Winnipeg Blue Bombers head coach Doug Berry prepares to throw the flag to challenge a play during the second half against the British Columbia Lions during CFL action in Winnipeg July 11, 2008.
Photograph by: Fred Greenslade/Reuters, NP
The handyman in Doug Berry re-emerged during a brief hiatus from football, but he doesn't anticipate any major repairs with the Saskatchewan Roughriders.
"Everybody likes to be associated with a winner," Berry said Thursday from Florida after being named Saskatchewan's new offensive co-ordinator/assistant head coach. "The Riders have had their share of success over the last three or four years. There's a reason behind that. Whether it has to do with the tangible facilities or the relationships the coaches have with the players, good things are going on right now. It's going to be my job to help keep it going."
Berry has been out of football since he was relieved of his head-coaching duties with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers following the 2008 season. The 61-year-old has passed some of the time doing renovations on his winter home in Florida.
Berry has been out of football since he was relieved of his head-coaching duties with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers following the 2008 season. The 61-year-old has passed some of the time doing renovations on his winter home in Florida.
"I've been busy up until maybe the end of September and after that you start going stir crazy and I'm not ready to take up golf," chuckled Berry, who has also been watching "every CFL game possible," in addition to the NCAA and NFL. "I'm going blind watching football games."
Berry took a break last week to fly into Regina for a visit with Riders GM Brendan Taman and head coach/vice-president of football operations Ken Miller. Berry has never worked with Miller but he is very familiar with Taman, his old boss in Winnipeg. They collaborated on the 2007 Bomber team that lost to Saskatchewan in the Grey Cup final.
Berry took a break last week to fly into Regina for a visit with Riders GM Brendan Taman and head coach/vice-president of football operations Ken Miller. Berry has never worked with Miller but he is very familiar with Taman, his old boss in Winnipeg. They collaborated on the 2007 Bomber team that lost to Saskatchewan in the Grey Cup final.
"I'm sure the mutual relationship with Brendan Taman might have had something to do with it," Berry said of his hiring. "If it did, great. I always felt I had a great relationship with Brendan."
Berry added that he came away "very impressed" with what he saw during his visit to Rider headquarters.
The feeling was mutual.
"I'm really excited to have Doug because of his experience and his background and success," said Miller, who also hired veteran coach Jim Daley (special teams) and ex-Bomber assistant Bob Dyce (receivers coach/pass-game co-ordinator). "There will be a melding of offence in what we have done here in the last three years with what (Berry and Dyce) have done together and what Doug did in Montreal (as the Alouettes offensive co-ordinator). Systemically it's going to be pretty much the same. We share a lot of philosophy."
Berry was the architect of some explosive aerial attacks in Winnipeg and previously with Montreal, where he mentored quarterback Anthony Calvillo. Based upon what Berry has seen and heard so far, the veteran coach believes he and the Riders are "very compatible."
"I'm not looking to reinvent myself or the offence that I know," he said. "But you have to tailor all the things that you know to the things that Saskatchewan has been doing well over the last few years. We're certainly not looking to change any of that but maybe try to embellish it with a few things that we've been successful with wherever I've been in the past."
"I'm not looking to reinvent myself or the offence that I know," he said. "But you have to tailor all the things that you know to the things that Saskatchewan has been doing well over the last few years. We're certainly not looking to change any of that but maybe try to embellish it with a few things that we've been successful with wherever I've been in the past."
Berry had also been talking recently to the Toronto Argonauts about their head-coaching vacancy. When that opportunity "fell through" he quickly turned his attention to Saskatchewan.
"The more I spoke with Ken about it, I felt more comfortable going there and being a part of the Rider organization," he said. "You don't want to be out of coaching very long. Being out of coaching for one year was beginning to, I can't say take its toll on me, but I was certainly anxious to get back into it. I really love the Canadian Football League. I love the style and all that, and was hoping to get another opportunity."
Berry admitted he still has aspirations to be a head coach -- an opportunity which may present itself in Saskatchewan. Miller, who could move upstairs as early as next season, said Thursday there are some possible successors on the team's current staff, but he insisted none of them were hired solely for that purpose.
"There's always the thought for the future," added Berry, "... but it's not necessarily anything that was talked about concretely or even thought about that way. My job is to make Ken Miller the best coach I can make him in 2010 and then we'll take it from there."
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