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<\/p>\nMace said there were many people who helped him reach this point in his coaching career.<\/p>\n
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\u201cIronically, there\u2019s going to be a lot of people in that room that are a part of it as well. I can go all the way back to some coaches from my youth playing days that were instrumental for me to get to this point,\u201d Mace said. \u201cThere are just so many people that are a part of that journey, so I\u2019m grateful.\u201d<\/p>\n
Riders general manager Jeremy O\u2019Day said what makes Mace special is his ability to relate to the players.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhether you\u2019re a player from a farm in Alberta or from Los Angeles, he has the ability to communicate with all of our players,\u201d O\u2019Day said.<\/p>\n
\u201cVery motivational. He understands our players very well. He has been in a locker room before, but he has a good feel for what the players are going through. He cares about them. I think that\u2019s the biggest thing. When you go into games, you feel like the players want to play for him as well as each other. That kind of makes all the difference.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mace also brings a lot of positive energy to the team, O\u2019Day added.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s fun to be around. He\u2019s a fun guy and he\u2019s fun to work with. He works hard, and it\u2019s not surprising that he\u2019s been successful,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
In 2025, Mace guided the Riders to a 12-6 record and first place in the CFL for just the fifth time in the team\u2019s history. He has a 21-14-1 regular-season record as a head coach since he took over the job in 2024.<\/p>\n
The culture he has built in the locker room in his first seasons as the head coach has paid major dividends. This past season, the CFL club lead the league in fewest points allowed (346), fewest rushing yards allowed (76.0 per game), fewest yards per opposing rushing attempt (4.6), average time of possession (31:47) and average yards per kickoff return (24.9).<\/p>\n
After winning the CFL West Final over the B.C. Lions, the Riders went on to win the Grey Cup 25-17 over the Alouettes, marking the fifth time championship win in the team\u2019s history.<\/p>\n
Mace has been the West Division nominee for the award in each of his first two seasons as a CFL head coach, losing out to Maas in last year\u2019s voting.<\/p>\n
The Riders also won the league\u2019s inaugural Ted Goveia Football Operations Award. Named in honour of the long-time CFL executive who died last September, the award recognizes a CFL club\u2019s football operations department for outstanding achievements in scouting, player identification, roster building and leadership.<\/p>\n
The Riders\u2019 football operations staff, led by O\u2019Day, featured contributions from a lot of people as the team put together the roster for last season.<\/p>\n
Other major contributors to the football operations department include assistant general manager and director of player personnel Kyle Carson, assistant general manager Paul Jones, director of football operations Jordan Greenly and assistant director of player personnel Larry Dean.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s cool to be in the same building year-round, because you see it hands-on \u2013 the communication, the hours these guys put in, the amount of film they watch, the understanding of what it is for certain positions that coaches like or feel like can fit the system, on top of just saying, \u2018Hey, we think you can turn this guy into somebody,\u2019\u201d Mace said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been in a few organizations throughout my coaching career, and it\u2019s not a secret why I think the football ops are up for an award. They are excellent.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 2025 Roughrider squad led the league with nine All-CFL honourees: Jacob Brammer, Tevaughn Campbell, Logan Ferland, Jermarcus Hardrick, KeeSean Johnson, Micah Johnson, Rolan Milligan Jr., C.J. Reavis and Jameer Thurman.<\/p>\n
The other nominees for the award were the Calgary Stampeders and Hamilton Tiger-Cats.<\/p>\n
by Britton Gray, CKOM News Staff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mace said there were many people who helped him reach this point in his coaching career. \u201cIronically, there\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":563854,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":["post-563853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cfl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canadian-football-league","tag-canadianfootballleague","tag-cfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=563853"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563853\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/563854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=563853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=563853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=563853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}