Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Taman Time

Today (to no ones surprise) the Riders announced that GM Brendan Taman would be retained a given full power over football operations. To me it was the definition of doing the right things, the wrong way.
I don’t think anyone would dispute that our structure last season was ridiculous and needed to be addressed. Even Helen Keller could have seen the problems for how obvious they were. So the fact that the Rider have decided to return to a structure where the GM has full control over football operations (as opposed to having him report through a made up position) and full authority to hire his own coach (as opposed to being forced to sign some bum that nobody else wanted) is a good one.

But while what we are doing is right, the way we are doing it defies logic in so many ways. I’ll preface this by saying that I do not like Taman. I have never liked Taman. I think he is a horrible choice as GM. Just look at this top 10 I made when we first made him GM in name only. I’ll admit that a fair bit of the blame for the mess over the past year plus resides with Ken Miller as he had the final say and vetoed some of Taman’s ideas. But just because Ken Miller was a really bad football operations guy, it doesn’t mean that Taman is suddenly good.

Do I think Brendan Taman is the worst guy we could have hired as GM? No, that would be Danny Maccioccia. But to me he represents the ultimate mediocre at best hire. This used to be a team committed to excellence… and Taman is far from an excellent GM (I challenge someone to try and argue that he is). We are settling for the pudgy girl with low self esteem instead of going after the prom queen. Just ask Sean Connery

And even if you think that Taman is a good GM (you’re wrong but its fun to pretend), it makes no sense to leave him on a one year contract when we need to hire a new head coach. What kind of message does it send to perspective coaching candidates when the man who will hire them might be gone by the end of next season? We are just coming off a gong show of a season and now we can’t even ensure stability past one year and we think that the CFL’s best and brightest will be lining up to come here? Sound logic right there. So if we are really that certain that Taman is qualified to do this job why not lock him up for 3 years and at least make some commitment to our new coaches? It would kill me to live through 3 more years of Taman but this one year GM thing defies logic. We will likely be able to find a decent coach with this set up but I doubt we find an excellent coach.

So I hope you like mediocrity… its Taman’s specialty.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

My though is they will promote a HC from within since,as you say "What kind of message does it send to perspective coaching candidates when the man who will hire them might be gone by the end of next season?"
In this scenerio it doesn't matter. My guess the new HC will be Dickenson or Dyce. They wouldn't dare promote Hall or there would be a riot.

Rider Prophet said...

Dickenson maybe. Dyce I think would be a stretch. Hall would be a train wreck but since we settled for a second rate GM, I wouldn't put it past them.

You have to think Corey CHamblain is on the radar. Which you would hink would have to spell the end of Hall since their defensive philosophies are polar opposite.

Anonymous said...

Wholly crap…like I have said before in the Riders history mediocrity seems to be the acceptable norm…NOT excellence. Tamen must have incriminating pictures of Hopson and other members of the board, the guy personifies losing and instability. Enjoy your spot in last place as it will take the Riders a decade to become decent once again.

This guy has no personality, is shabby to look at and is a negative game playing idiot. Be prepared for the circus because it is coming in full force to Regina, believe me I lived it here in Winnipeg for the better part of the last decade, I guess our gain is your loss, thank God Tamen is out of Winnipeg.

Maybe you guys to hire Lyle Baur and Mike Kelly just to complete the 3 ring circus.

Rider Prophet said...

Mike Kelly did a good job of getting Taman to leave Winnipeg... we may have to resort to it ourselves.

Anonymous said...

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