I think....

I apologize about not commenting on the big announcement coming out of Regina earlier in the week until today. However, I have two reason(s). For starters, this is one of the busier weeks in my school year as Report Cards go out tomorrow. That being said, I have been focusing my efforts on that aspect of my life, which let's face it, pays the bills. At the same time, I was preoccupied on Monday night with the cutest little kitty and pumpkin you have ever seen.
In addition, I wanted to take time to really think about the announcement that Ken Miller is stepping away from the football club entirely as of tomorrow night. And here it goes....

Before we talk about this past season and the train wreck it became, let's talk about what Miller has done for this club. He took them to back to back Grey Cup Championships. Granted, we lost both but this is something that we as Rider fans were very proud of. Mr. Miler himself can be proud of that as he is the first Rider coach to accomplish this task.

Ken Miller guided this football team to hosting the 2009 West Final; something the fans at Mosaic, or formerly Taylor Field had been waiting decades for. And that is NOT a hyperbole, we had waited since the 70's for that to take place.

Ken Miller had a way to motivate this football team. In 2008, 2009, and 2010, it didn't seem to matter how they came out, they always finished strong, played with heart and desire and made you truly proud to be a fan of the Riders.

And then.....(those of you opposed to criticism of Ken Miller need to step aside at this point)

Following last years Grey Cup defeat, Miller stepped aside as coach but chose to stay as VP of Football Operations. That is when Mr. Miller in my opinion started to tarnish the legacy he had meshed out amongst Rider folklore. It seemed from the word go, the power of this position went to his head.

He hired Greg Marshall despite reports that this was not the man Brendan Taman, the GM of this club wanted to hire. Taman wanted Corey Chamblin, Miller wanted Marshall. You ever wonder why Greg Marshall was an assistant for 17 years? He showed why early and often.

However, at the same time, would it be easy to do your job when your boss is looking over your shoulder all season. Miller was in the stands at practice, in the locker room before games and on the sidelines during games. I would not be surprised if he was camped out at the foot of Marshall's bed. It looked as though the man Miller wanted to hire so badly was never worthy of his trust. For that I feel bad for Greg Marshall. Granted he did a poor job as Head Coach but it is hard to do your job when you are always looking over your shoulder.

Then, Ken Miller realizes he made a poor hire, and walks down from his office, back on the turf, to run the team that he had led to bigger and better things the previous three seasons. While it looked good in the beginning, three consecutive victories, the magic was clearly gone. He could not motivate them to play with the passion and desire of the previous three seasons (see mid September to now). The team was no better under Miller than they were under Marshall. In fact, they may have been better under Marshall in terms of their ability to occasionally find that sacred place most teams visit two or three times weekly. I believe they call it the endzone???

As things turned from bad to worse, our starting QB; our best player, the present and future of this football team, Darian Durant, suffers a broken foot. Essentially the season is over at this point, sit him down right? Nope, he plays for the next three weeks, not leading us to either the endzone or a victory. That's it, season over, sit him down right? Nope, put him in there in a meaningless game. At the same time, we need to remember he hadn't led this team to the endzone in seventeen quarters!!! No other coach in the universe would allow this to happen, let alone if that individual has a broken foot. I say no other coach because for some rhyme or reason, Miller felt he still needed to play, probably to get a victory to justify that he did the right thing mid - season by firing Marshall and taking over himself. Well, Durant led them to the endzone but he also left Calgary with a possible concussion thanks to an old, tired O - Line who was never upgraded with Miller at the helm.

Finally, common sense prevails and they sit Durant. Hey, this will give us an opportunity to look at Cole Berquist. Give him the ball in these last two games. They mean nothing in the standings so lets see what we have here? Hey, it might be another Drew Tate; let's give him a chance before we lose him having no idea as to what we may have had slip through our fingers. Again, in a ludicrous decision in my mind they give the ball to Ryan Dinwiddie, a guy we all know does not have what it takes to be a starter in this league, and is a questionable back up at that. A guy who was so bad that he was once benched for a guy with a broken foot. Why?

So Dinwiddie leads us to a victory. No wait, the defence led us to a victory and Dinwiddie sucked. Ok, one more game, means nothing, give the kid the ball. Nope, rather Miller says he is done with the team, and just to piss us all off one last time, we are starting Dinwiddie on Friday.

In closing, these are my thoughts. Ken Miller would have gone down as a Rider legend had he done the right thing at the end of last season; walk away completely. Instead he chose to stay, made far too many questionable decisions in terms of bith staff and personnel and now walks away with a very much tarnished reputation in the eyes of many Rider fans, yours truly included. Where I would have been sad to see him go at the end of last season, at this point he can't leave fast enough.

I strongly believe that he was maybe in a nice way told, either do both next year (coach and VP) or do nothing. Had he stayed on as VP, I really don't think anyone of any value would have been interested in the position. After all, who wants a senile, 70 year old wathcing their every move?

Thankfully he chose to walk away before he did any greater damage to this organization than he has already done over the last six months.