At first glance, CFL fans may feel that the Riders have gotten a little cocky after winning their first Grey Cup in nearly 20 years. It almost seems as though they've decided to add a degree of difficulty to their campaign to repeat.

First, head coach Kent Austin left to become the offensive coordinator at his alma matter Ol’ Miss. Then starting QB and 2007 CFL MOP (that really is a quality acronym) Kerry Joseph was traded to the Toronto Argonauts. Throw in the loss of Fred Perry and useful RB Cory Homes… and… well... perhaps after all those years of losing and cleaning house might have joined watermelon headwear as an enduring if not always explicable Rider tradition.

But at closer glance, Riders fans have to admit that last year's storybook script of a season might not have been rewritable. After all, a lot of things bounced the Rider’s way: Joseph putting it all together for an MVP season; facing a rookie QB starting his first ever game in the Grey Cup; a poor season from Calgary; Luca Congi catching fire in the playoffs; the enduring presence of Danny Maciocia in Edmonton.

There are still reasons to be optimistic for the coming season. First and foremost, Marcus Crandell actually is an experienced and serviceable CFL QB - people forget he was the Grey Cup most outstanding player for Calgary in 2001. The integration of new coach Ken Miller should be a smooth one; apparently Miller called 95% of the plays last year, which might explain Kent Austin’s success given his abysmal play calling during the short-lived Ricky Williams era in Toronto. Throw in a year of playoff experience, a deep offensive line and the great Ronald Flemons (from all of us here in Toronto – you’re welcome, Saskatchewan). Oh, and Maciocia is still in Edmonton.

I'm predicting a second-place finish in a tight Western conference. with avoiding injuries and the integration of Crandell into the offense being the key for the Riders.

As an assed bonus, reason #239 why I like the CFL:

After trading for Hamilton’s pick in the final round of the CFL draft, the Roughriders selected the University of Regina Rams star quarterback – and two-time finalist for the Hec Crighton Trophy – Teale Orban (or is that Orban Teale)? The move made so much sense (draft a local kid from a local school to give the rabid fan base even more to get excited about), I seriously doubted it would happen. Yes, the lack of an import quota for quarterbacks will not help him, and there may be added pressure to play him if he looks even remotely up to it. But this was still a no-brainer and in a sports world sometimes gone mad (Maciocia), I do feel it is important to celebrate the no-brainers that do actually happen.

For most of the year I had assumed that Hamilton's front office was going to have the most work cut out for it after the season, but at this stage the Eskimos are in much worse shape. Danny Maciocia surely has to be let go as both the GM and head coach at the end of the year and according to reports the players aren't particularly fond of "head coach in waiting" Jacques Chapdelaine. In the only moment of "insight" we've had on this site, we once wrote of Chapdelaine: "You know those movies where they have the team of snotty rich kids going up against the scrappy gang of misfits from across the lake? Lions' O.C. Jacques Chapdelaine totally looks like he should be coaching the snotty rich kids." And while we thought this would make him the perfect coach of the Eskimos, the players apparently disagree.

Anyway, for the last couple of weeks I've been cheering on the Eskimos in large part because I'd rather see anyone other than Montreal lose the Grey Cup this year. But at this stage, it almost seems like they are going into a rebuilding mode as opposed to trying to win against the Riders. 

Why else would they bench their "top rookie" nominee and arguably the most dangerous offensive weapon they have left in Tyler Ebell in favour of a guy who has a total of 9 CFL carries? Does Maciocia just assume that, since they won the Grey Cup with Troy Davis coming in as a late season replacement, they need to change the RB near the end of every year? 

And the excuse that they needed to replace Ebell with an import special teams player is absurd. You use the draft to get non-imports who can play special teams or you poach someone off of another team's practice roster. Or hell, sign Sean Millington. He's available. Very available. Or if they were going to change backs, at least give the fans something they'd enjoy and put Gizmo in the backfield.

In any case, over just the past two years Maciocia has used a number of different options in looking for a #1 running back. There was Troy Davis, that McClendon fellow, Josh Ranek, Ebell and now Anderson. I'm probably missing a few.  Was Mike Bradley supposed to start? Ronald Williams?  Anyway, let's hope for their sake that he's finally found an answer.

Okay, maybe not quite daily. But in honour of the Argos' back-to-back games against the Eskimos, beginning with the forthcoming Turkey Day matchup, we're going to do our best to celebrate the CFL's most singularly entertaining coach. And no, we won't rest until we've found that clip of him running onto the field a play early to celebrate Edmonton's Grey Cup win.

We stand by our assessment that Maciocia is the Ozzie Guillen of the CFL - partly because his team appeared to win a championship in spite of him, and partly because he seemed very close to duplicating this classic Ozzie moment with Jason Maas after a recent Esks/Ticats game. But for now, we're going to take you back...all the way back to his proud days fighting for equality and justice.

Allow us to set the scene.  It's Montreal, somewhere in the early 1990s, and a young Georges Laraque is a two-sport threat. One day, however, the time comes for him to decide whether to go with football or hockey - and he opts for the latter. So he goes to his midget football coach, one Danny Maciocia, to give him the bad news. And what happens? Well, take it away, Georges:

"He said there's no brothers in hockey and you're not going to make it in the NHL. He said, 'Stay with football.' I told him no, and he was so disappointed."

Maciocia!