Ken Miller Talks !!

Saskatchewan Roughriders head coach Ken Miller was on 620 CKRM's Sportsline last night (photo courtesy goredlands.com). Here's what he said:

CKRM: Any plans for announcements of hirings on your coaching staff? O-line, defensive coordinator, DBs ... ?MILLER: I think Eric Tillman will be making some announcements as early as Tuesday or Wednesday on some of the positions. We're pretty close on just about everybody. There are just some details to wrap up before we make the announcements.

CKRM: Will you announce all the new coaches at once?MILLER: I don't know if we'll get 'em all announced at once but we're pretty close to having a staff nailed down.

CKRM: It is imperative that they all have CFL experience?MILLER: Well, they all do. And that's pretty important to me. Marc Trestman proved you can be successful without it, but Jim Popp had tremendous influence on what went on in Montreal. But CFL experience is important.

CKRM: There's a farewell party for Richie Hall on Friday. We're sure you'll miss him.MILLER: Who? (laughs) Richie and I are great friends and I respect him enormously. One of the things the Riders have had over the years is a defensive identity and part of that is going to go with him to Edmonton. Some of the things we did are specific to him so we'll have to form a new identity that'll revolve around our new coordinator.

CKRM: You also have to replace Mike Gibson as O-line coach because he's the new offensive coordinator in Hamilton, correct?MILLER: That is correct. And when losing men like that is really hard for us, but through all last year I said we had the best staff in the league and when you lose your defensive coordinator to become a head coach and your O-line coach to become a coordinator, I think it proves that out.

CKRM: You signed a couple new receivers last week. There will be a lot of receivers in camp this year...MILLER: It's gonna be really competitive for those American positions. Really, every position. I'm really looking forward to seeing these guys though because Bam Childress is a great returner too. And Quinn has returned a lot with some success as well. I'm anxious to see them.

CKRM: Are you planning to hire a quarterbacks coach?MILLER: We'll probably go in with a fourth offensive coach, and he'll be assigned to that position.

CKRM: Would you have changed anything you did last year?MILLER: Our players played with tremendous effort throughout the season and I thought our coaching staff was cohesive and worked real hard. I think had things turned a bit one way or the other, we would've gone further than we did. The thing we need to improve on is the way we finished.

CKRM: How did you get them to play so hard game in and game out?MILLER: We talked constantly everyday about effort being our edge. We said if we played with that effort on every play, when we got down to the end of the game we'd see what the scoreboard said and most of the time it was in our favour.

CKRM: People are asking about the linebacking pair of Anton McKenzie and Maurice LLoyd?MILLER: Mr. Tillman is in negotiations with those people and for me to jump in with my two cents would not maintain our integrity with those negotiations. But they're in the process.

CKRM: Let's talk about Darian Durant..MILLER: Absolutely. As we go in we'll designate him as our #1 because he had the most experience from last year and did a really nice job. He has seniority and we look forward to some growth. The opportunities he had, and the success, will make him much better.

CKRM: Will your offense change radically with the slotbacks Fantuz and Clermont?MILLER: I think we'll fit them into the system that we have. Fantuz is a big part of that system and now we need to find out how to work Jason into that system as well. I just can't tell you how excited I am to have Jason Clermont on our team. He and I met last week and had a tremendous conversation. I was really excited about him and for him.He is just dedicated to doing anything he can to help the team win. He is a disciplined and hard-nosed player with the local flavour so it's great for our fans as well.

CKRM: Does that local player depth mean you can load up on Americans elsewhere??MILLER: We have thought about it. As I've talked to Eric Tillman about ratio, we're agreed to use an American in positions where we traditionally haven't.

CKRM: The Calgary Stampeders are the favourites coming back. I'm sure you'd agree..MILLER: They have great talent and are well-coached so they'll be formidable. We look forward to competing against them.

CKRM: Lastly, will you be relieved to get this staff named?MILLER: Absolutely. 10 days ago it looked like it was going to be an unsolvable puzzle but we've had some unbelievably good luck so once we get things in place with contracts, I think people will be pleased with our coaching staff.----