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The three-time Grey Cup winner has the West's best team rolling in the 2025 CFL campaign heading into Saturday's showdown at McMahon Stadium.
Published Aug 22, 2025 • Last updated 5 minutes ago • 4 minute read
Corey Mace
Saskatchewan Roughriders head coach Corey Mace says his 10-year plus years with the Calgary Stampeders as a player and then a coach “was a special time.” Photo by KAYLE NEIS /Postmedia
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Corey Mace can thank Calgary for the smile on his face these days.
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Both on and off the football field.
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And for his first-place club in the Canadian Football League.
After all, his time here changed the life of the now-Saskatchewan Roughriders head coach.
Mace wasn’t simply a star defensive tackle for the Calgary Stampeders, as he totalled 44 tackles, four sacks and two touchdowns in 40 games played in the Canadian Football League.
He found family here, too.
“It was a special time,” said Mace, of his 10-plus years in Calgary, where his Roughriders (8-1) ready themselves to play the Stampeders (6-3) on Saturday at McMahon Stadium (5 p.m., TSN, CHQR 770 AM/107.3 FM the Edge).
“The city means a great deal to me,” continued the native of Port Moody, B.C. “I met my wife there. My daughter was born there. My in-laws all still live there. And I had a cool career and a lot of lifelong friends there.”
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Just as Mace will always mean something to the city.
He was a solid contributor to the Stampeders’ defence from 2010-15, especially in helping the team hoist the 2014 Grey Cup — the same season he was named the team’s Presidents’ Ring winner for his performance on and off the field.
When his playing days were done suddenly, he jumped straight into a coaching role for the club in 2016, staying with the team through 2021 as the Stamps’ defensive line coach under sideline boss Dave Dickenson. His success as a gridiron teacher included winning the Grey Cup again with the Red and White in 2018.
And all through his days, his annual quarterbacking of the team’s turkey drive for local food banks every December helped make Mace a bona fide star of the community.
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It was only his pursuit to become a head coach that ended his days in the Stampede City, as he left to take on the task of defensive coordinator with the Toronto Argonauts, with whom he won his third CFL title in 2022.
Dave Dickenson
Calgary Stampeders head coach Dave Dickenson is pictured during practice at McMahon Stadium on Friday, Aug. 22, 2025. Photo by Brent Calver /Postmedia
“Certainly, I think Calgary will always mean something to our family,” said Mace, who is flanked in life by wife Petra and kids Maleena, 7, and Micah, 3. “So I’m just excited to go back and just say, ‘Hello’ to everybody.
“But when you go to Calgary as a road opponent, it doesn’t quite feel the same. And that’s good — we don’t want it to.”
Indeed, there’s business at hand in trying to keep the winning times rolling for the Riders and evening up the season-series with his former boss.
It’s Dickenson 1, Mace 0 so far in 2025, after the Stamps rode off from Regina with a convincing 24-10 victory in Week 6.
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“We’re going to have to watch that tape again this week, and if that’s what it takes to motivate the guys to get it going …” Mace said. “When they go back and watch the (film) in what we identified as our worst game of the year … yeah … they’re going to have to see that over and over and over again.”
Over and over and over again have come the wins for Mace in what’s been his breakout year as head coach.
It’s only his second after taking up the challenge last year, when the Riders wrapped with a 9-8-1 record to finish second in the West Division. They then beat the BC Lions in the West semifinal before losing to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in the division final.
But this follow-up campaign has brought even more success, with the Riders making themselves front-runners for the Grey Cup.
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Give Mace big props for all that.
“I knew he’d be a good coach,” Dickenson said. “He’s doing a heck of a job. And they have a nice staff, and they have good players. They are certainly the top of the league right now.
“It’s not a surprise.”
Mace himself gives credit to the Stamps’ boss for helping him find his coaching wares.
“Huge impact,” added Mace, of Dickenson’s influence on his own coaching. “He wasn’t the head guy during my time as a player, but being a part of his inaugural staff and seeing how he wanted to build it from his vision …
“To be a part of that, I’m just super, super grateful for the opportunity that he afforded myself and my family.
“Certainly it’s nothing but respect for what he’s been able to do throughout his career, not only as a player, as a play-caller and — ultimately — a head coach. He’s been a winner for a long time, man.”
Vernon Adams Jr.
Calgary Stampeders quarterback Vernon Adams Jr. is pictured during practice on Friday. Photo by Brent Calver /Postmedia
SHORT YARDAGE
WR Damien Alford (hamstring) slots back into the lineup for the Stamps after missing a handful of games. But Adams is missing two major targets in WR Dominique Rhymes (quad) and WR Tevin Jones (illness) … Also in for the Stamps are WR Daylen Baldwin, WR Vyshonne Janusas, P Mark Vassett, DL Shaun Peterson Jr. and DB Ben Labrosse … Others out for the Red and White are RB Ludovick Choquette, P Fraser Masin, DL George Idoko and DL Anthony Federico.
tsaelhof@postmedia.com
http://www.x.com/ToddSaelhofPM
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