‘We’re going to find a way to do it’: Riders’ Dickenson focusing on possible 2021 season

While there isn’t a 100 per cent guarantee CFL teams will take the field in 2021, Saskatchewan Roughriders head coach Craig Dickenson believes that will be the case.

“It’s full steam ahead for our staff. We suffered through this last summer of not coaching football and it was tough and painful for all of us,” Dickenson said Wednesday from his home in Montana on a Zoom conference call with the media.

“All of us (coaches) are going ahead with the mindset that we’re going to play in 2021 come hell or high water and we’re going to find a way to do it.”

The 2020 CFL season was cancelled in August due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Dickenson said there will be at least one change on his coaching staff heading into 2021.

“The football operations cap was cut 20 per cent and the reality is when you lose that much money you’re going to lose a coach and we did,” said Dickenson, who wouldn’t identify the assistant who won’t be returning. “We plan on having everyone back but one and we’ve got commitments from seven of the guys right now.”

Dickenson said every coach coming back for the 2021 season will take a bit of a cut to their salaries.

As for the on-field personnel, Dickenson said he and general manager Jeremy O’Day have been determining which players they want back and what the players’ contracts look like.

“We feel like we’re going to have our core group back. Most of our guys we believed in in 2020, we believe in in 2021,” Dickenson said. “There may be a few that were right on the edge of maybe being close to retirement that we may look to get a little younger at.

“We’re going to push to have that same group signed in 2021.”

That includes quarterback Cody Fajardo, who is entering the final year of his contract in 2021.

“He’s certainly a guy that’s our franchise quarterback and the leader on our offence so we want to make sure we have him signed up for the long term,” Dickenson said.

Dickenson said the most difficult part of not having football has been finding a new daily routine.

“(Coaches) are creatures of habit and just the daily routine of getting ready to play a game is something you miss,” Dickenson said. “That being said, we were still able to stay busy over the summer.

“In fact, the first part of the summer we were preparing for having a season, and then once the news came down we wouldn’t be having a season, then the focus just kicked into what we’ve got to do to make sure we hit the ground running in 2021.”

While there are many different ideas being floated around for the 2021 season — in a bubble, fewer games played and so on — Dickenson has one ideal scenario in mind.

“I’d like to see a full season and I’d love to see a full season where fans could come and enjoy the games,” he said. “Now, could that be done? I don’t know. I don’t think anyone knows right now.”