MILLER QUIETLY DOES A TREMENDOUS JOB

By Mitchell Blair
Riderville.com

Riders head coach Ken Miller has never been a man of many words. He is someone who just puts his nose to the grindstone and is someone who has tremendous faith in the men he puts out on the football field knowing they will give the best the can win or lose each week. He is someone who prefers not to have the spotlight shine on him.

Miller has no choice but to be thrust in the spotlight at this moment though after doing something that no Rider coach since John Payne in 1976 had done and that is lead his team to a first place finish. However, while acknowledging the feat, he is still quick to deflect the credit.
“It’s a great deal of satisfaction for me to accomplish something that hasn’t been done for a long time, but I’m a lot like the men in the locker room,” said a relieved looking Miller on Saturday night after the victory over Calgary. “It’s a good thing, but there’s a lot yet to be done. A win in two weeks to get to the Grey Cup and then a win in the Grey Cup, that’s really what we work for.’’

It was perhaps unfair for Miller to take the throne succeeding Kent Austin as everyone mourned the loss of the man Miller referred to as a “rockstar”. After such a successful season under Austin’s tutelage in 2007, Rider fans couldn’t imagine anyone else guiding this team and doing for them what the former Saskatchewan quarterback had done. One player will tell you Miller has done something Austin didn’t do.

“He managed to coach this team to a first place finish,” said defensive back Lance Frazier. “Coach Miller has done something that head coaches haven’t done here for the past 33 years. I am so happy for him and I am so happy for everyone in here. People said we would finish last in the West and that we couldn’t win with Darian at quarterback. Well guess what? I know we have some business to do yet, but I’m confident this team can win the Grey Cup because Ken will have us ready to go not only for the Western final but for the Grey Cup.”

Quarterback Darian Durant is also one who is very quick to praise the team’s leader.
“Coach Miller has had my back since day one,” said Durant. “To be able to pull this off for him is special. He’s a great coach. He gets a lot of flack, but he is deserving of this. He has us ready for every game. It couldn’t happen to a better man.”

Durant is correct when he says Miller gets a lot of flack, but one must wonder where that criticism comes from. Yes, Miller is not as animated or as quotable as Winnipeg’s Mike Kelly or as demonstrative as B.C.’s Wally Buono or as charismatic as Austin was, but he has developed his own style and it is one that works. One can not ignore what he has done in his short time as Riders coach. He took over a team that had many question marks going into 2008 and somehow guided the injury riddled franchise to its first home playoff game in many years. He should have been the coach of the year, but others chose to award the honour to John Hufnagel. He followed that up by getting the most out of his troops again to finish first in the West with a possible Grey Cup appearance and victory to follow. He just gets the job done.

The phrase is “actions speak louder than words”. If Ken Miller can get this team to the Grey Cup and win it, he won’t have to say much. That’s just the way he would like to have it.