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RIDER INSIDER Aug. 16/2015

Aug 18, 2015 | 1:11 AM

The bye week in mid-August is behind them and so too, the Saskatchewan Roughriders hope, are the prior seven weeks of the season.

To call the Riders’ start to this 2015 CFL season disastrous would be an understatement.  At 0-7, the club has an incredible mountain to climb to get back into the race and lay claim on a playoff spot within the West Division.

Having traveled all across this country this summer calling Roughrider games on radio, I’ve been asked in each stop how the rabid Rider Nation is dealing with the franchise’s worst start since 1979.

“Have the fans given up?” they asked in Toronto.  “Your call-in shows must be toxic!” they guessed in Vancouver.  “Are they calling for Chamblin’s head?” they quizzed in Edmonton.

In each case the football types have had a dizzy grin on their face.  A blood-thirsty smile.  Having squirmed over the past decade whileCanada’s Team forged to the front of the pack as the league’s marquee franchise, those who don’t count themselves as Rider fans seem ever-so-eager to see the Roughriders and their fans now writhe in agony with each loss.
But that isn’t the case.

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And while an 0-7 start has understandably had many fans calling for the firing of fourth year head coach Corey Chamblin, would you believe they’re in the vast minority?

In a poll at www.rodpedersen.com where respondents were asked if Chamblin should be replaced, an overwhelming 82% voted with an emphatic “No!”.  Only 13% were in favour of a coach firing while 3% were undecided.

So when the football club reconvenes on the practice field this week for the first time since their 30-26 loss in Toronto back on August 8, it has to truly come with a fresh start.

Time after time in July, Chamblin said they were “0-0” in their own mind and each week was to be a fresh start.  However time after time, the result was the same.  It seemed the days between games were flying by too quickly and too many corrections had to be made.  Injuries kept mounting and players were going in and out at a breathtaking pace.

Now having had a full week to reset and clear their minds, to re-assess and hopefully make one final trip back to the drawing board, the time truly is now for a new start.

Precious few changes were made over the bye week – at least that’s the way it appears from the outside – however the club announced the release of veteran cornerbacks Geoff Tisdale and Michael Carter over the weekend.

That could only mean one thing: “Guys are coming back,” 620 CKRM football analyst and former Roughrider lineman Luc Mullinder said while chomping down pizza with me Sunday evening at a downtown Regina eatery.
Changes to the coaching staff?

Not likely.  Although there have been plenty of calls for the removal of Chamblin as the team’s defensive strategist, if not for his ouster as head coach entirely.

No, the vote of confidence given Chamblin by Roughriders General Manager Brendan Taman on Monday, August 3 remains in place.
While Rider fans were frantically checking their smart phones four or five times per day during the bye week anticipating news of a firing, I was assured none were forthcoming.

Not on the bye week.  Not this week.  And not any time soon.

While the rash of problems affecting this team have been well-documented – some self-inflicted while others designated by the football gods – precious few of the positives have been publicized.

The injuries have been overwhelming at critical positions.  Some of those players are ready to come back.  The team’s offense has been generally good while their special teams have been nothing short of spectacular.  The injury bug seems to have flown away to infect other West Division teams (QB Drew Willy in Winnipeg and LB Solomon Elimimian in B.C. for instance), and no teams are running away with the division races.

In the preseason we anointed Calgary and Edmonton as the Conference heavyweights while the Blue Bombers and Lions were designated as the ones the Riders would need to nudge past.

The table seems to be setting itself for the next 11 games.  Perhaps, truly, the “storm is behind them” as Corey Chamblin stated just a couple of weeks ago.

However if the Roughriders continue to falter and this season drifts away, the tough decisions will still have to be made.

Those fall on the slender shoulders of the young, first-year President of the team, Craig Reynolds.

“Ultimately I’m responsible for the overall success of this organization,” Reynolds told reporters on Tuesday, May 5.  “My philosophy is you hire good football folks and we’ve got two of them in the room here (Taman and Chamblin).  You give them all the resources they need to be successful and you hold them accountable for that success.”

It remains to be seen how that will all unfold.