Roughrider great Matt Dominguez was on the Sports Cage Monday night and provided his thoughts on the Riders' hiring of Corey Chamblin as head coach and the contract status of receiver Andy Fantuz.
ON THE 2012 RIDERS
Initially when all the changes were gonna happen, you heard all the rumblings about names. You heard the sexy name guys, about guys coming forward, or elevate the guy that's already in the program. But I always thought that Coach Chamblin would be great. He's the guy I wanted. If you look at the makeup of the team, with the vets and the rookies, you need a guy with that personality and that type of energy. We went from having an old guy coaching staff to a young guy coaching staff in a short period of time. That's what the team needed.
In 2007 I predicted 12 wins because I saw the culture, the atmosphere and I knew the type of players that were there. Knowing what I know now about this team, the type of systems they'll be instituting, I think we won't regress. I think we'll be around a 10 win season. 10 wins get you in, and that's all that matters.
ON ANDY FANTUZ
When I re-signed with the Riders in December of 2004 ahead of free agency, my situation was totally different. I was an American. You can find import receivers anywhere. But there are very few non-import receivers who can play at Andy's level. Let's now put that aside. Out east, they have two very good quarterbacks in Toronto (Ricky Ray) and Hamilton (Henry Burris). If I'm a receiver and I want to play with a good QB, and I'm thinking about moving, that changes things. In my case, when I was in the NFL, I'd listen to offers from the Dallas Cowboys and Houston Texans because then my family could go to everyone of my games since I'm from Texas.
I haven't talked to Andy in 2 1/2 months but if he chooses to play for another team, that's his choice. Not many people would turn down a raise to be closer to their family. Not many would.
**You can listen to the entire 15-minute interview with Fantuz in the Sports Cage podcast two posts below.
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