Riders head coach Dickenson back in Regina, talks coaching staff pay cuts

Under normal circumstances, Saskatchewan Roughriders head coach Craig Dickenson would be speaking to media ahead of the team’s season-opener against the Montreal Alouettes.

But due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Dickenson was in day 11 of a mandatory quarantine on Thursday after arriving in Regina from the U.S.

Dickenson admitted that now that it’s June, it really feels like something major is missing.

“Now the challenge becomes how can we stay busy, how can we stay productive and get our work done when most of us know we should be coaching football right now,” Dickenson said.

While Dickenson’s arrival in the Queen City might signal a season is closer to getting underway, that’s not be the case.

Earlier in the day in a written statement, CFL commissioner Randy Ambrosie said work continues with the CFLPA to try and get something in place for a 2020 season. Ambrosie also said that people who work on the league’s executive team, including himself, took a 20 per cent pay cut and that organizations across the CFL have made pay cuts and taken other measures to reduce the financial burden of the pandemic.

Dickenson confirmed he and his coaching staff took a 10-15 per cent wage cut this off-season.

“I had some difficult conversations with (the coaching staff) about a month ago when those first round of pay cuts came through and they understand. When (CEO) Craig Reynolds and (general manager) Jeremy O’Day visit with me and tell me we need to tighten our belts, that’s something we don’t question because we trust them and we believe in what they say,” Dickenson said. “Our coaches feel the same way and they were very good about sacrificing and doing what they needed to do to make sure the organization can survive and make sure that the league can survive.”

Dickenson said one of the main reasons the coaches were in support of the pay cut was to ensure everyone on the staff kept their jobs.

“We don’t want anybody to lose a job so whatever the cuts were that allowed us to keep everybody, we agreed to that.”

There are reports the CFL could be enforcing a lower budget cap for football operations staff and a reduction on the amount of staff a team can have.

“Any time you lose a coach, whether it be an entry-level coach or analytics guy or whatever, you’re potentially losing the next great coach. All of us got our start in this league somehow, someway,” Dickenson said. “I’m not a huge fan of a league mandated cap where the league tells you what you have to spend. That being said, I work in the CFL, I work for the Saskatchewan Roughriders and there’s a lot of things out of our control and we do what we’re told.”

As for the upcoming season, whenever that may come, Dickenson is excited to see what the offence can do under new offensive co-ordinator Jason Maas and starting quarterback Cody Fajardo.

“I think it’s a great match. I know they’ve been talking a lot on Zoom and over the phone this off-season,” Dickenson said. “When (Maas) studied Cody this off-season right after we hired him, he asked me point-blank, ‘are you OK letting me run this guy a little bit and use his skill? Are you worried about him getting hurt?’ and I said let’s let him run and use what god gave him, let him use his abilities.”

But for now, Dickenson continues to hold out hope there will be CFL football in 2020.

“Whatever (the league and medical professionals) can do to get a season this year, I’m all for it. They can have us playing in the Northwest Territories for all I care, I just want a season.”