When Corey Chamblin got the call telling him he had been chosen to be the new head coach of the Saskatchewan Roughriders, it wasn’t excitement that he was feeling.
He’d been preparing for it and the job was finally his.
“Well it wasn’t excitement because the reality of it is I interviewed for it long and hard last year,” he said Friday morning on News Talk Radio’s John Gormley Live.
LISTEN to the full interview.
“I told them I don’t plan on interviewing a third time, for a third year. I kind of felt like I was doing everything I could to get the job and when they gave it to me it was like, OK good. I’ve been preparing for it for a while.”
The 34-year-old says being a true leader has nothing to do with the title of your job. And neither does your age, says Chamblin who has been criticized for being too young to be a head coach.
“I’d rather be too young than too old because I can grow into it,” he said.
For his new role as leader, he draws similarities between football and life.
“Life is all about what you put in, you get back out of it. That’s what I took away from football,” he said.
“You’re only able to do this game for a short amount of time as a player. As a coach, we know that can be even shorter than you think… same thing in life. You aren’t guaranteed any day.”
Chamblin says his high-energy coaching style is to get the best out of each player. And that’s something he continues to do off the field.
“I’m trying to be the best Corey I can be, the best husband, the best son, the best brother, the best father,” he said.
Balancing act
Chamblin says there’s a balance between game strategy and being a motivator. He says a coach’s strength as a strategist comes when a team is under the wire.
As a former defensive co-ordinator, Chamblin knows all too well what that’s like.
“You find out what your grit and what your metal is made of,” he said.
As far as being a motivator of men, that’s something Chamblin believes starts at the assistant coach level. As a head coach, he says it’s a huge part of his role.”
“You have to be able to motive the players in the locker room. Strategy-wise, you have to be able to help your coaches out. They should be self-motivated but you have to be able to know what your coaches are doing,”
Chamblin says the balance is to know which role fits each person on the team.
“As far as the X’s and O’s with the players, I’m removed from that and most coaches are,” he said, saying the assistants and co-ordinators take care of the strategy.
“The thing that we have do as a head coach is that you are motivating those men and be that eagle eye in the sky—being able to see everything from a distance—to say hey this is what needs to be fixed.”
Taking on Rider Nation
Chamblin believes that an organization should be getting progressively better every year.
And chalking up wins is what Chamblin looks forward to do for Rider Nation. He says he’s prepared to deal with scrutiny from the fans as well.
“That’s what pro football is. I keep hearing this. That’s what professional football is. The whole fishbowl of pro football is supposed to be that way,” he said.
“That’s the way it should be all the way across the CFL because we are pro coaches, pro players. We are paid to do this… it’s the fans that pay. They want to see what they want to see. “
Chamblin says with that a laugh that he knows what it’s like to be the “best coach” after his favourite team loses too.
“The one thing about the fans here and this organization is at least you know where the problems are,” he said.
“You have to be able to be secure in yourself, secure in your team and be secure in what the vision is for the team. That’s always a win in pro football.”
Edited by News Talk Radio’s Karin Yeske.
