Flash back to 2007. One of the great moments in Saskatchewan RoughRider history. Kerry Joseph leads the Riders to only their second Grey Cup championship, oh in about 100 years or so. Darian Durant follows that up with a third championship in 2013 and hopes for a repeat in 2014.Chances look pretty good for a Rider repeat, that is until Darian Durant takes a hit and tears a tendon in his elbow. Gone for the season they say, wait he might be back in time for the playoffs. Can backup quarterbacks Tino Sunseri and Seth Doege carry the mail until he gets back. Well apparently the Rider management have little faith in their young quarterbacks.
Yesterday the Riders took a step back, in time at least, and brought in the veteran. 41 year old Kerry Joseph who retired at the end of last season.
Does that mean the Riders have given up on the young guys.
That's all up to the coaches, realistically I think Tino is going to be the guy this week," "Kerry's not coming in here to be a guy that stands there and holds a clipboard. He's here for a reason, he'll get thrown into the mix and see how he does. I think if Tino produces and plays as well as he can, he'll be the guy." Brendan Taman Riders General Manager.So the Riders now head for Montreal and a Monday encounter with the Alouettes. It is expected that Tino Sunseri will get the start. But if he stumbles the interesting question will be how quickly do the Riders go to Kerry Joseph? You would think it
would take a little time to learn a new play book and get up to speed with the playbook and the Rider offence. But it would appear that time is something the Riders are not content to wait upon.
The Riders got a bit of a break this past weekend when both the BC Lions and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers lost their games. Really neither the Lions or the Bombers have been able to capitalize on the the Riders misfortune's as they stumbled around looking for an answer to their quarterbacking situation.
This weekend becomes extremely important as the Riders try to hang on to second place. The Bombers will meet the Edmonton Eskimos. The way things are going for Winnipeg you have to sensibly give that one to the Eskimos meaning Edmonton would move two points ahead of the Riders for second place. The Lions meet the Ottawa RedBlacks. That one could be interesting. The RedBlacks are coming off their biggest showing of the season putting 42 points on the board as they prevailed over the Bombers. The Lions meanwhile are playing great defence but really struggling when it comes to scoring points.
So if the Riders can claw out a win over Montreal the playoff positioning would pretty much stay the same.
In the other game the Toronto Argonauts will play host to the Hamilton TigerCats.