Austin Will Be Great

There is no doubt that Kent Austin as a quarterback displayed excellent leadership, motivational and decision making skills along with a very positive, competitive attitude. He accepted nothing less than perfection from his teamates on every play and had no hesitation in letting them know if they failed to carry out their designated assignment. This made him one of the most successful signal callers in CFL history. He was generally regarded as one of the most cerebrial to ever play the game.

Ron Lancaster and Kent Austin are the only quarterbacks in the Roughriders 98 year history to direct the team to Grey Cup victories with Lancaster doing it in 1966 and Austin in 1989.

Austin was a legend at Ole Miss with the Rebels in the tough Southeastern Conference, arguably the toughest conference in American College Football. When he graduated he was drafted by the St.Louis Cardinals of the NFL and after being released by them in September of 1987, came to Saskatchewan where he played till the end of the 1993 season.

He was the MVP of the Riders' thrilling 43-40 Grey Cup victory over Hamilton in 1989. and holds several of the Riders' all time season passing records such as most passes attempted in one game at an incredible 65 and most completions in one game at 41, most touchdown passes in one season at 35 and in one game at 6. He holds the record for the most yards passing in one season at 6225 and one game with 588. He is also second to the immortal George Reed with 34 career rushing TD's.

The question is can he do what Ralph Sazio,George Brancato, and Pinball Clemons have done before him by winning the Grey Cup as Head Coach with the same team they won it with as a player? Another question is will he join Ron Lancaster and Sam Etcheverry as only the third quarterback to win a Grey Cup as a Head Coach?

The answer is probably yes and therefore we expect the Riders to win the Grey Cup for the third time ever sometime in the next three years, most likely next year, 2008.

Austin is batting three for three in his Grey Cup appearances, two as a player with Saskatchewan in 1989 and BC in 1994 and one as the offensive coordinator of the Argos in 2004.

However to capture the Riders' third CFL Championship trophy the emergence of a top flight signal caller must occur, one who could be called the fifth great man behind the center in Rider history following in the footsteps of Austin himself, Lancaster, the legendary Glen Dobbs and the methodical Frank Tripucka. You can expect this signal caller to come from within with exceptional improved play from one of the incumbents Kerry Joseph, Marcus Crandell or Darian Durant or from one of the one of the anticipated two newcomers from American College football that will be brought to camp.

Kent Austin is the 24th Head Coach in the modern day history of this football team and with his no nonsense approach, with accountabilty and heads up performance, levels being expected there is no reason the Riders cannot move to the top of the Western Conference standings in a short time. There is an air of confidence and antricipation surrounding this team like we have not seen for a long time. Austin will not hesitate to make changes which means the rest of this off season should be very intersting as I expect more signifigant trades to take place in the next ten weeks.