Former Saskatchewan Roughriders punter Jon Ryan may not have been hired as the team’s new head coach, but he believes the franchise made a far better decision by going with Corey Mace.
“I think Corey Mace, he’s going to end up winning more Grey Cup rings than the entire franchise has right now,” Ryan said during an appearance on 620 CKRM‘s The SportsCage this week. “That’s the stamp I’m putting on this right now. I am all in on him.”
Ryan, who retired from professional football following the 2022 season, went on a now-infamous rant on the same radio program in November, putting his hat in the ring to be the club’s head coach. At the time, he insisted that the team needed someone in the role as passionate about the Green and White as their rabid fan base. He now believes Mace is that person.
“I came on your show and I was screaming, I was mad, I said I wanted to see a guy with passion. And then he came up and he walked into that room, he looked Jeremy O’Day right in the eye and said I want this effing job,” Ryan said, referencing a report from 3DownNation‘s Justin Dunk.
“Man, I was like, ‘This is what we need. This is the guy we need.'”
Mace and Ryan share similar backgrounds, having both spent considerable time in the NFL. Saskatchewan’s newest head coach spent three seasons with the Buffalo Bills before arriving in Canada with the Calgary Stampeders, while his number-one fan played for 13 seasons with the Green Bay Packers, Seattle Seahawks, and Bills, becoming the first person from his home province to ever win a Super Bowl.
They also share a mutual connection to new offensive coordinator Marc Mueller, who graduated from both Ryan’s high school and university alma maters, Sheldon Williams Collegiate and the University of Regina. The two know each other personally, with the grandson of the late Rider legend Ron Lancaster getting a stamp of approval from the local hero.
“Bringing back a guy like Marc Mueller into our hometown, he’s gonna put butts in seats and he’s a football genius,” Ryan said.
That’s just another part of what he has deemed to be a “13 out of 10” offseason for his beloved team, with Mace serving as the headliner. The Riders have won just four Grey Cups in their 113-year history, taking home trophies in 1966, 1989, 2007, and 2013. That will soon change, according to Ryan.
“We’ll be talking in 20 years if we’re both still alive about how I believe right now, I’m (doing an) overreaction Monday, but I believe right now we’ll talk about [Mace] as being the greatest hire in the history of this franchise,” he insisted.
The Riders open the 2024 campaign on Saturday, June 8 at 7:00 p.m. ET when they visit the Edmonton Elks.
