‘It feels amazing:’ Corey Mace introduced as Riders’ new head coach

A phone call this week has given Corey Mace the shot he has been waiting for.

“(General manager Jeremy O’Day) called me and I was there and he said, ‘Hey, I’m in the team meeting room and I’m standing at the podium and I can’t unsee you.’ I said, ‘Don’t you start talking like that unless you mean it,’ ” Mace said Friday when he was introduced as the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ new head coach.

“It was elation. It was a celebration. It’s still sinking in. Even right here, I tried to put myself in this situation and I’ve tried to put myself here before and it’s living up to everything.

“It feels amazing.”

As Mace sat behind a Roughriders helmet during the media conference at Mosaic Stadium, the 37-year-old product of Port Moody, B.C., remembered a former Roughriders linebacker.

He reflected on the time Brooks Findlay gave the Mace family tickets to a CFL game between Saskatchewan and the B.C. Lions in Vancouver. Findlay also gave Mace an autographed card.

“I used to stare at that card often and dream about being a player,” Mace said. “But I was looking at this (Riders) logo for a long time as a young man, so this does mean something to me.”

On Wednesday night, the Roughriders hired Mace to replace Craig Dickenson as their head coach. Dickenson’s contract wasn’t renewed after the 2023 season, during which Saskatchewan posted a second straight 6-12-0 record.

Mace spent the past two seasons as the Toronto Argonauts’ defensive co-ordinator. Before that, he was the Calgary Stampeders’ defensive line coach, a job the former Stamps D-lineman took after retiring from playing in 2015.

He’s a three-time Grey Cup champion, winning as a player with Calgary in 2014, as a coach with the Stamps in 2018, and as a member of the Argos’ coaching staff in 2022.

The Roughriders welcomed Mace to Mosaic Stadium with a sign on the scoreboard. (Britton Gray/980 CJME)

Mace is well aware of the Roughriders’ impact on Saskatchewan — especially after a vacation to Mexico where he saw people wearing team merchandise.

“You understand it certainly being here, you understand it as a visitor coming here and you understand it when you get to know people from the province of Saskatchewan what this logo and what this team means to this community,” Mace said.

“I take pride in that, as much as I know that the community takes pride in this team. I will never lose sight of that, I promise you, and I’ll do everything I can to really provide that sentiment to the gentlemen who are going to don the jerseys on behalf of your team.”

O’Day said he and Mace met twice during the interview process, with the first meeting lasting more than five hours. O’Day had a sense then that Mace was the man for the job.

“With Corey, it was just different, right from the start of the interview to the end of the interview to the communication after the interview to the communication of bringing him up,” O’Day said. “When I called him and asked him to fly into Regina, he said, ‘I thought I was coming right after the interview.’

“He’s contagious, he’s genuine and he’s honest … We had a pretty long list of things we wanted in a head coach and a lot of times when you’re going through this, you’re trying to figure out what is wrong with somebody instead of the 100 things that are right.

“I’m taking a step outside of my comfort zone hiring someone I don’t go back with 10 or 20 years … As much as I was interviewing him, he was interviewing us. As it went on, you could see that the relationship was going to be very good. We’re like-minded and we see things the same way and that matters.”

Mace said he, his wife Petra and their children, Maleena and Micah, will be moving to Regina and calling the Queen City home.

He has been very active in the communities in which he has coached, which he places a lot of importance in doing.

“I understand what any fan base provides to an organization and this fan base gives a tremendous amount to this organization,” Mace said.

“Who are my family and I to not give back? Even if we can do six or seven initiatives, it isn’t going to measure to what the fan base brings to us.

“It’s important with the way I was raised, it’s important with how we want to raise our children and I think it’s the right way to do.”

As for on-field topics, Mace said he has a solid idea of whom he would like to bring in to form his coaching staff. He also believes the Riders can win with Trevor Harris at quarterback.

The 37-year-old suffered a tibial plateau fracture in his right knee in the fourth quarter of a 33-31 loss to the Stampeders on July 15 and missed the rest of the season.

“I FaceTimed Trevor (on Thursday) and we had a great conversation,” Mace said. “I think the trajectory of the season for this organization changed a little bit when he got hurt.

“He has been an outstanding quarterback in this league for many years and possesses all the skill sets needed to be a winner. Playing against him or having to coach against him, he creates some problems for you defensively and I know he knows how to manipulate that.

“I think having him and his leadership and experience within the locker room will certainly galvanize the guys but I think the relationship that Trevor and I build together, he is going to be an extension of my voice on the field … You kind of get an assistant coach out there with the players. That helps.”

Now with his name on the contract, Mace said the next steps for him is to get started.

“We have to handle what we spoke to as far as getting a staff put together and free agency is going to start picking up here and looking at guys that we would like to retain and continue building the relationship with (O’Day) and myself,” Mace said.

“I don’t look at those as challenges; (I’m) just more eager to get it done. Knowing that I don’t currently live right here, (I’ll be) finding out what that looks like — I need a realtor — and figuring out what that looks like to get us here as fast as possible so we can get to work.”