THE DRUMS FALL SILENT

BY: Bob Hughes

Somewhere on the shores of the mighty Wascana, the drums are beating. It is the annual gathering of the Loyal Disorder of Rider Priders, those long enough in the teeth that they remember the enduring horror of the Reign of Error. Across the frozen lake of thin ice are the lights of the city, beaming into the black prairie sky under minus-20 temperatures. This will not keep the Loyal Disorder from spending the nights in their teepees sheltered by the great tall trees that each were hand-planted by the forefathers. When there is a wind, the tents flap hard against the poles, sounding like a train moving in the distance.

The Loyal Disorder keeps their eyes focused on the Holy Shrine of Football in these parts, Taylor Field. The old grey lady of 10th Avenue, stands alone in the winter, her turf iced in the thickest of layers of snow, her bones aching even more as she moves slowly and painfully into her declining years. She knows another facelift will do nothing for her. The place is dark, except for these tiny dots of light on the big TV screen in the south end zone. And, even the ghosts of years gone by have left until the boys of summer return.

The Loyal Disorder is watching, intently, wrapped in eternal hope, that soon, as Roger Currie likes to say, white puffs of smoke will rise from the stacks of Taylor Field. It will mean that the coaching staff for the Riders in 2011 will have been completed.

Right now, the new guy on the block, Greg Marshall, is rowing the boat alone, slowly through a thick fog it would seem, unable to fill out his assistant coaching ranks as quickly as the Loyal Disorder would like.

There is so much to do in such a short period of time, it is turning the nerves of the Loyal Disorder raw. There had always been the hope that the Riders would build their dynasty from within the coaching offices when Eric Tillman and Kent Austin brought them a championship in 2007. But, after the 2009 Grey Cup game, there was a youth movement of sorts. Only, it was a youth movement right out the door. Paul LaPolice left to become a head coach of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. And, Kavis Reid, another bright up and comer joined Paul as an assistant. Kavis lasted a year and then was plucked by Eric Tillman to be the head coach in Edmonton.

They were replaced by the hand of Ken Miller when he hired two CFL warhorses, Doug Berry and Jim Daley. The goal in 2010 was to improve on what happened in 2009. It didn’t happen. In 2009, the Riders finished first and got to the Grey Cup where they lost. In 2010, they slipped to second, still got to the Grey Cup, and lost. No improvement there.

At the end of the 2010 season, Miller stepped down, no up, to his job as vice president of football operations, and he saddled up with general manager Brendan Taman, to find a new head coach. Right off the bat, Greg Marshall’s name popped up on the radar. But, the search went on and on and on, and finally ended up with Marshall being hired. Meanwhile, another young gun on the coaching staff, Marcus Crandell was hired away by the Eskimos as their offensive co-ordinator.

Marshall’s search for assistant coaches seems to be taking as long as the search for the Dead Sea Scrolls. Twiddling their thumbs are Daley, Berry and Gary Etcheverry, wondering if they’ll be kept on. Names such as Richie Hall and Steve Buratto are surfacing as names from the past who may be brought back.

Who knows, perhaps Marshall has a plan that will knock your socks off, that will make the Loyal Disorder kick up their socks and proclaim that the Riders will improve in 2011 and be a force in a division that figures to have a lot of forces.

Yes, 2011 is going to be a dogfight in the Western Division, perhaps one of the most intense fights the division has ever seen. And, nobody wants to get left behind coming out of the gate, or caught watching the world go by. Yes, nobody has ever won a Grey Cup in January. But, the table has sure been set in the winter.

And, the drums continue to beat on the banks of the mighty Wascana.

Y’er welcome.