Commentary: Good Morning Riders

(Listen daily for the RP Commentary on the All New Hits 98 CKHD & LTD Radio)

There were coaches in Saskatchewan Roughriders history who won more than Ken Miller, but none who were more beloved in the franchise’s 114 years.

The famed “Coach Miller” lost his brief cancer battle on Wednesday at age 82 in Ashville, North Carolina, and his family and close friends are devastated.

Where to start with remembering Kenny?

He came to the Riders with Kent Austin in 2007 after five seasons with the Toronto Argonauts. He was in his 60s at the time, and earned the nickname “Grandpa Miller”.

But don’t be fooled by his elderly disguise; Kent always laughed at his offensive coordinator’s “step on their throat” mentality, and often had to tell Kenny to dial it back if they were up in games.

There’s players coaches, and then there’s Ken Miller. He was at another level and to a man, the players said they’d walk through fire for him.

His secret? He was honest with them. And took the blame time after time, even if most times, he wasn’t the one to blame at all.

Not sure why that’s so rare.

Craig Dickenson called him a “Transformational Coach” and I had to ask him what that meant.

Dickie said, “A coach who gets the players to achieve things they didn’t even think they were capable of, and then think in the end, that they were responsible for it.”

Sounds about right.

We put on thousands of miles across the province speaking at sports dinners and spent a great deal of time talking about life on those trips. My Dad joined us on one excursion to Swift Current, and the pair hit it off.

His wonderful wife Maureen, who’s having a particularly tough time right now due to the suddenness of her husband’s passing, said once, “He’ll die on the sideline.”

Not quite, but close.

It’s fitting that the Argonauts and Roughriders will meet tonight at BMO Field and I’m certain there will be a video tribute to a guy who won Grey Cups with both teams. The timing is Divine.

Don’t ever forget, everything happens for a reason, even if it can be very hard to understand why at the time.

That’s today’s Rod Pedersen Commentary.

(The Rod Pedersen Show airs daily at 12 pm & 4 pm ET on Game+TV, WQEE Radio, Podcast & YouTube Live)