Courtesy Regina Leader Post:

First-year head coach Ken Miller will be surrounded by first-year players attending the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ rookie camp when it opens today at Mosaic Stadium.

The players might behave like rookies, but their head coach won’t.

“Ha-ha, no,” Miller said Tuesday from his office. “I have a heightened sense of urgency here, I guess, would be a good way to say it. Some of our coaches, I told Eric (Tillman, Saskatchewan’s general manager), are like racehorses being loaded into the starting gate. I’m not quite at that level, but certainly there’s a lot of anticipation.”

Although this is his first year as a professional head coach, Miller has been a football coach for 40 years. He was a head coach in the U.S. college ranks 25 years ago and served as an assistant with the CFL’s Toronto Argonauts before joining the Roughriders last season as their offensive co-ordinator. When Roughriders head coach Kent Austin was hired by his alma mater (University of Mississippi) during the offseason, just weeks after leading Saskatchewan to the 2007 Grey Cup, Tillman hired Miller as Austin’s replacement.

Miller retained his entire coaching staff, led by defensive co-ordinator Richie Hall, defensive assistants Alex Smith and Ron Estay and offensive line/assistant head coach Mike Gibson. He promoted Paul LaPolice to offensive co-ordinator and completed the staff by hiring CFL veteran coaches Jamie Barresi and Gary Etcheverry. Miller said their approach will be similar to the tack taken by Austin.

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