RIDERS ANNOUNCE COACHES

Doug Berry has been named the Roughriders assistant head coach and offensive co-ordinator. He's pictured here in 2005.
Photograph by: Phil Hossack, Winnipeg Free Press

REGINA — After two seasons as the Saskatchewan Roughriders' head coach, Ken Miller knows what it is like to lead a CFL team to the league's championship game.
Now he's not the only one with such experience in the Riders offices.

As expected, the Roughriders announced Thursday that the team has added Doug Berry (assistant head coach/offensive co-ordinator), Bob Dyce (passing game co-ordinator/receivers coach) and Jim Daley (special teams coach) to its staff.

Berry most recently spent two seasons as the head coach of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers — whom he guided to an appearance in the 2007 Grey Cup — before being fired following the 2008 season.

Daley has served nearly 20 years in the CFL in various capacities, including three years as Saskatchewan's head coach during which he led an improbable run to the 1997 Grey Cup game.
Including Miller and defensive co-ordinator Gary Etcheverry, four of the Roughriders' nine coaches have experience as a CFL head coach.

"There's a lot of experience and knowledge in those men," said Miller. "Really, our entire coaching staff . . . have been with us and have demonstrated positive leadership or they have demonstrated their ability to lead in other areas."

Daley, the only one of the three new coaches in Regina on Thursday, showed some of that experience by jumping at the chance to take on a special-teams role, just a few months after resigning his post as the Edmonton Eskimos defensive co-ordinator.

"Change occurs all the time," said Daley. "When this job came open and Ken Miller and Brendan (Taman, Saskatchewan's general manager) called, this was something I was very interested in. I'm really happy to be back in this city.

"I've always loved special teams. It'll be an adjustment from defence, but one I've done many times."

And while Dyce, who was an assistant with the Blue Bombers the past seven years, doesn't have quite the CFL experience as Berry or Daley, Miller believes the newcomer has the talent to get there.

"When I interviewed him, he was a tremendous teacher and he's very enthusiastic and precise," the head coach said. "He's somebody who will develop a very good rapport with the people he coaches."

The Riders now have only one spot — offensive line coach — to fill after an off-season that has seen tremendous turnover of the staff.

Now-former offensive co-ordinator Paul LaPolice was named the Blue Bombers' head coach and brought along two other members of the 2009 Riders staff — Kavis Reed and Jamie Barresi — as his co-ordinators. Offensive line coach Bob Wylie resigned to take a job with the NFL's Denver Broncos. Offensive assistant Marcus Crandell is the only returnee on that side of the ball and will continue to work with the team's quarterbacks and may also help with running backs.

Defensively, the Saskatchewan coaching staff remained intact with Etcheverry, Alex Smith (linebackers), Nelson Martin (defensive backs) and Mike Scheper (defensive line).
From Daley's perspective, there have been a lot more changes in Regina than just coaches and players since he was fired after the 1998 season.

"The world evolves and the province of Saskatchewan has evolved," said Daley. "This organization, then and now, has always been one that was well-respected around the league, thought very highly of and run very, very well.

"In years past, it was well-managed, well-run, well-organized but as many people who were here back then realize, we fought some battles financially that right now we have an

opportunity to avoid. That's a huge change."