Dyce, O’Day officially take over interim roles with Saskatchewan Roughriders

8, 1986, when head coach Jack Gotta and general manager Bill Quinter were swept up in a housecleaning.

The 38-year-old head coach held a 29-34 record with the Riders and guided the team to a Grey Cup win in their home stadium in 2013. And new Riders president and CEO Craig Reynolds said the organization has high expectations for this weekend’s contest.

Dyce, 49, doesn’t have the luxury of time to get settled into his new gig as Saskatchewan hosts the Winnipeg Blue Bombers on Sunday. Quick joined the Riders in that role this season but it was Chamblin who essentially ran the Riders’ defence.

Jeremy O’Day has been named interim VP of football operations and general manager, while Bob Dyce has been named interim head coach. He started as the receivers coach in 2010 and was promoted to offensive co-ordinator in 2012. A full search to fill both jobs on a permanent basis will be conducted at the end of the season. Chamblin also won the Coach of the Year award that same year.

While Chamblin’s coaching stint was cut short – his contract had been extended to 2017 – his tenure was anything but short when compared to past head coaches in Riderville.

“I hold responsibility in where we’re at right now … it’s never one guy”, O’Day said. “I give my heart every game so I’m glad to have another opportunity”.

At that point the Roughriders were behind 14-10 in the game, and Smith had thrown his first interception. Except Reynolds said that wasn’t the reason for firing Chamblin. “Dyce said. “We wanted them to know we have a lot of belief in them and while we can’t control the past, but we can control the future”. What happened Sunday was the realization that we weren’t going to turn this around unless we made a change”.

“It was in the best interest of the franchise long-term to move forward in a different direction”, stated Reynolds.