Mitchell Blair
The first half of the CFL season is over and the Saskatchewan Roughriders have the best record in the league, but head coach Corey Chamblin says he is taking nothing for granted.
“It was a good first half, there’s no doubt about it,” Chamblin said with a smile. “However, I talked to the team today about teams that have had a great first half and then have it fall apart. We have a long ways to go and it’s on to the second half. If it were a nine game season though I’d be very excited.”
While the second half of the season begins this Sunday in Winnipeg, the mantra of Chamblin is not going to change. He doesn’t look at his team as being an 8-1 team.
“I have told this team I want to be 1-0 after every week, “Chamblin insists. “The biggest thing is that we keep that message and while you can look at this or look at that as to why we have been so good, but the best thing about our team so far has been keeping that message strong. We have always been focused on 1-0. We don’t do any calculations; we just concentrate on the week ahead and say we have to win this week.”
The second half of the season will be much tougher than the first half as the Riders must play B.C three times, an Edmonton team that has lost many close games twice and a much-anticipated showdown in Calgary in October. Chamblin is fully aware of what is around the corner, but he refuses to budge from his stance.
“The first half and second half are two different ball games. Teams that were good in the first half might not be so good in the second half and teams in the first half that weren’t so good might get their game together in the second half. The biggest thing is how strong we are going to be this week. We’re not getting caught up in what the next nine shows; we’re going to get caught up in what this week holds.”
As Chamblin does look back at the first half, he does admit that he has liked the competitive fire that he has seen.
“If I had to say there was one thing that has impressed me it would be our resilience. I’ve told our guys that when we are behind to lets come back and we showed that in the Calgary game even though we lost and we showed it in Edmonton the second time. At the same time, I’ve also said that when we get up, we have to stay up and we have shown that as well. That’s the sign of a good football team, but again, we know there is a long way to go.”
While there is a long way to go before we find out if this team will play for and win the Grey Cup, one could not blame a player in football-crazed Saskatchewan if he started to get caught up in the hype. The same could be said for the head coach, but his philosophy on the hype is simple.
“We have three goals. One is to have a winning year, the next is to be in the playoffs and the third one is to win the Grey Cup. We know what being in the Grey Cup will mean around here. The biggest thing is to not try and cover up the hype. If there is hype because we are winning that’s great. If a guy does get caught up in the hype than what I will preach to him is if you love the hype, you have to do what it takes to keep the hype. In the meantime, we will just keep approaching things one game at a time and hopefully when all is said and done we will have achieved our final goal.
Step one of the second half of the season begins in Winnipeg as the team makes its first ever trip to Investors Group Field to take on a Bombers team that they manhandled to a tune of 48-25 last Sunday at Mosaic Stadium. Kickoff is 2 o’clock Saskatchewan time with 620 CKRM beginning its pre-game coverage at 1130 AM.
