TSN and SportsCage analyst Glen Suitor believes the Saskatchewan Roughriders made the right decision to hire CFL legend Andrew Harris to be the team's running back coach.
"The way he made it is, I think, ideal for a coach," Suitor explained on the SportsCage. "It wasn't that he was this tremendously gifted, six-foot-four, could run like the wind, jump out of the gym athlete. He came through junior football. He had to pay his dues."
Suitor thought Harris' determination from his playing career could translate to him being a professional coach.
"They wanted to switch his position. They wanted to make him a fullback. Finally, Wally Buono gave him a chance in Vancouver and he took full advantage of that opportunity. The numbers speak for themselves and his championships," Suitor said. "When you come from having to dig and work and do all the stuff just to get that opportunity, it really can assist you as a coach."
The Winnipeg, Manitoba native played 14 years in the CFL, split between three teams: the B.C Lions, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and the Toronto Argonauts. Overall, Harris rushed for 10,380 yards and scored 51 touchdowns in his career. He won the Grey Cup four times: once with the Lions in 2011, twice with the Bombers in 2019 and 2021, then once in 2022 with the Argos.
Harris earned the league's Most Outstanding Canadian award during the Grey Cup twice, once with the Lions in 2011 and then with the Bombers in 2019. The other award he won during the Grey Cup is Most Outstanding Player in 2019 with the Bombers. For three years, while with the Bombers, he led the league in rushing yards from 2017 to 2019.
Harris has experience in football management after being the director of football operations for the Vancouver Island Raiders in the Canadian Junior Football League. Suitor feels Ryan Phillips, currently the Lions defensive backs coach and passing coordinator, went from player to coach in the CFL, similar to the way Harris is doing it.
"I felt like Ryan Phillips was the same type of player," Suitor said. "He was a guy that whenever I would interview him or talk to him, I could see immediately that the cerebral part of the game was his focus. That would be the comparison, different position, different type of athlete, but made the transition nicely because he was that type of player."
Suitor shed some light on players looking to go into coaching and broadcasting.
"I tell them that you have to learn a new beast -- it's a new job. Because you know the game doesn't mean you're going to be a good analyst or good in TV or good in radio. You have to learn the job, learn what's necessary and then when you do that, you apply what you know about the game to enhance it for the viewers," Suitor explained.
"From a player to a coach is very similar. You know the game, but now how do you communicate the game so that they can become better players? Because your records don't matter. When you're coaching, you have to go in there and earn the respect of the guys you're coaching, especially when they're adults at the pro level. Then, you have to see how I can help each of these individuals who learn differently. Teachers will tell you about this, that they learn differently. You have to figure out how to communicate with each one of them and that's the challenge. I think Andrew is so well suited for it, this is going to be a real smooth transition for him."
