Every Monday afternoon on the SportsCage, join Barney Shynkaruk and members from the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ coaching staff with a breakdown of game match-ups and the very latest from inside the Riders’ locker room.
On July 15, receivers coach Marquay McDaniel was our guest on the Riders Coaches Show.
Barney Shynkaruk:
Coach McDaniel, thanks for taking some time on Monday. I know you guys are in meetings; it's a busy day. First off, the smoke delay and what we went through—your football career—have you ever experienced anything quite like that?
McDaniel:
Never like that.
There was one year, I want to say it was maybe 2015 or 16, and it was like two or three games. We went out for warm-ups, bright and sunny. Then you go back in, and it's just crazy hailstorms in Calgary. That was only maybe 30 minutes to an hour, but nothing like Friday night.
Shynkaruk:
We had a delay in the preseason, but we were hoping to play, but it just didn't work out. Yeah, I think a lot of people were shocked, and the joke around was, hey, we're going to see midnight football. This is actually going to be pretty cool.
Going back to when you were a player, you were a player, and now you're watching the players and coaching. What would have been the most difficult thing if it would have went Friday night, do you think? When I was talking to Wes Cates earlier, a guy close to 40 is a lot different than a guy close to 20 who has to warm up and all that jazz, right? Right.
McDaniel:
I would say that because you're eating everything before the game, I don't know how much food you have as a backup.
Making sure I got enough food to play a three-hour game would probably be the hardest thing for me, but just the time difference, right? I usually go to bed around 11 at the latest, maybe as a player. So now you are in the first quarter at 11 o'clock. So I think that would be the hardest, but finding that fuel for the whole game would probably be tough.
Shynkaruk:
Joe Robustelli had a bit of a coming-out party and had a heck of a game. You know, Harris found them. Obviously, we've been talking about that a lot. What has he worked on with you and the team to get this opportunity where he is now?
McDaniel:
Yeah, well, last year, I don't know if you remember him, but he came in probably three games before our second preseason game. So we threw him out there. He had a big, uh, big catch, uh, in his first preseason game last year, but you could see it in practice.
, guys know, and we preach all the time, you know, he was on a practice squad last year, played at the end of the year, but hey, we preach, you gotta, gotta be ready when your numbers called. And, you know, he put in a lot of work last year in the off-season. And, uh, he came back hungry this year. You know, he'd been waiting for his opportunity, and he's been playing well and taking advantage, and it was good.
We finally took advantage of his speed. Cause that's, you know, where his game, you know, that's his game. His game is down the field.
He can make catches with his hands and track the ball. Well, you know, you got a chance to, but I mean, he's fast, fast, like he can run. Yeah.
Ryan Pollock:
Building off that, Marquay. If you had told me a month ago that we'd be sitting here, uh, talking about your receivers group, I'd be asking you about Shawn Bane Jr. and Sam Emilius and Kian Schaeffer-Baker, but none of those guys have been available to you. Maybe talk about the depth of this group and the work they've been putting into staying as a competitive bunch.
McDaniel:
Yeah. Top to bottom, even last year. I mean, a talented group.
I tell this guy, I tell these guys all the time, you know, top to bottom, probably one of the most talented groups I've been around, probably more talented than ones I've been a part of. Especially when you've got guys like Kian Schaeffer-Baker and Sam, you're endless Canadians, but I mean, they're, they're, they're to me, some of the top guys in the league, not just because they played it. Cause what I see them do, right.
Sam started off hot and got hurt, but you see the guys—you just see the depth we have, right? Two guys go down to the starters. And then we put guys in there and don't miss a beat. And we had what played five games and led in receiver four out of those five games, right? Different guys.
So, guys are ready. They know the offence and take advantage of the opportunity, which is just something we preach. Ever since we got here, since last year, you know, it's pro football, guys are going to go down, and they've got to be ready to go and take advantage of that opportunity. No, no, go ahead.
Shynkaruk:
I was just going to say, you touched on those Canadians. I wanted to ask you about Mitch Picton. You know, he's a guy that's come on, you know, took, took a little bit of time as a younger guy, like many guys do to, to establish himself, but he's come on as a, , Swiss army knife type player for you, a guy that feels like you can move around the field a little bit.
McDaniel:
He's a reliable guy, and he's become a strong asset, especially filling a Canadian role there. He's established himself as a reliable receiver. Yeah, definitely. Mitch is just smart, right? He knows every spot in the offence.
Like I said, it's something we preach, but you know, he actually knows every spot and doesn't need reps and practice to move to a different spot. That's what makes him, you know, so, so good for us. The guy goes down here, and he can plug him in.
He knows what he's doing, right? He's going to catch everything you saw in the Toronto game. The ball goes up, and he makes tough catches. Right?
So Mitch has just been solid for us, knows everything. And, like I said, it has been really good for us when someone goes down. Now you've had a chance to watch some tape.
Pollock:
I'm sure it's, uh, it's been a couple of days. What, what did the stamps do well against you? What did they take away?
McDaniel:
I think they just came out with more energy than us all the way around. In the first half, uh, the first play, we get a turnover from the defence, and then, you know, we don't, we miss a block on the offensive.
It was one of those games where something happened on every play, but I thought we fought hard in the second half. We actually moved the ball.
We couldn't capitalize in a green zone like we wanted, but 400 yards is something to build on, but we know, we gotta be sharper, you know, on the details. And like I said, you gotta come out ready to play so that you can see that on tape. They came out ready to play this game.
And I thought we were kind of slow starting. And by the time we picked it up in the second half, you know, they made some plays in the second half too, and just never let that lead go.
Shynkaruk:
Can you give the listeners a sense of what you would be coaching as the receiver coach in a game like that, where the offence is kind of sputtering a bit, trying to grind it out? What would you be coaching on the sideline? I'm sure you're talking with Mueller. You're talking with your guys.
McDaniel:
Give us a sense. It was just taking care of the details.
Really. That's what it comes down to. Like I said, it's one of those games where somebody is in every place.
So you just don't want it to be that guy who says, "Okay, this play didn't work." Because I didn't do my job, I didn't get to my guy.
Like, so that's what it was, early. We didn't get up to where we were supposed to get to. Now we're in second and long, right? So now they can just sit back, make us throw short, and come tackle.
Now we're two and out, right? So take care of your job on the first down. Let's get some positive yards on the first down. So now we're in second, medium, second, and short, and the playbooks are wide open.
So just do your job, take care of your job. And you know, the physical aspect—we were there—but just take care of your job every play, and don't be like, "Oh, my bad."
Shynkaruk:
Riders receiver coach Marquai McDaniel is joining us on the coaches' show. You played a long time in the league as well.
You're protecting the ball after a catch, right? I'm always, it's something where you get the decree. The guys are trying to get extra yards. They're trying to make things happen.
How do you coach that? And then what do you say?
McDaniel:
You just have to be smart. To me, as a coach and as a player, you never want to turn back into the defence, right? Like, yeah, I'm gonna pick one guy and try to run him over at the worst and, you know, have good ball security, have the ball in my outside arm. So if he does make a good play, at least the ball goes out of bounds, but covered up with two hands, try to pick one.
But you know, we had two fumbles this year, turning back into the defence and getting hit by multiple guys. So, they see it, and it's weird because we didn't do it at all last year. So, hey, it's like, don't try to do too much.
You already got the first down. We're already in good field position. Hey, second in one, we bring in Tommy.
We'll probably get the first down anyway, so just pick a guy and go forward. And now we still have the ball. We're already in good field position. Even if the drive stumbles, " Hey, we'll kick it. We'll pin them down and let's get on the field."
Yeah. Tough, tough balance, guys are competitors trying to fight for that extra yard. And in their mind, they're convinced that if I can break one tackle, maybe I break free, but it's a tough balance and act.
Pollock:
Looking ahead, there's another big game this week. Like they all are in the CFL, there's no weeks off, but, uh, you know, looking ahead, how much time do you spend looking back to Friday night or Saturday afternoon's game before just turning the page and getting set for what's another strong opponent?
McDaniel:
Yeah. After any game, win or loss, you go over corrections, you go over the film with the players, and it's onto the next scene. So, I hope I see that hunger emerge more in practice. We've been practicing pretty well, but teams might get comfortable at four, so I think we got a good wake-up call: You've got to come to play every week.
And we know in the West or the CFL in general, records don't even matter. It could have been two and three, one in five, whatever they're going to come to play. You gotta be able to, you gotta come to play in the CFL.
So, I want to see how this team responds to a little adversity and just see, Hey, we gotta go in play one. We gotta be ready to go and kind of hopefully let that play out through the whole game. Because BC is hot, right? They're coming off two wins, you know, and they're feeling good.
They're going back home, a tough, tough place to play in, where we're hearing, you know, they're getting a nice little crowd in there. And that's what you want, especially at West matchup, uh, someone else's house coming off a loss. All right, let's see what we're made of.
Shynkaruk:
We've got to give a shout-out to D’Sean Mimbs' first catch.
McDaniel:
It was a big catch right on third down. As a coach, seeing a young guy get that was obviously special. That first one, especially, yeah, for sure.
You know, he was a guy that came in last year, and you can see he has some talent that we, you know, sent him back to school, and then coming back this year, you can see that confidence. And I could see that, you know, he didn't feel out of place or he felt like he belonged in a CFL, which was good to see. He's also another smart guy on our roster who knows multiple spots.
So, to see him get in there—uh, no, he's been waiting to get in there—but to actually get in the game and make a catch, especially your first one, big first down that we needed, was big for him confidence-wise. And, but, but he'll be fine. He's a worker.
He's smart and young, but he'll be fine for us before we let you go.
Shynkaruk:
Can you give us any update on some of the injuries this weekend, day into BC, on the receiver and the receivers, or can't give us much?
McDaniel:
I can't give you too much. But, like I said, for our group, who is in there, the expectation is that we're ready to go. We're confident we can get a job done with whoever's in there, so we'll see how it plays out.
Shynkaruk:
You're doing an awesome job. As you said, man, what a group—there are a lot of Canadians there, and it's pretty cool to see.
