Nye: Corey Mace checks all the boxes in Riderville

Jamie Nye

CFL.ca

@jamienye

The Saskatchewan Roughriders are asking Corey Mace to do what he’s consistently done throughout his career: take on a challenge and excel.

Mace entered the coaching ranks as the defensive line coach of the Calgary Stampeders and while he was gifted future Hall of Famer and former teammate Charleston Hughes, it’s what came after that was most impressive.

Mace continued to coach up players like Mike Rose, Cordarro Law, Ja’Gared Davis, Folarin Orimolade, Shawn Lemon, Derek Wiggan, and Micah Johnson to have great seasons.

When Toronto came calling in 2022, Mace answered to become defensive coordinator and help lead a defence to impress on their way to a Grey Cup Championship and then followed that up with the ability to improve the defence even further to help Toronto achieve a 16-2 record.

Now, Mace is taking the next step up the ladder to head coach with a difficult task to turn around the franchise in the fishbowl that is Saskatchewan.

There isn’t a franchise that has more eyes and more opinions from the outside than the Roughriders.

Corey Mace is embracing those expectations full bore by committing to becoming a member of the Saskatchewan community while also attempting to build a winner on the field. And Mace is getting the job for ticking a lot of the boxes put forward by the Riders organization.

First and foremost, the Roughriders needed a coach to set a new culture. Locker room culture and team camaraderie appeared to become more and more of an issue within Mosaic Stadium.

When you look at Mace’s career, you see that people are drawn to him. He has kept relationships where ever he has gone and developed friendships that are now beyond just football. A common description of Mace is that people are drawn to him. He is a man who will build a family in the locker room and the tighter the team, the harder they fight for each other.

Second, the Roughriders needed to bring in a winner. Mace won as a player, a positional coach, and a coordinator. The only thing left for him to do is win as a head coach.

Third, they needed a personality that commands attention. As noted earlier, Mace has always been someone that people are drawn to. I don’t mean Mace needs to be the most charismatic person in the room, but he needs to command respect and return it back to his players.

After two seasons in Toronto, Corey Mace is heading to Regina as the Roughriders new head coach (Kevin Sousa/CFL.ca)

Fourth, the coach needs to coach. I know you may think that should be higher up on the priority list but when you’re the head coach you are more so the leader of men. He needs to hire the right people to cover up for the amount of attention he’ll need to put on the entire team, rather than to any one position group or one of the three sides of the ball. But when you saw Mace and the Argonauts go up against any opponent, it was apparent Mace had his group prepared and ready to play.

Finally, the Riders need a man committed to Saskatchewan. Word is that Mace is fully ready to embrace the bigger role that the head coach can play in Saskatchewan. And he’s shown that he is more than willing to make a community a better place.

As has been reported, Mace ran a turkey drive for families at Thanksgiving and was given the Presidents Award in Calgary for performance on and off the field when he was a player.

In terms of a ‘give you the shirt of his back’ guy, Corey Mace is just that. He is a person who has lived and coached that is more concerned with the whole rather than the individual.

The more I’ve read and been told about Mace, the more impressed I am about the Roughriders hire.

While many have already written or said the Roughriders have hit a home run, it appears they’ve hit for the cycle with the amount of needs Corey Mace fills for the head coaching role.

But now the real work begins.

He needs to fill his staff and the team needs to mold the roster before we even start to get to see how Mace really handles being the boss.

Though Mace has yet to find a job he hasn’t been able to handle.

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