EDMONTON – On Monday, the Saskatchewan Roughriders confirmed the Edmonton Eskimos’ Grey Cup winning coach Chris Jones is the CFL team’s new general manager and head coach.
The move comes just one week after Jones and the Eskimos beat the Ottawa Redblacks in the 103rd Grey Cup in Winnipeg.
Rumours started to swirl during Grey Cup week that Jones would be heading east. On the Tuesday following the championship game, it was confirmed that Eskimos General Manager Ed Hervey had given Jones permission to speak with the Riders.
The Eskimos will now have to wait and see how many from Jones’ coaching staff will follow him to Regina; he brought several members of the coaching staff with him to Edmonton from Toronto.
The same goes for Eskimos players who are very vocal about their love of playing for Jones.
Jones was officially named VP of operations, GM and Head Coach of the Roughriders early Monday afternoon.
“I can’t do anything else,” Jones said with a smile, when asked about the coaching gig. “All we do is roll up our sleeves and go to work like everyone else.”
The team interviewed Jones last week.
“We’re going to put a really high-quality, high-character staff,” said Jones about his vision with his new team.
“I was fortunate with Edmonton. They gave me my first opportunity to be a head coach.”
“When an opportunity like this presents itself you have to jump on it,” he said.
Jones said the Roughriders job was “an opportunity to do my own thing…to build from the ground up.”
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