Darrell Davis: Chamblin’s ready for second chance

Corey Chamblin said he learned a lot while coaching the Saskatchewan Roughriders. That’s what he told Jamie Nye in a Green Zone interview shortly after being presented as the 44th head coach of the Toronto Argonauts.

For Toronto’s sake, let’s hope Chamblin now knows Tino Sunseri can’t play quarterback in the CFL. And perhaps Chamblin learned to be the approachable, humble, inquisitive person he was when he joined the Roughriders in 2012, instead of the stubborn, insecure and arrogant boss he became after leading his team to the biggest moment in franchise history — a home-town Grey Cup victory in 2013.

Numerous Roughriders employees insist Chamblin changed after that victory. It showed particularly in his inability to accept criticism, his disdain for being challenged by assistant coaches George Cortez or Richie Hall. Chamblin had dispatched both coaches by 2015 when the Roughriders were again without injured quarterback Darian Durant and instead struggled mightily at football’s most important position, where Sunseri wasn’t the answer.

Chamblin spent 2017 with the Argonauts, winning a Grey Cup as their defensive coordinator, and after a one-year hiatus has rejoined the team as a smarter head coach.