Roughriders head coach Corey Chamblin: “Now we’ve won, I’m sure they’ll have a lot of sex.”

REGINA—The parties have already started all over this city following the hometown Roughriders' 45-23 victory over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats Sunday, and both the team's avid fans and its players are planning to partake. While it's been a crazy week of parties in Regina, things have been rather buttoned-down for the Riders this week, as their coaches have tried to keep them focused on the game. Saskatchewan head coach Corey Chamblin said that's all over now, though, and he even referenced his response to the traditional sex question from earlier in the week.

"Now we've won, I'm sure they'll have a lot of sex," Chamblin said with a laugh in a press conference after the game.

Chamblin can afford to laugh now, and he's certainly laughing last. It was a long week of media focusing on Hamilton head coach Kent Austin and his return to a city where he won Grey Cups as both a head coach and as a quarterback, and that may have left Chamblin feeling a little undervalued despite his own remarkable accomplishments. After all, there's even a poster of Austin on the side of Mosaic Stadium. On Sunday, though, it was Austin who was excluded from the fun, stuck answering questions about his team's poor execution after the loss. Meanwhile, Chamblin proved victorious, becoming just the second African-American head coach to win a Grey Cup and doing so in just his second season as a CFL head coach (and his second season with the Riders). He said it wasn't all about him, though, and a lot of the win came from the raucous Rider fans who helped make life miserable for the Tiger-Cats offence all night. Chamblin said it's nice to be on the green side, as he remembered Saskatchewan fans making things challenging for the other teams he coached with in Winnipeg, Calgary and Hamilton.

"I've been on the other side of the green team doing that so many times," he said. "When I was in Calgary we'd see that and say 'Aw, hell, here they go again."

The Riders almost didn't get here, as despite a hot start, they went through a prolonged midseason four-game losing skid that coincided with the absence of eventual Grey Cup MOP Kory Sheets due to injuries. They also suffered several other bad injuries and a few other slumps here and there. Chamblin said he felt those experiences proved to be positive overall for the team, though.

"All those situations came and they broke us, but not in a negative way," he said. "Sometimes you break so you can renew yourself."

Saskatchewan also almost fell to the B.C. Lions in the first round of the playoffs, waiting until the dying moments to take charge in a 29-25 West semifinal win. Chamblin said he felt that close call was instrumental to propelling the Riders to a new level of play, allowing them easier wins over Calgary and Hamilton.

"B.C. shook it up, and I think from that point we turned it up," he said.

He said the Riders' bonds as a team allowed them to overcome the adversity they faced.

"We knew if we played together and stayed together, a lot of positive things would happen."