CFL Coaches -- Buh Buh ... Benny and the Cats

[WestCoastJoe]

On those gutsy trick plays by Edmonton I quizzed my good Esky-fan buddy Great White North about Edmonto using so many in Week 1. They kind of blew their wad on them. Coaches usually will ration them a bit over a few games as opposed to opening up so much of their bag of tricks so soon. I even wondered about a couple of their punt coverage "gaffes". IIRC twice on Lion punts the Esks didn't have a returner. Was it that somebody screwed up? Or were they deliberately rushing 12 knowing the only Lion who could get the punt was. Schmitt? It's a field position gamble but if you don't get the block all you have to do is make sure 1 of your 12 gets the ball before Schmitt does. If it was the latter then that was 4 pieces of skulduggery on special teams.

Gotta give them credit on the fake FG and onside kick. Both were executed to perfection. The onside kick was so purrfect that had been a yard shorter it wouldn't have made 10 and if it was a foot higher I doubt Watkins would've been able to drag his toenails like he did to haul it in inbounds.

All true.

Of course it is a gamble. And it clearly shows the willingness to go all in. A failed onside kickoff loses yardage, and possession, but not necessarily a score. But it seems to me early in the season is a good time to see if your team has the mettle to pull it off. I have heard Chris Jones greatly admires Don Matthews, as do so many of us. And of course Matthews used an onside kick in one of his first games. A failure I think, but it showed he was willing to go all in.

It is kind of in your face. Comin' at ya.

[Blitz]

Just listening to Benny's review of the Als loss and what is needed this upcoming week against the Riders. Basically Benny laid the responsibility solely on the players saying his players gotta make plays.

What he didn't say was that it is a coaching responsibility to create the best scenarios for players to 'make plays'.

[notahomer]

Just listening to Benny's review of the Als loss and what is needed this upcoming week against the Riders. Basically Benny laid the responsibility solely on the players saying his players gotta make plays.

What he didn't say was that it is a coaching responsibility to create the best scenarios for players to 'make plays'.

Good point.

My brother went to the Esks game and he was completely fooled by the fakeFG (as was the Lions specials). Getting ready and adjusting are the players/coaches jobs.....

[TheLionKing]

Just listening to Benny's review of the Als loss and what is needed this upcoming week against the Riders. Basically Benny laid the responsibility solely on the players saying his players gotta make plays.

What he didn't say was that it is a coaching responsibility to create the best scenarios for players to 'make plays'.

It's always on the players, never ever on the coaches.

[DanoT]

Just listening to Benny's review of the Als loss and what is needed this upcoming week against the Riders. Basically Benny laid the responsibility solely on the players saying his players gotta make plays.

What he didn't say was that it is a coaching responsibility to create the best scenarios for players to 'make plays'.

It's always on the players, never ever on the coaches. [/quote]

I disagree with this statement and I'm betting so does Chapdelaine and Stubler.

[WestCoastJoe]

I always liked Joe Pao Pao, first as a player. Later, as a coach, with a very human touch, with much care for his players.

I wondered about his hiring as our receivers coach. As i see it now, he provides Xs and Os support for our inexperienced OC, something Khari can't really get from Benny or Wally.

Pass protection? That brings in our O Line coach, Dan Dorazio. With the O Line the team needs to draft well. Develop Canadian talent. Develop schemes. Motivate. Coach to high performance. With the internationals, we need to recruit well. Evaluate well at Camp. Integrate into CFL football. Are we getting all that done at a high level? Year after year? With continuity, and gradual integration of young talent?

And then rhere is the run game. Another great set of demands. Skills. Schemes. Game plans. We have had our very good stretches. And we have had horrific dry spells.

Top teams have top coaches, and the results show it.

Teams like Calgary and Hamilton have at least two Xs and Os experts on O. Hufnagel and Dickenson in Calgary. Austin and Condell in Hamilton. Toronto has Milanovich and Brady. And the O Line coach serves the needs of the offence, subordinate to the OC. Not sure it works that way in B.C.

[MexicoLionFan]

I always liked Joe Pao Pao, first as a player. Later, as a coach, with a very human touch, with much care for his players.

I wondered about his hiring as our receivers coach. As i see it now, he provides Xs and Os support for our inexperienced OC, something Khari can't really get from Benny or Wally.

Pass protection? That brings in our O Line coach, Dan Dorazio. With the O Line the team needs to draft well. Develop Canadian talent. Develop schemes. Motivate. Coach to high performance. With the internationals, we need to recruit well. Evaluate well at Camp. Integrate into CFL football. Are we getting all that done at a high level? Year after year? With continuity, and gradual integration of young talent?

And then rhere is the run game. Another great set of demands. Skills. Schemes. Game plans. We have had our very good stretches. And we have had horrific dry spells.

Top teams have top coaches, and the results show it.

Teams like Calgary and Hamilton have at least two Xs and Os experts on O. Hufnagel and Dickenson in Calgary. Austin and Condell in Hamilton. Toronto has Milanovich and Brady. And the O Line coach serves the needs of the offence, subordinate to the OC. Not sure it works that way in B.C.

Again Joe, you were the first to talk about this scenario this season...with the offence is it TOO MANY COOKS IN THE KITCHEN???

How is Joe Pao Pao supposed to help at all with X's and O's when Dorazio's OLine seemingly makes it impossible to open a hole or protect the QB...nothing changed last year until Dorazio was FORCED to change his blocking schemes to the power run game...everyone knows how well it worked...so to open this season, not a sign of it...is that on Khari? Is that on Pao Pao? I posted in the off season that whomever the Lions hired as the OC needed to be given FULL CONTROL over the offence, and clearly that didn't happen...and until the Lions do something about Dorazio, this mess won't clear up...

For Benny to go on the radio and lay the first 2 losses on the players is unbelievable, even for Benny's standards. And then to insinuate that the losses of Iannuzzi and Arceneaux have really hurt the offence is beyond belief...this has all the signs of a disastrous season, and we will see what things are like in Lions Land after an 0-3 start...

[DanoT]

Didn't Coach Benny in Monday's radio show refer to Dorazio as the greatest position coach in football or something like that which is a typical MB over the top statement.

[TheLionKing]

In addition to being a great sideline cheerleader Benny is a master of the hyperbole and understatements.

[WestCoastJoe]

Thanks, MLF. Football is played in a bubble. Everything is there to be seen on the field. Lots of scrutiny. From reporters. From fans. From other coaches. It is all there on display. No place to hide, really. Although sometimes Teflon causes distortions in vision, judgments and opinions. Organization or disorganization. It is on display. High function or dysfunction. It is on display.

Wally and Benny might believe our O Line gets the best coaching in all of football, but DCs around the CFL game plan to exploit the weakness and the vulnerability in the schemes of our O Line. They no doubt see it somewhat differently from Wally and Benny. Stunts. Overloads. Pressure. Stuffing the anticipated run lanes. Totally and completely stifling the offence. But ... but ... but ... (One wonders how long our coach would survive with a team outside of Wally's World.)

Sometimes Lifers grow old and their ideas get stale. They are set in their ways. If they survive long enough, they can develop a reputation for quality that is unwarranted. The results on the field might not look good, but it cannot be the coaching. That is the official stance. Excuses are found. And the long time associates sometimes get Teflon coating from a loyal boss.

We didn't develop Murphy and Jimenez. We recruited them pretty much as finished products. And now it seems an endless search goes on trying to find their clones. By the end of their time here, they were not the dominant tackles of 2006, when they were fresh out of the box, with NFL experience. They had backslid. So it seems to me.

.........

Can we get it fixed? Sure. We have done it before. We have fixed the run game blocking schemes, to escape from the doldrums. We have adapted and provided better protection, to give our beleagued quarterbacks time to breathe. It seems to take a while. It seems sometimes to require intervention by Wally. One gets the impression that our O Line coach operates in his own world, beyond the authority of the OC, or possibly even the Head Coach.

The heat goes on the OC (Not on the Head Coach. Not on the O Line coach). But now we have a new OC, and the blocking remains a problem, both in the run game, and in pass protection. It does not seem so much to be individual breakdowns, but rather the blocking schemes. And no one is saying it is easy to get an O Line working well together. But other teams manage, without chaos.

Just IMO as a long time fan, a long time observer ... That is how it looks to me.

[WestCoastJoe]

Copying this over here, as it relates to coaching ...

I wonder what the ice creaming/chest bumping HC will follow up with this week in his pre-game speech following his cryptic comment last week that "We suck."

Wally's words about lack of intensity in practice were hardly endearing as I'm afraid to say - that comment is not for the GM to make nor for him to observe UNLESS his hand picked HC has had one too many chest bumps and injured his brain or one too many freezies that is giving him brain cramps.

Looking at the MTL and WPG game - you see the coaching staff on both teams - calmer and more focused - even when their teams are brutally stupid with penalties etc.

Quite frankly, a HC in any sport if he is focused and their teams are clear on everything - basically says the same things all year. Pre-game reminders and half time review and refocusing their team on the keys to the game - the good and the needed.

As a rank amateur coach for many years of kids and mens' teams I have never chest bumped, made long speeches nor changed the messages that I learned from a former pro coach I worked with and pro athletes I have coached (several of which were still playing in the CFL but off season played some soccer). As the former pros all say, they don't like speeches and as a player myself NO ONE freaking listens if it's not on something specific to a game. Playing football as a kid there was a role for the motivational Larry Reda speeches BUT not all the time. We focused on what we needed to do to win a game (which is what his teams always did).

It's really time for the Lions HC to clearly define what his team is about as "We suck" and 'coordinators with chips on shoulder' don't cut it in the real world of sports.

Wally when he was HC set the tone for the team and like him or not as a player - he was pretty clear what he wanted and what players had to deliver. Wally had that edge and of course said 'they're paid to win' not paid to play. I know coaching senior mens' soccer I liked that pressure from the club as a HC - typically two years to win or else - as it gave me the leverage with the players that they must perform. It's like the best work cultures - create a performance oriented environment where people know they must perform and that poor performance will be addressed.

BUT if these Lions don't get some clarity quick in what they are as a team top down, this will be long, long season.

Luckily the Riders chatter seems to be some complacency might be there as they are GC champs and look like a solid team.

One of your best posts, Toppy.

Sports and business. Leadership. Planning. Focus. Not blather. Not rah rah. Here is what we need from you. Three ideas max.

As I have said before:

Walter Payton to kids: Play hard. Play fair. Have fun.

Jimmy Johnson: We gotta protect the ball. We have to make plays.

Hells Angels. Outlaw organization but very effective: Do Angel business. Defend other Angels.
...........

Football Head Coach: A couple of reminders. And as important as anything, communicate a sense of promise (belief and confidence), a sense of urgency, a sense of seizing the moment.

I recall one of Vince Lombardi's pre game reminders. Paraphrasing: "We have practiced hard. There is nothing they can show us, that we have not seen before. You have earned this."

[WestCoastJoe]

http://www.cfl.ca/video/index/id/98953/autostart/true

No nonsense from Chris Jones. I think one can see why his team has bought in to what he wants.

Jones and O'Shea ... Not about to make the cover of GQ, and not worried about it. LOL

In the "style" of Bill Belichick. Or is that "non style."

Sweat shirt kind of guys. I like it.

And not demonstrative on the sidelines. As noted on here, the teaching and preparation are all done in practice. By game time, pretty much all that can be done, has been done, in terms of getting the players ready.

[WestCoastJoe]

Here is another very good coach, also not going to make the cover of GQ. Gotta luv that sweat stained hat. LOL

Very straight with the reporters. No nonsense. No blather.

http://www.cfl.ca/video/index/id/98951/autostart/true

[Shi Zi Mi]

Funny.....when Benevides wears a hoodie he's deemed unprofessional on this board......smh

Anyone else notice a pattern?

[WestCoastJoe]

Yapping at the refs is counter productive. Yapping at the players during games is also counter productive. Teaching goes on at practice, not so much during games. Remonstrating at players during games pretty much amounts to showing them up publicly. Not well received.

Benny is in a tough spot. If he showed nothing on the sidelines, some would say he is disengaged. He lacks passion. LOL He feels he has to do something on the sideline. So he cheereleads. So he yaps at the referees. He tries to talk to the staff and players.

Not sure he has it mapped out on paper, or in his mind, all the ramifications of each situation on the field calling for a decision by himself. Those should be like rules for how to play a hand in poker. Do this. Do that. Just follow your plan. This is one area where he could show thorough preparation and readiness. But it seems to me he kind of wings it. His mentor, Wally, also did not seem well prepared for all those situations in a game calling for a decision by the Head Coach.

His job is not an easy gig. But he took the job, although he had never been a Head Coach at any level. And his experience as DC was rather short and not all that spectacular. One wonders how he would have done if he had taken that Argonaut job that was offered to him. It might have been easier not having Wally's shadow looming over him.

So what can Benny focus on during games? Be fully cognizant of the play call. Watch the execution. Note either mentally or on paper, as Hufnagel does, things for the team to work on. Get a feel for the flow of the game. But the play calls are pretty much in the hands of the OC and the DC. As do many others, I believe in the adage, as you practice so will you play. No point in getting all worked up during a game. Does no good. Number one: Be prepared for any decisions one has to make during the game. Throw the worry rag. Go for it. Punt. Kick the field goal. Et cetera ...

If Arakgi continues to take ST penalties, maybe it is time to replace him. Not sure he brings that much to the team.

One also wonders: Benny made the move to bring in new guys at OC and DC. Big move. But Benny perhaps should just have cleaned house. New O Line coach. New ST coach. Make all the coaches his guys. Keep no guys who go back years and years with Wally. Pretty hard to be the boss of guys in that position, guys with lifetime loyalty from Wally.

Poor start to the year. Is it going to get better? Can we make the playoffs? Will Wally regret extending Mike Benevides, as he did, after two preseason wins?

Our season is at risk. No easy wins out there. Tied for 4th in the West. Outstanding coaching throughout the league. Player talent is at parity level. Coaching makes the difference. Even it is just the determination that comes from a personality.