Rider: 'They didn't build this stadium for us to keep losing games'

"They didn't build this big stadium for us to keep losing games."

No, they certainly didn't Derek Dennis, who said that this week leading up to the Riders game against the visiting Hamilton Tiger-Cats on Saturday night.

The stocky left tackle comes from the Calgary Stampeders organization where under John Hufnagel's guidance, winning is just what they do.

In Saskatchewan, in year two of the Chris Jones era, the Roughriders are still trying to find their way.

And so far in 2017, they haven't found their way into the win column.

"Once we get that first win, it will be a sigh of relief for a lot of the guys." said Dennis, the CFL's offensive lineman of the year in 2016.

"It will probably help a lot of guys with the anxiety and the expectations."

If players are already dealing with anxiety issues two games into the season, maybe that first victory will be more elusive than we think.

Jones' confidence certainly hasn't wavered.

"Winning and losing is closely related." said the Riders' boss, who blames mental mistakes and penalty flags for their 0-2 record.

"When you drop a ball game it's usually because of some mistakes, It's usually not because someone is so much better. We just have to do a better job coaching and we have to do a better job taking it to the field."

Take back a couple missed field goals at crucial points in two ball games and the Riders could easily be undefeated.

But Jones is not a head coach to throw his players under the bus. 

He gave Tyler Crapigna his vote of confidence early in the week and did so again on Friday.

"He's an 86 per cent kicker, I mean you're probably not even 86 per cent succesful putting your keys in your car."

'He said, She said'

Meanwhile, what was earlier this week a story about a difference of opinion is now a game of 'he said, she said.'

In regards to Jonathan Newsome, who was shown the door by Chris Jones earlier this week, that topic was off-limits following the team's final walk-through.

"We've got a ball game to play, Newsome is not even on our football team anymore." said Jones.

Jonathan Newsome, on the other hand, is tweeting up a storm claiming he was a victim of bad information.

The Riders' defensive lineman was suddenly released after a meeting with Jones on Tuesday morning.

While the rest of the team was heading out on to the field for practice, Newsome was out the door after packing his bags.

Jones explained Newsome's release as philosophical.

"It was a difference of opinion and everything comes down to how we play and how we are evaluated and there was a difference there, his opinion my opinion and so he had to go."

Newsome was quickly scooped up by the Ottawa Redblacks and then tweeted his version on how it all went down in Saskatchewan.

Quarterback Kevin Glenn, neither a tweeter or gossip monger offered his take on the situation.

"I think there needs to be more communication probably between both sides, because I think if the communication was there it probably wouldn't have resulted in the way it resulted."

The House that Austin Built

So, back to Dennis's rallying cry: "They didn't build this big stadium for us to keep losing games."

Actually, they built it on a foundation started on former head coach Kent Austin's watch in 2007, the year Rider Nation was reborn.

Respectability had been restored somewhat under Danny Barrett and Roy Shivers, but it wasn't until 2005 when Jim Hopson was hired as the Riders' full-time president that things went to a new level.

Hopson in turn hired Eric Tillman who then hired Austin.

With Austin demanding excellence on and off the field, the Riders won the Grey Cup in 2007 and Rider pride exploded to the point where sellouts were common and the first suggestions of a new stadium were muttered.

Austin, who also quarterbacked the Riders to the 1989 Grey Cup Championship, holds a special seat in the hall of Rider royalty, but to tell him that, credit is quickly deflected.

"It's completely untrue," gushed an embarrassed Austin when it was suggested to him Friday in the halls of new Mosaic.

"I pitched in a quarter somewhere along the way, I was just one guy of hundreds."

When reminded he is only one of a handful of people to be honoured with a stadium-sized banner on the west side of old Mosaic, he continued to protest.

"They took that down right? They needed to take that down, put some one up there that's more valuable than me."

But you would be hard-pressed to come up with more than a few names of people who are.