five. Check back later for an exhaustive look at the Riders’ coaching situation in our weekly Out Of The Tunnel column.
Stay tuned,
RP
@rodpedersen
