Q & A WITH RIDERS GM

Here's our weekly update from Rider GM Brendan Taman from Wednesday morning's media scrum at Mosaic Stadium:

Q. How important is it to have re-signed Mike McCullough?

TAMAN: Very. He's one of the most important Canadians we have on this team. He does a lot of things on and off the team that are huge to us. He would've been a guy we'd have a hard time replacing.

Q. Is he the most under-rated guy on the team or even in the CFL?

TAMAN: I'm a little biased but I'd probably agree with you. I think he is. He's very, very special in what he does and doesn't get a lot of recognition. Mike's smart and he's a great team guy. He understands the team concept and that's what makes this team so good. You've got guys like him that buy into that so those two attributes are pretty special.

Q. How's the search for a new head coach?

TAMAN: We're pretty much the first phase. Now we'll sit down and go to the next phase which is narrowing it down to two or three people and bring them back over the next period of time. The challenge right now is Christmas, which is a special time. We're right in line with where we thought we'd be. It's going to take a little bit yet. I don't want to put a date on it but likely (the New Year).

Q. How many did you interview?

TAMAN: I don't want to get into numbers. We interviewed a lot, obviously. We want to get it down to two or three and see where it goes. The shortlist will get done this afternoon.

Q. Do you have a favourite?

TAMAN: Kenny and I have two or three guys we really like. To narrow it down to 'the guy', that's the challenging part. We'll have to do another set of questions and see where it goes.

Q. Are George Cortez and/or Tom Higgins on the list?

TAMAN: Well George is employed in the NFL and there was a notion we were waiting for the NFL season but that isn't true. Tom has made his interest known and we'll see where it goes. Anybody who's inquired into the job is a person of interest. Whether they make it onto the shortlist, we'll see.

Q. Is Bob Wylie in the mix?

TAMAN: Bob has made his feelings known.

Q. What are the factors to get onto the shortlist?

TAMAN: There are a lot of things that go into that. We've done a pretty thorough job with that with the questions we've asked. The ability to lead a team and carry on what we have going here is the simplest way I can answer that. That's not easy to answer in one little form. A guy that's going to win and knows this organization are the keys.

Q. Has your list changed from when you started?

TAMAN: Yah a little bit. There were some guys we were interested in that we scratched off due to their lack of interest or it didn't work out for whatever reason. And there are guys who've surprised us who've gotten into the process more than we thought.

Q. Are you interested in Scott Milanovich?

TAMAN: I thought we offered him the job? Scott was here this week and we had a really good visit and whether he gets to the shortlist, we'll see.

Q. What about all the speculation on this hiring due to blogs and so forth?

TAMAN: I don't worry about that. If I did I'd go crazy. I just do my job with Kenny and we'll see where it goes. The innuendos and rumours, I don't get it into it.

Q. Is the list two or three?

TAMAN: We've got two and we might get it to three. We'll discuss that this afternoon.