Darrell Davis
Saskatoon StarPhoenix
Former head coach Ken Miller, who led the Saskatchewan Roughriders to consecutive Grey Cup appearances in 2009-10, has died from cancer at 82 in Asheville, N.C.
The CFL team confirmed Miller’s death Wednesday on its website.
Miller joined the Roughriders in 2007 as their offensive co-ordinator. Working with first-year head coach Kent Austin, who had won a Grey Cup as Saskatchewan’s quarterback in 1989, they constructed an offence that helped quarterback Kerry Joseph become the CFL’s outstanding player, posted a 12-6 regular-season record and defeated the Winnipeg Blue Bombers 23-19 in the 95th Grey Cup. It was the third championship in Roughriders history.
When Austin surprisingly left Saskatchewan after 2007 to become an assistant college coach at Ole Miss, Roughriders general manager Eric Tillman gave 66-year-old Miller his first professional head coaching job. Miller had been a teacher and coach at numerous U.S. schools before coming to the CFL’s Toronto Argonauts in 2002.
Without Joseph, who Tillman had traded away, the Roughriders went 12-6 again in 2008 but couldn’t settle on a starting quarterback before faltering in the playoffs.
After Miller anointed Darian Durant as the starter, the Roughriders posted a 10-7-1 mark in 2009 and had evidently won the Grey Cup when the Montreal Alouettes missed a last-play field goal. But the Roughriders were penalized for having a “13th Man” on the field, allowing the Alouettes to successfully kick the game-winning points.
Miller swore his players to secrecy about the identity of the player responsible for the too-many-men penalty. He also hugged every player afterwards in the mournful locker room.
The Roughriders returned to the championship game in 2010 and again lost to the Alouettes.
A popular coach who always greeted his players by saying, “Good morning, men,” Miller was considered a grandfather figure to the team and — along with his wife, Maureen — were well-liked throughout Saskatchewan for their interest in the community.
Miller became the vice-president of football operations after Tillman departed and hired former defensive co-ordinator Greg Marshall as head coach in 2011. After the Roughriders started the season 1-7, Miller returned to the sideline and led the team to three straight victories before missing the playoffs and retiring from the Roughriders with a coaching record of 36-27-1, the fifth-most victories in team history.
He was a 2022 inductee into the Roughriders Plaza of Honour.
