DAYTONA HOMES MONDAY MORNING GOALIE

AN AVALANCHE OF RIDER NEWS (AND OTHER NOTES)

1 – You’ve got to get out of these frigid temperatures to find some Roughrider news, but we’ve done it.  Saskatchewan’s CFL team held free agent camps in Las Vegas and Phoenix over the weekend, the first of a series of “open tryouts”.

At Sunday’s workout at the Mesa Community College, only seven players turned out: 3 DBs, 1 LB, 1 QB, 1 OL and 1 REC who I’m told was a Taj Smith lookalike.

The whole Chamblin family worked Sunday’s camp in AZ

“This is typical for free agent camps,” Rider coach Corey Chamblin said afterwards.  “They can be unpredictable.  There could be anywhere from a handful to a hundred plus at any given stop.

“The good thing is we were happy with a couple of the players that came and it gave us an opportunity to really talk with and evaluate them.”

The camps are being coordinated by U.S. scout Ron Selesky and the next two workouts go this Saturday in L.A. and Sunday in San Jose.  For more info, visit the Riders’ official website here:
http://www.riderville.com/article/free-agent-try-outs

Thank you to Rider fan Bruce Weir for the photo and camp report from Mesa, AZ.

2 – The Riders will have some very exciting news about another event in the United States at some point this week.  It’ll make a lot of things more clear to you if you’re been following closely on this blog.  There could also be a coaching staff announcement very soon.

3 – Rider GM Brendan Taman held a 14-minute session with Regina reporters on Friday and it was fantastic.  14-minutes really are an eternity but it gave the media a chance to get all their questions answered.  Here’s what we learned:

– The team has started contract negotiations with free agent REC Weston Dressler.  Taman said their biggest competition for Dressler’s services comes from other CFL teams rather than the NFL like a year ago at this time.

– They’ve also begun negotiations with free agent OT Ben Heenan however word is the Grand Coulee, SK may go to free agency in mid-February to discover his worth on the open market.  Taman reported Heenan has roughly six NFL tryouts lined up, some of which he’s already completed.  The Winnipeg Blue Bombers are expected to make a huge offer to Heenan however I don’t expect he’ll end up going anywhere.

– Despite his off-field troubles, WR Taj Smith will be back with the Riders in 2015.  Taman said Taj is highly thought-of by the offensive coaches however they need to discover why he dropped from a 1000-yard receiver to mostly a decoy in 2014.

– The Riders have picked up the option year of REC Brett Swain which means he’ll be back for Year 2 of his two year deal in 2015.

– Taman said Ron Selesky has joined the club as a U.S.-based scout however his title is not “Director of U.S. Scouting” which was erroneously reported a few weeks back.  Taman said they already had two other scouts working in the U.S. for the club, however no one outside the club really knew.

– And finally Brendan said it’s harder to build for the future in the CFL now than ever before.  That’s mostly because of the shorter terms of contracts.  You used to be able to project and build for two or three years down the road but now with one year deals, it’s become more of a “year by year” scenario.

We’ll have far more Rider talk on 620 CKRM’s Rider Monday in the SportsCage today at 4:00 pm.  I’ll be joined by Mike Abou-Mechrek and Phil Andrews and our guests include RedBlacks QB Coach Marcus Crandell and football maven John Lynch.

4 – Thanks to Scruffy for this tip: Defensive Coordinator Dick Lebeau resigned from the Pittsburgh Steelers on Friday but the 77-year old was quick to point out he’s not retiring.  That would have got some tongues wagging that Corey Chamblin may be primed to join his friend – and Steelers Head Coach – Mike Tomlin in Steeltown however it’s already been reported that Steelers LB coach Keith Butler has been in line to take over from Lebeau for quite some time.

Quick

5 – The Roughriders are expected to announce their new Defensive Coordinator this week and I’m told the frontrunner is Greg Quick, currently the linebackers coach with the Montreal Alouettes.  There is no bio for Quick on the Alouettes website however here’s what Wikipedia has to say about the 59-year old:

Phillip “Greg” Quick is a gridiron football coach and former player. He is currently the linebackers coach for the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League. Quick served as the head football coach at the University of Chicago (1989–1993), St. Norbert College (1994–1998), and Concord University (2003–2008), compiling a career college football record of 48–112.

You can follow Greg on Twitter @CoachGregQuick

6 – Will the real Regina Pats please stand up?  The Pats followed up an impressive 3-1 win over Everett on Wednesday – their first game after dealing five veterans away – with a couple of clunkers on the weekend.  They fell 4-1 at home Friday to Edmonton and dropped a 6-5 home decision to Prince Albert on Saturday.

Friday night they were mostly stymied by Oil Kings goaltender Tristan Jarry but on Saturday the Pats slept-walked through the game and really didn’t pick it up until the final five minutes when they came back from 6-3 down to make it a one goal game.  On Saturday they were a day late and a dollar short all night long and really didn’t look like any kind of a contending team however the newcomers aquired in trades looked pretty good.  Clearly the club was badly missing injured netminder Daniel Wapple.

The club now hits the road for four beginning Wednesday in Medicine Hat.  Their next home game is Friday, January 23 against Moose Jaw when they reveal the new score clock.  As of Friday there were only 90 tickets left for the contest.

7 – Sad news from the club on Thursday that after a decade with the team, front office executive Cliff Mapes has resigned his post.  Cliff leaves on good terms, and will be relocating to Calgary.  Last season, on Mapes’ watch, the Pats were named the WHL East Conference Marketing Team of the Year.  Thanks for everything Cliffy.

8 – Funny quotes:  Thanks to Regina basketball legend Russ Clarke for inviting us into a skybox for Saturday’s Pats game, one which he purchased for the night at a fundraiser.  There were eight of us in all, many of whom hadn’t been at a Pats game in years.  Their comments were hilarious.  One looked at the two movie screens dangling from the ceiling at the home blueline and said, “That’s the new score clock??!!”  I chuckled and had to say, “No it’s the one four times larger under the black curtain hidden up over the catwalks!”  Another one looked at all the division, conference and championship banners along the south wall of the Brandt Centre and said, “The fun stopped around 1980“.  Hopefully the fun has started again.

9 – The hockey note which caught my eye the most in the past week was the fact the Washington Capitals called up 22-year old goaltender Pheonix Copley from the North Pole for Saturday’s game to back-up Braden Holtby.  Actually it’s North Pole, Alaska but dang that sounds cold.  Copley played at North Pole High School before embarking on an NCAA stint at Michigan Tech and then into pro hockey.  Copley is the 13th Alaska-born player to play in the NHL.  Others before him include Scott Gomez and Brandon Dubinksy.

10 – Finally a hearty thank you to the Mueller family (Larry, Lana and Marc) for having us over Sunday to watch NFL playoff football.  What a spread Larry put on: pulled pork, chili and fried chicken!  Unfortunately I was too upset after the first game to stay for the second.  As you clearly know – even if you’re a Packers fan – the Dallas Cowboys should have won that NFC division game and be headed to Seattle next weekend.  Once again officiating decided the outcome of a do-or-die playoff game.  At least any conspiracy theories which came out of last weekend’s Cowboys win over Detroit that the NFL wants the Cowboys in the Super Bowl can be laid to rest after Sunday’s gawd-awful display.  The question is becoming — why have video replay at all?

What a shame, and a mockery of the game.

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THANKS FOR READING,
RP
@sportscage
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