Monday, November 27, 2006

Ask and ye shall receive!

Darn work, getting in the way of blog updating!

Okay, so now it's official. Danny Barrett will not return for an eighth season as the Riders Head Coach. Call it a firing, or a mutual understanding, but it's done. The Head Coaching job at his alma mater (University of Cincinnati) has opened up. I wouldn't be surprised to see him end up there.

Meantime, Eric Tillman will start interviewing potential replacements tomorrow. Tillman expects to hire someone he's worked with previously, which bumps Dave Ritchie and Kent Austin (please God, not Joe Paopao!) to the top of the list.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Shivers is gone....Barrett is gone.... an era is over. We didn't win a Grey Cup, Western Division or get a home play off game. We improved from 3-15 seven yrs ago but so did the B.C. Lions, but they did it in 5 yrs.

On Sportsline Tillman said that if he hasn't reached his goals in 4-5 yrs then it's all on him. How refreshing to have someone say he is setting a timetable for himself to win it all as opposed to getting a contract extension for himself.

It will likely be Ritchie or Austin, and the smart money should be on Ritchie.

Pac58 said...

Yeah,

I sure like what I've heard from ET so far. And unlike past situations, he's a long way from building from scratch with this squad.

I'm guessing it'll be Ritchie as well, although I'm certainly not ruling out Austin coming along as Associate Head Coach and Offensive Coordinator. I'm not entirely sure that's a good thing, although I believe Austin could certainly elevate Kerry Joseph's play rather significantly.