Every Monday afternoon on the SportsCage, join Barney Shynkaruk and members from the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ coaching staff with a breakdown of game match-ups and the very latest from inside the Riders’ locker room.
On June 9, head coach Corey Mace was our guest on the Riders Coaches Show.
Shynkaruk:
We have Coach Mace; there will be no practice today for the fellows. Was that always the plan? Just let them get a lift in?
Mace:
Yeah, yeah. Well, we had, you know, usually day A’s, depending on how everybody’s feeling or how we played, et cetera, et cetera. You see, we typically go a lift.
Sometimes it’s yoga for the guys, or sometimes, as last year, we need to get on the field and get some things done. So, today they got a good lift in and had some meeting time with them to prepare for the next opponent. So we’re ahead of the curve here.
Shynkaruk:
When’s the last time you talked to Ka’Deem Carey?
Mace:
I gave him a nice hug today. So that was good. A good embrace, man.
Obviously, we go back a little bit, but I’m happy, happy as ever he’s in the building.
Kris Mazurak:
Coach, congratulations. 1-0, only 17 more for the undefeated season. I’m not sure if that’s ever been done. No pressure. I had texted Barney last week when AJ got hurt. I’m like, they should sign Kadeem Carey.
So your history with him dates back to the Stampeders. One of the things that I’ve always loved about him is that he runs hard. He hits the hole hard.
He’s never changed that style. And when you look at his stats, he led the league in rushing on a couple of occasions and played well in the Grey Cup. What does he mean now that he’s part of Rider Nation?
Mace:
He’s been in a few different organizations that have had success, and he knows what that looks like, so having somebody else in the building who can share the wealth from that standpoint, I think, is huge. And certainly, to his play style, yep, a hundred percent, you know, he runs the ball hard. He’s a patient runner, but when he sees that gap, he’s going to excel; he becomes even more determined. In protection, he’s pretty familiar with the system, of course.
The main thing is to have as many good players on your roster as possible and in the building. And he’s certainly that.
Shynkaruk:
Were you and Marc surprised when he got released from Toronto? And second part to the question is that when you guys start talking immediately thinking like, how can we make this work?
Mace:
Yeah, no, I mean, I think the whole league was shocked, you know, specifically after the year he had and certainly the Grey Cup game that he played, but, you know, enough, even you guys have been around the league long enough. There’s always a couple out there that kind of shocks you. And yeah, certainly, conversations went, but, you know, it had to make sense for, for everybody and for himself. Like I said, I think a couple of weeks ago or last week or whatever, I’m not going to be surprised if he’s on a roster somewhere and, you know, it ended up turning out that he’s going to be wearing the green and white and be in the building.
So, hey, all parties are happy about that.
Shykaruk:
Braxton Hill is coming back into the fold, and then offensive lineman Darius Washington as well. You can never have too many offensive linemen. We learned that last year, as we were going along here, while bringing those, both those guys and some comments on both of them were made.
MACE:
Yeah. You know, I’ll start with Brax. You know, Brax had an excellent training camp for us.
And he was, with the team on the PR last year, you know, we think highly of him. I thought he played pretty dang well in the preseason. Having him back in the building and if you look at the roster in totality and you know what, J.O. and Kyle and those guys can do and Paul Jones. We want to raise the floor kind of, so to speak.
And these are really good players we’re talking about. And then, with Darius, I mean, you know, he’s on our watch list. We were, we were hoping one day to be able to get him.
And, you know, he had a couple of stops in many camps in the NFL, and he’s been able to carve out a nice career for himself at Florida State. I think over the five or six years he’s been there he started in all of the games almost every year.
He’s played tackle. He’s played guard, played center. He has long arms, and you know, I was on FaceTime with him.
I said, ‘Hey, kid, do you want me to give you a quick tour of the facility?’ He said, nah, coach, I don’t care about that kind of stuff. I kind of just want to put my hands on people.
Hey, well, you don’t know me, but I love you.
Mazurak:
So, Coach, probably the million-dollar question that a lot of us have been wondering since Thursday, regarding the health update, AJ Ouellette, Roland Milligan, and the chances of them playing this week against Hamilton. What can you tell us?
MACE:
Yes, I think we need to take the proper steps necessary, but similar to what I said with Kadeem, I wouldn’t be shocked. I wouldn’t be surprised if those guys are out there playing this week. So, yeah, we just want to do our due diligence and do it the right way.
Ultimately, we’re always looking out for those guys and their health. So, if it doesn’t trend that way, like I said, whether it was in the game that we adjusted or there’s other people on PR that have to come up or whatnot, you know, we feel confident in the roster. So, I think they’re both trending in the right direction.
Shynkaruk:
I talked about it last week on the show. You raved about it in the post-game, you know, Thomas, the train, TBH, call them what you want. What a game!
I almost felt like it was a coming out party, on Thursday night. Now that you’ve had a chance to watch tape, how do you assess the game now that he had?
Mace:
You know, as the pecking order throughout camp and stuff like that. And, you know, even when we looked at it in the off-season of, what is each player doing with their opportunities?
And he’s always answered the bell, man, you know, regardless of whatever situation he’s had to step up and, you know, carry the ball or, or protect or catch it out of the backfield. He gets it done. So, I am extremely pleased with his performance.
And I’m happy that he said he was working on this celebration. I thought it was gonna be something crazy, just the old tug, the old, the train horn there or whatever, but I was just happy as ever for the kid, and he works his tail off, man. So he deserves it.
Mazurak:
Coach. I’m not sure if you had a chance. I’m assuming you did to watch the other games around the league.
Not many people gave the Calgary Stampeders any respect going into the season, let alone week one; all the experts picked them to lose to Hamilton. Hamilton showed up. Maybe they didn’t play their best game.
They played well enough, but Calgary looks like a contender. If you were part of that organization behind closed doors with Huff and Dave Dickinson, is losing considered worse than winning? Like what, what the feeling of, cause you just know it wasn’t going to sit right.
And Dave even said five wins is not good enough. They looked pretty good on Saturday. Did you see that as well?
Mace:
You know, Iit’s always in the beginning part of the year. It’s tough for people to make predictions cause you just kind of look on paper and what should be what, but, you know, that’s just ultimately not how the game’s played. You have to go out there and get it done.
Looking at their roster and the addition of V.A. he’s proven it in multiple places, what he’s able to do and, you know, knowing the coaching staff that they have there in three phases of football, like there’s some really good coaches over there. So, yeah, you know, they look like a good team, look like they were playing hard, look like there was confidence in each other. So, you know, it’s just another team, out in the West is going to be a grind every week, man.
And, it’s across the league. I think these last couple of years. I think all the teams are pretty dang close, but you’ve got to show up or you’re going to be leaving there pretty dang sad. So, it’s good competition, I think, for everybody.
And it’s good to keep everybody on their P’s and Q’s, man, you can’t show up past.
Mazurak:
What did you see out of Hamilton, on Saturday, that either maybe as you were thinking or going, no, that’s exactly what we thought, because for whatever reason, Bo and those receivers, sometimes they’re just dropping balls that he’s placing in there easily. But when they got going, it seemed that they got going when they had a little moment and could move the ball quickly. Is that what you expect out of them on Saturday?
Mace:
There’s still ironing out. Some things were just new additions, you know what I mean? With Kenny going over there and Bo and them finding their timing.
But, you know, I look at it as Scott’s an excellent coach in this league. He’s got a great resume. Bo is still a walking Hall of Famer.
Kenny Lawler, you can argue, is the best receiver in the league. Tim White always puts up numbers, and even on the backside Bridges, he had a hell of a year last year. Keiondre’s coming into his own.
I mean, they are a good team. I thought they were just a couple of miscues, and some drop passes away. Defensively, I thought they started hot outside of a penalty they took.
They probably could have three turnovers in the first, you know, 15 minutes of the game or whatnot. So yeah, I mean, that’s again, you know, they didn’t have probably their best showing that they would want, but everything that I think that they envisioned when signing all of these guys, they have the potential to do it. It’s up to their opponent to ensure they don’t.
Shynkaruk:
All right. You, you got the clubhouse lead to use a golf term for clip of the year. So far in your post-game with the fellows, Colson, can you play up 400 yards in passing today?
However, I’m unsure if that number accurately reflects the game’s outcome. I thought your defence was pretty good. What did you see?
Mace:
You know, it’s.
Shynkaruk:
Now that you’ve had a chance to watch the tape again and review it, what are you seeing now after watching and assessing it?
Mace:
Yeah. You know, just pretty much the same thing I saw in the moment. I thought we were generating pretty good pressure but you know, for the most part, I’ll eat it as a play caller, man.
I probably got a little too conservative, just with a couple of injuries. But you know, there were plenty of plays for us out there. Certainly, I think, you look at how, it changes a little bit, when we dropped two freebie interceptions, you know, almost handoffs for us.
And, you know, that changes the dynamic of the game completely. So, in totality, yeah, the boys know; we talked about it, and there was a lot of meat left on the bone for us.
It is week one, but we are a returning group. So, you know, the leash is pretty short.
Shynkaruk:
Okay. My last one, I have to ask you: who has the ball from Bo Levi Mitchell’s first touchdown pass in the CFL? Who has that?
Mace:
I don’t have it. I’m certain Bo probably doesn’t have it either. Maybe he does. I don’t know.
He’s got so many dang balls. I’m sure he’s, he probably gave that one away to one of the kids or somebody in a foundation or something. So somebody’s got it.
It’s definitely not me.
Shynkaruk:
We were, we were trying to find the clip. Take us through what happened on that as you caught his first touchdown pass in the CFL.
Mace:
Yeah, we went to like a bigger personnel grouping where they always used to, you know, I guess probably cause I was as wide as an offensive lineman. They, they put me in as like an extra tight end and it was kind of like a slam block, , you know, block down on defensive end and then, you know, peel out to a little corner there and then the goal line, cause they know I ain’t running too far. And, Bo, I think it was a boot, maybe booted out of it and threw a lollipop up there for me, cause he had to; otherwise, I wouldn’t have caught it.
He had a nice touch, and he scored, and it was a celebration. You know, I went overboard, you know, I went overboard with celebration. I didn’t know how many of those I was going to get.
So that was a good time. Good time.
Shynkaruk:
How many did you, how much, how many did you finish, finish with in your career?
Mace:
Two, one on defence, and one on offence. Yeah.
Mazurak:
Nice. Your former teammate and all-around CFL insider, he’s the most connected guy on this show. Charleston Hughes has picked the Saskatchewan Rough Riders and the Hamilton Ticats in the Grey Cup this year in Winnipeg.
So let’s not let Charleston down.
Mace:
We can only control our part. You know, I can’t tell what’s going to happen over there. I’m glad, I’m glad he thinks of us that highly.
Shynkaruk:
Thanks for doing this. Today, coach, have a good week and safe travels to Hamilton.
Mace:
I appreciate you boys. And I have to say, hi, Dad. You know, he’s your guy’s number one fan. Pop, I’m talking to Maz and Barney.
Shynkaruk:
You see what’s, what’s your dad’s name? What’s your dad’s name?
Mace:
John Mace. He’s down in San Diego. He loves this show.
So you got, I don’t know how many watches, but you at least got one.
John Mace in San Diego.
