Smeltzer Is Finding Smooth Sailing as Rough Rider Coach : Pro football: Former Servite coach arrives in Ottawa as an unknown, then quietly begins the rejuvenation of faltering CFL team.

Flashback to February. The Ottawa Rough Riders hire Ron Smeltzer as coach.

The news didn’t exactly send shock waves through the Canadian Football League. Nor did it whip Rough Rider fans into a frenzy.

About the most positive statement made was a collective, “Ron Who?” The negative side, on the other hand, brought some rather blunt real estate advice.

“I did a speaking engagement after I got hired,” Smeltzer said. “This one guy, who was half in the bag, yelled out, ‘I wouldn’t buy a house if I were you.’ ”

One could hardly blame the fans.

After all, Ottawa has not had a winning season since 1979. The last time the Rough Riders won a Grey Cup--in 1976--a Democrat won the White House. To make matters worse, they have had seven coaches in the last eight seasons, two in 1991.

Into this mess stepped Smeltzer, a former coach at Servite High School and a journeyman CFL assistant who wasn’t even management’s first choice. He was asked to build a fire under a team that had been doused by negative surroundings and a general lack of confidence.

Nice way to begin your professional head coaching career, eh?

Now, skip to the present.

Ottawa already has upset Toronto, the defending Grey Cup champion, in the regular-season opener. The Rough Riders are 2-1 and tied with Winnipeg for first place in the Eastern Division.

“Ron Who?” has become, “Ron Wow!”

Smeltzer, who is shopping for a house in his spare time, has quietly done what no one thought possible--make the fans believe in the Rough Riders and the Rough Riders believe in themselves.

“Last season, I think some of the guys didn’t think we could win,” linebacker Brian Bonner said. “We’d be in a tight game, and we’d been wondering how we were going to blow it. Now we’re confident.”

So much so that a loss is looked upon as a failure, not an expected occurrence.

No one is talking Grey Cup yet. Week-to-week, sometimes day-to-day, is as far ahead as anyone wants to look.

But the change has been noticeable.

“Certainly the attitude is different,” said quarterback Tom Burgess, who is on his second go-round with the Rough Riders. “We’re relaxed and confident, from Ron on down. No one was worried how we were going to do. We knew we were good before the season started.”

And the credit, all say, belongs to Smeltzer, who preached a you-are-better-than-you-think gospel from Day 1.

“Yeah, he’s got a good poker face,” Bonner said.

Before, it was an unknown face, at least around Ottawa.

Smeltzer, 50, worked as an assistant on the college level before coming to Servite in 1979. He led the Friars to Southern Section Division I championships in 1982-83, then bolted to the CFL.

It was the quickest way to become a professional coach, but even Smeltzer has been surprised at the length of his stay. He spent the last seven seasons as an offensive line coach, first with British Columbia, then Calgary, then British Columbia again and last season with Edmonton.

Along the way he picked up the reputation of being a players’ coach, although few outside the teams he coached knew of him.

“I didn’t know who he was,” Bonner said. “But offensive line coaches don’t get too much attention. The first time I met him, he appeared to be the fatherly type--soft-spoken, easy-going, receding hairline and all. He didn’t seem like a hard coach.”

Smeltzer didn’t seem like any sort of coach to Rough Rider management at first. They didn’t even know he existed.

First-year General Manager Dan Rambo, a veteran CFL administrator, went looking for the right man to right the club. He found him, but it wasn’t Smeltzer.

Mike Riley, head coach of the San Antonio Riders of the World League of American Football, was offered the job. How bad was Ottawa? Riley chose to stay in the WLAF.

Rambo started taking applications, and Smeltzer made inquiries.

“I thought Ottawa was ready,” Smeltzer said. “I thought they had talent. They had the nucleus, it was just a matter of getting the right people and the right coaches in place.”

First, though, he had to get an interview.

“Ron approached and seemed to be a real quiet guy,” Rambo said. “He was so quiet that I didn’t think he’d be a good candidate for the job. But he was politely persistent.”

In the end, Smeltzer had the exact qualities Rambo was looking for.

“We didn’t want some old-fashioned coach,” Rambo said. “We didn’t need someone to come in and kick butt. We wanted someone who would be a positive reinforcer. We wanted someone with fresh ideas.”

Fresh idea No. 1 was weeding out undesirables.

Gone were defensive back Scott Flagel, offensive lineman Bryan Illerbrun and offensive lineman Gerald Roper. The three had often clashed with previous coaches, creating a divided locker room.

Others followed.

“He got rid of a few players, let’s say, who were not team oriented,” Burgess said. “That made it a better atmosphere.”

Said Rambo: “With Ron, you’re innocent until proven guilty, but he’s a no-nonsense guy.”

Fresh idea No. 2 was finding a quarterback.

Damon Allen, who played at Cal State Fullerton, signed with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. So the Rough Riders went after Burgess, who had played for the team in 1986 before stints with Saskatchewan and Winnipeg.

He was just what Smeltzer was looking for.

“Tom has won two Grey Cups,” Smeltzer said.

Fresh idea No. 3 was winning over the public.

Besides the losing, other coaches had all but ignored the public. Smeltzer attended booster club meetings, fielding questions that were not always kind, and even arranged for a coaching clinic at the local university.

“We had a real image problem,” Smeltzer said. “You couldn’t blame the fans. Losing left them frustrated. They were going, ‘Aw, we’ve heard this all before.’ ”

But the best move Smeltzer made was the move he didn’t make.

“The previous coaches had come in with these master plans, how they were going to turn everything around,” said Don Campbell, a sportswriter for the Ottawa Citizen. “Instead of acting like a genius, Ron just said he would do the best he can, but it was up to the players.”

Fresh idea No. 4 was a no-contact training camp.

Instead of banging heads, they crammed heads. It was a thinking-man’s camp.

“There was a lot more teaching and working on the finer points of the game,” Bonner said.

Smeltzer combined the low-key camp with a low-key personality.

“He doesn’t overreact,” Burgess said. “He won’t get in your face and start hollering. He treats us like men.”

The passive camp had the desired effect.

“By the time we got to the first game, we were hungry to hit someone,” Bonner said.

The Rough Riders beat British Columbia, 43-36, in the exhibition opener, making a goal-line stand on the last play to hold on for the victory. They then beat Winnipeg, 21-19.

But preseason was preseason. Many fans were not convinced.

Then came Toronto, a team the Rough Riders had not beaten in the previous 14 meetings.

“Everyone was really tense before that game,” Bonner said. “We were playing the Grey Cup champions, and there were some guys who were very uptight. Ron was walking around very calm, treating it like any other game. That was leadership.”

The Rough Riders won in overtime, 52-43, stunning even their own fans. They then beat Winnipeg the next week, then lost to Saskatchewan.

It may be early in the season, but considering the Rough Riders lost their first four games last season, and their coach in the process, it’s a giant step forward.

And now that the Rough Riders have learned to walk, Smeltzer wants to teach them to run.

“It’s been real exciting from the first day,” Smeltzer said. “I like it here. I like Canadian football. I like the situation. This could be my last move.”

Provided he can find the right house.