Commentary: Mace, Riders Win It All

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I can hear the words of Cactus Jack echoing again … “And it all turned out nice again.”

Wednesday night at a gala in Edmonton ahead of this weekend’s CFL National Combine, Saskatchewan Roughriders head coach Corey Mace was named CFL Coach of the Year for 2025.

As an added bonus the Riders also won the inaugural Ted Goveia Award, which honors the team voted to have the best Football Operations department.

Ted lost his cancer battle at age 55 this summer shortly after achieving his dream job, being named General Manager of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.

As for Mace, he’s not the first Roughrider to be named Coach of the Year, but it’s rare. The Port Moody, BC product has joined a pretty exclusive group which includes Chris Jones, Corey Chamblin, Kent Austin, John Gregory, Joe Faragalli, Eagle Keys and Steve Owen.

That was an easy one to predict.

The Ted Goveia Trophy winner was a little more difficult but we discussed it on the RP Show last week, and I felt it should go to the Green & White too. After all, they won the Big One.

Some of the pundits felt it should go to the Ticats, the team which Ted represented at the time of his passing.

But that would’ve just been a political appointment. Honestly I wouldn’t have lost sleep either way but when you’re handing out awards and appointments, it would be nice to think they go to the people and teams who actually deserve them the most.

If these two awards habitually end up going to the league champions every year, it wouldn’t bother me one bit.

Maybe there’s hope for this world yet.

That’s today’s Rod Pedersen Commentary.

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