In the land of endless optimism ... the cold reality that the season is over!

Living on the prairies means having a lot of faith, enduring cold long winters, watching the skies through wet springs that can destroy any hope of a bounty from the crops. Saskatchewan is a province based on resource industries that live on the edge of a global market and its whims, so having a lot of faith is something that gets you through the day.

When it comes to Saskatchewan's favourite football team, keeping the faith has long been a mantra of  many a disappointing off season, with occasional bursts of greatness and a Grey Cup to carry the faithful on to next year.

So, with Friday night's loss to Hamilton extinguishing all hopes for 2015 (as long shot a prospect as that may have seemed) the RiderNation can now make the most of the rest of the CFL season to study the competition and see what they're doing right and how to shift some of the Rider way towards those directions.

2015 has been a pretty horrible year for fans in Green (unless you have a dash of Gold to go with your uniforms) it started with the loss of Starting quarterback Darian Durant and then the always dependable Kevin Glenn and just keep rolling on, one horrid game after another, some offering glimpses of possibility, a close match up here and there where a break, or a play going in the way of the Green, may have changed the entire season.

As  for the other games well, lets not talk about those, best to banish the memories.

For the Riders management group this year will be costly in many ways, they are on the hook for the departure buyouts of former GM Brendan Taman and Head Coach Cory Chamblin, the sales of Rider merchandise a CFL cash cow if ever there was one will surely dip as the Riders fade from our views this Thanksgiving.

And with rumblings from the devoted fan base of the need for some change, season ticket renewals may take a little longer into the winter and spring, depending on what off season moves are made in Riderland.

In Saskatchewan the final notice for their playoff hopes came on Friday night, but in reality the knowledgeable fans that fill Mosaic week in and week out, probably had a feeling that this year was lost by the time the Saskatchewan Day August long weekend had rolled around.

Now the real work will get underway, making the tough decisions required to put things back on track for 2016, whether that means further change in the Administrative and coaching ranks to changing personnel.

Whether its changing the name tag on Head Coach  Bob Dyce from interim to permanent, or a complete recalculation of the Riders roster, whoever is making the final decisions for the season to come is going to have a very busy and challenging off season.

Some final observations on a year lost can be found below:

Roughriders bow out of playoff chase
Roughriders slim playoff hopes dashed
Dismal defeats may ultimately help Roughriders
Riders eliminated from playoffs after loss to Hamilton