Kent Austin Richard Kent Austin ( born June 25 , 1963 in Natick , Massachusetts ) is the current head coach and general manager of the Hamilton Tiger - Cats football team . He was previously the head coach at Cornell University and offensive coordinator at Ole Miss . He was also the former head coach of the Canadian Football League ' s Saskatchewan Roughriders after serving as offensive coordinator for the Toronto Argonauts and quarterbacks coach for the Ottawa Renegades . College career . Austin is a former starting quarterback himself . Following high school at Brentwood Academy , he went to the University of Mississippi and played quarterback in the early 1980s . He ranks third in passing yards in the Ole Miss records , behind Eli Manning and Romaro Miller . Austin was an Academic All - American in each of his four college seasons and is a member of the University of Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame . Professional career . After college , Austin was selected in the 12th round ( 312th overall ) of the 1986 NFL Draft by the St . Louis Cardinals . He played two seasons in the NFL as the team ' s third - string quarterback , attempting a single pass . In 1988 , the Cardinals chose not to resign Austin , and he instead jumped to the CFL and joined the Roughriders , initially as their back - up quarterback . On November 26 , 1989 in Toronto , Austin was at the helm of the Roughriders when they won the 1989 Grey Cup versus the Hamilton Tiger - Cats , winning the MVP trophy for his 474 yards passing in the game . One of the Top 10 quarterbacks in CFL history , with 36 , 030 career passing yards on 4 , 700 pass attempts , having completed 2709 passes ( 57 . 6 % ) , Austin is a Roughriders legend for leading the team to its second league championship ( Grey Cup ) . He also threw 198 touchdown passes and 191 interceptions in his 10 CFL seasons with 4 teams . Austin started at quarterback for the Roughriders , British Columbia Lions , and Toronto Argonauts ( the second Ole Miss star to play quarterback for Toronto , the first being Eagle Day in 1967 ) , as well as serving as a backup for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers . He is one of only four CFL quarterbacks to pass for more than 6 , 000 yards in a single season ( 6 , 225 in 1992 with Saskatchewan ) . Austin won his second Grey Cup in 1994 with the British Columbia Lions , starting the 82nd Grey Cup but being replaced at halftime by Danny McManus due to an injury . McManus would lead the Lions to a win on a last - second field goal . In the Columbo episode " A Bird in the Hand . . . " ( air date November 22 , 1992 ) , footage from a Saskatchewan Roughriders versus Edmonton Eskimos game was used to portray a fictional game played by a football team called " The Stallions " . As the footage showed Kent Austin playing and wearing the No . 5 jersey , the actor playing the quarterback wore a jersey bearing that number throughout the television episode . When a scene required seeing the quarterback in play , they used footage of Kent Austin . Coaching career . In 2003 , Austin entered coaching as the quarterbacks coach of the Ottawa Renegades . The following year he was hired as Toronto offensive coordinator , helping lead the team to an offensive surge that allowed the franchise to win the 2004 CFL championship . He was fired in the 2006 season , largely in part to failing to properly utilize RB Ricky Williams . He was later hired as Roughriders head coach for the 2007 season . On November 25 , 2007 , Kent Austin coached the Saskatchewan Roughriders to the 95th Grey Cup Championship beating the Winnipeg Blue Bombers 23 – 19 . In doing so , Austin became the first head coach to win a professional football championship for the same team with which he won the championship as a quarterback . Interestingly , he did it in his first year as head coach , and at exactly the same stadium where he won the cup as a player , 18 years earlier . His performance as head coach won him the 2007 CFL season Annis Stukus Trophy as coach of the year . On January 16 , 2008 , Austin accepted the job as Offensive coordinator at the University of Mississippi , his alma mater , to serve under head coach Houston Nutt . In 2008 Kent ’ s offense ranked 28th nationally scoring 32 points a game up from 20 points a game in 2007 . On January 26 , 2010 Austin accepted the head coaching job at Cornell University replacing Jim Knowles who left Cornell to become the defensive coordinator for David Cutcliffe at Duke University . On December 17 , 2012 Austin signed as the head coach and GM of The Hamilton Tiger - Cats of The Canadian Football League . Family . Kent Austin ' s wife is named Shelley ; his oldest daughter Kendall , their middle daughter Kassidy , and their youngest son Wesley .