Mark Spector

Mark Spector is a columnist for sportsnet.ca

CALGARY -- Winnipeg gave the Canadian Football League Kenny Ploen.

Now, the province of Saskatchewan gives us Kenny Plain -- a.k.a. Ken Miller, the everyman head coach of the Saskatchewan Roughriders.

He is the Andy Griffith of football coaches. A guy who could be talking on the phone in one of those life insurance commercials, with his wife prattling in his ear. ("Dear? You mean they'll insure us? Even with all of our health issues...?")

If he weren't on the sidelines Miller would look like he just stepped off the bus from Watrous, Sask., with a game ticket in his pocket. Truly, he seems like one the nicest men you could ever hope to meet -- but you know what they say about nice guys and football games.

"It's amazing you say 'guy,'" said defensive back Lance Frazier. "Me and (linebacker) Sean Lucas were having a conversation this morning, and we were saying that Coach Miller has to be the 'Guy of the Year.' Not Coach of the Year, Guy of the Year.

"He's just so laid back. He sure is a players' coach."

This old football coach, at age 65, is a total departure from what the yell-and-shout world of professional football usually gives us. He's a coach who doesn't drive home the game plan to his players, but instead keeps teaching it until they learn it for themselves.

"I teach a little more theory and a little more about the 'Why?' part of it," he told the Edmonton Sun before leaving Regina. "It's very satisfying when you're a coach and somebody like our young quarterback Darian Durant, has what I call an 'Aha!' moment. An 'I get it now' moment.

"When they learn it on their own, they have ownership."

Remember that when you start hearing about how the Alouettes are going to shred these Riders by 25 points on Sunday. There is something special about this Saskatchewan club, and you don't have to be around it very long to sense it. It's the kind of thing that can overcome a lot of adversity in a Grey Cup game.

"He wants his players to discover things," said veteran DB Eddie Davis. "He's like a dad, teaching his son how to ride a bike for the first time. You can't hang on forever. Eventually you have to let go."

Maybe Miller learned his patience as a biology teacher back at Yucaipa high school in southern California from 1970-76. There isn't a current Rider who was born when Miller took that job.

Or maybe patience comes from a palette of oil paints, a grain elevator, and a Saskatchewan sky that stretches further than any city boy can imagine.

Miller, you see, is also a rather accomplished painter. He has sold some pieces for as much as $1,500 and part of the reason he loves Saskatchewan is because, for a landscape artist, Canada's bread basket is also this country's biggest canvas.

"You know, he takes his time with everything he tells us," Frazier said. "Not too much enthusiasm in his voice, but you can tell there is a message when he talks. Like painting a picture. There is a message inside every painting."

The difference, of course, is that a painter sets his own deadlines. Art isn't ready until the artist says it is.

The 97th Grey Cup game kicks off at 4:43 p.m. Calgary time this Sunday, however.

And it's fair to ask whether this old biology teacher can cram enough of his schemes into this Riders roster to beat an overwhelming favourite like Montreal?

"It takes time," said quarterback Darian Durant. "You start figuring out what he's looking for out of you, what he expects. Once you figure it out, well, here we are."

At the Grey Cup.

It should be noted, it came out during Wednesday's press conference that Miller is a survivor of prostate cancer. His response, when asked about a health scare a few years back before he came north to join the Toronto Argonauts staff, was simple.

"Shoot," he said, before taking some time to mull his answer. "At the time it was considered (experimental), proton-beam treatment. I was involved in treatment for eight weeks.

"I haven't had anything related to that for a number of years."

He has ambled on, with patience, and a smile on his face.

That's pretty much the way Kenny Plain does everything these days.