July 28, 2017

Nye: No hero’s welcome in Chamblin’s return to Riderville

John Sokolowski

The familiar will be very unfamiliar for Corey Chamblin upon his return to Saskatchewan.

The Riders’ former coach will arrive to a city he knows very well but then will walk into a stadium he’s never stepped foot in before and look at a team across the sideline that is barely recognizable from the roster he had when he was fired in  August of 2015.

Chamblin spent three and a half seasons guiding the Roughriders as their head coach. He took a team over in 2012 that was looking to recover from a disastrous 2011 season. He got them to the playoffs in year one and then won it all the next season.

Chamblin looked like the next great coach in Roughriders history. When 2014 rolled around the team started 8-2 and were looking like a favourite to win another Grey Cup.

Then, snap. It all came crashing down as Chamblin lost his franchise quarterback. Darian Durant’s elbow tendon tore on a play that shouldn’t have even happened.

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Chamblin was named the 2013 CFL Coach of the Year after leading the Riders to a Grey Cup (The Canadian Press)

The young stud, rising coach was at the helm of the team without a star pivot. They floundered. They won just two games the rest of that season and flamed out in the playoffs when they made the desperate move to add Kerry Joseph near the end of the season.

In 2015, again, snap. Durant’s achilles ruptured in the first half of the first game.

The team would go winless in their first nine and Chamblin found himself being called into the office less than two years after helping Saskatchewan to a Grey Cup. He was fired. He ran into general manager Brendan Taman on the road, to simply say ‘you’re next’ to the man that trusted the young coach who had just one year of coordinator experience to become Saskatchewan’s leader.

Taman was fired minutes later.

Chamblin likely felt he aged a lot more than the three and a half years he was in Saskatchewan. There wasn’t a lack of things to handle.

He guided the team through an up and down 2013 that led to three players being arrested midway through the season that coincided with a losing streak.

He got them out of it, showing coaching ability well beyond his years.

There were also coaching mistakes that included questionable in-game decisions and taking on the defensive coordinator duties from Richie Hall going into what eventually was his last year. Maybe he believed he could take on more than he actually could.

He went from hero to villain quickly.

But now, Toronto is seeing the coach Saskatchewan fell in love with four years ago; an aggressive defence that dictates the play and a coach that demands a lot from his players but was able to get the best out of them.

Chamblin admits you can’t help but grow as a coach when you experience the things he did in Saskatchewan. He’s also getting to learn from one of the  most successful head coaches in the last decade in the CFL in Marc Trestman.

The Argos’ defence has given up an average of 25 points per game (tied for third best in CFL) and lead the league in sacks (17) as well as forced fumbles (5) under Chamblin (Johany Jutras/Argonauts.ca)

To Chamblin’s credit he waited until the right opportunity, rather than the first opportunity, to come back and coach in the CFL. His patience paid off as he looks like the coach that blew away Brendan Taman way back in 2011 when the Riders were looking for a bench boss following Ken Miller’s move off the sidelines in Saskatchewan.

If fact, if it was up to Taman he would have hired Chamblin right then and there but it wasn’t his call. The team went with Greg Marshall instead, allowing Chamblin to gather coordinator experience with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.

Right now, all Chamblin cares about is a win on Saturday. He denies that it’ll be an emotional return but it may be a much sweeter win to beat the team that stopped believing in him.

Nobody can guess when Chamblin will get a head coaching opportunity again, but I do believe it’s more a question of when and not if. It’s hard to find coaches with Grey Cup Champion and Coach of the Year on the resume.

While Chamblin likely won’t get a hero’s welcome on Saturday, Rider Nation should remember him most for his major contribution to the most memorable night at the old ball park.