Lions Offence for 2015 -- Tedford re TCamp

[B.C.FAN]

According to LU, there will be two days of practice for Grant Hedrick, Greg McGhee, Jon Jennings and Aaron Wilmer - with just two of the four being asked to stick around for the start of Sunday's main camp.


DH

That still leaves six QBs for main camp. There aren't enough live reps for more than four. UBC's Michael O'Connor will probably have his hands glued to a clipboard. Another move will have to be made sooner rather than later.

[sj-roc]

I kind of saw this coming. While it's certainly unfair to pass judgment based on social media and what little I know of him, Jordan Rodgers just seemed more into 'other stuff' (he appeared in Pitch purrfect 2 and tweeted heavily about that). It was all about his quarterback camp, being with his buddies, the parties etc. I sensed the younger guys like McGhee and Wilmer being really hungry for this opportunity. No references to the BC Lions from Jordan.

According to LU, there will be two days of practice for Grant Hedrick, Greg McGhee, Jon Jennings and Aaron Wilmer - with just two of the four being asked to stick around for the start of Sunday's main camp.


DH

Sounds almost like a QB version of Danny Watkins — just one of those guys whose heart wasn't in the game, focussed on other things of greater interest (not that there's anything wrong with that). With all the other QBs we'd signed I suspect Tedford & Co. were also reading between the lines of his social media.

Speaking of which, you're right; his twitter description is "I major in movie quotes and I dabble in football." Was that up there before he left and for how long? The only mention of BC I could find in a cursory glance through his last few weeks is as an abbreviation for "because". Not to come off too critical (he may well have done privately what I'm about to mention), rather simply an observation, but not even a "thanks for the opportunity" farewell to the Lions. Why, you'd barely know he was even here at all.

[squishy35]

Put my money on McGhee and Hedrick as the hungriest rookie QB's at rookie camp. I will be there on Friday afternoon. I am eager to see these young potential future starters in action.

[Hambone]

I kind of saw this coming. While it's certainly unfair to pass judgment based on social media and what little I know of him, Jordan Rodgers just seemed more into 'other stuff' (he appeared in Pitch purrfect 2 and tweeted heavily about that). It was all about his quarterback camp, being with his buddies, the parties etc. I sensed the younger guys like McGhee and Wilmer being really hungry for this opportunity. No references to the BC Lions from Jordan.

According to LU, there will be two days of practice for Grant Hedrick, Greg McGhee, Jon Jennings and Aaron Wilmer - with just two of the four being asked to stick around for the start of Sunday's main camp.


DH

That was my thought all along. No way they would bring all the QBs to main camp. Unless they found reason to dump one of Beck or Partridge then the other 4 are effectively auditioning for 2 spots in main camp with the 2 advancing to camp trying to either displace Partridge on the depth chart or at least earn a PR spot. Rodgers was in "no man's land" and I think he finally came to realize that. He'll be 27 in August which puts him 3 years older than the oldest of the 4 newcomers. You aren't going to keep a 27 year old QB around as a development QB on the PR. His only real chance of sticking was if he could supplant one of the other incumbents from 2014 or if it turned out the other youngsters are all duds. Having been with the club since late last season he likely knew what his chances were with the first group and after mini-camp knew where he stood amongst the young guys.

[WestCoastJoe]

http://www.vancouversun.com/sports/foot ... story.html

Iain MacIntyre: Lions assistant George Cortez loves his 40 years in coaching

BY IAIN MACINTYRE, VANCOUVER SUN JUNE 4, 2015

Iain MacIntrye and Lowell Ullrich break down the day at Lions training camp 2015 and there's a new sheriff in town and one injury to a key Canadian.
KAMLOOPS – Jeff Tedford loves George Cortez, but still fired him as offensive coordinator at the University of California in 2006. That’s football.

So is this: starting a new job in the Canadian Football League for the ninth time, Cortez is happily back working as Tedford’s OC on the B.C. Lions. It’s a strange and tough business. And Cortez, 64, wouldn’t trade it for anything.

“It beats working,” Cortez said Thursday at training camp here. “I always say that and my wife says ‘people don’t understand it’s a joke.’ But it’s true.

“The best way I can explain it is a college friend of mine runs a division in a company that does well enough to have two private boxes at Jerry Jones’ stadium (in Dallas), and he always tell me the same thing: ‘You’re the only person I know who is doing exactly what he wants to do.’ That’s true. I wanted to coach and I’m still coaching.”

Cortez has been a professional coach for nearly 40 years. More than half his career has been spent in the CFL, although he still has his East Texas drawl.

Advertisement

His fifth Grey Cup, in 2013 with the Saskatchewan Roughriders, came 21 years after his first with Wally Buono’s Calgary Stampeders in 1992. Tedford left the Stampeders about a month after Cortez arrived, embarking on a career in U.S. college football that landed him the head coaching job at Cal-Berkeley in 2002.

His first offensive coordinator was Cortez. Together, they turned a Golden Bears team that was 1-10 in 2001 into a perennial winner that cracked the top-10 college rankings.

“It was a great time,” Cortez recalled. “We had a lot of fun. When we first went there, the team had only won one game. We won seven games the next year and we went to Michigan State and won and beat Stanford for the first time in six or seven years. It was an exciting time.”

And yet, after an 8-4 season in 2005, Tedford replaced Cortez with offensive coordinator Mike Dunbar.

“It was nothing he was doing wrong, by any means,” Tedford explained Thursday. “George was doing a great job. But I was leaning towards going to more of a spread offence and I had a chance to get someone who was really on the cutting edge of the spread offence and wanted to come. I wanted a different approach.

“When you look back, it was a lot of work to change the culture, change the mindset (at Cal). And George was a big part of the foundation we created there. You won’t find a guy who works harder or is more committed to his team. I love George. George is a great friend and a great coach. I can really trust and rely on George.”

Buono, the Lions’ general manager, hired Tedford last December. Tedford hired Cortez a month later.

“If you’re in this business long enough, you’re going to fire a lot of your friends,” Buono said. “And if you’re in this business long enough, you’ll rehire people you fired. Jeff and George have a relationship and that has tremendous value to Jeff as far as him coming into a new league. George has five Grey Cup rings.”

Cortez was released by the Roughriders only a year after their championship. The Lions are his sixth CFL team. Cortez had three stints in Calgary and two in Saskatchewan.

Cortez has had 14 jobs in professional football. His four years with Tedford in California equalled his longest stretch with one team.

“Hey, that’s coaching,” Cortez said. “Sometimes you move around. Guys that go somewhere and coach 20 or 30 years, they’re few and far between.”

“George is all about business, all about work,” Buono explained. “Sometimes that makes him come across as difficult. But I’ve known George for years and years and years and he’s actually a good man. But George is all business. He doesn’t too often show (the personal) side.”

Like Tedford, Cortez is regarded as a football innovator offensively. Their great Cal quarterback, Aaron Rodgers, said last week that the school defeated teams on Saturday but really won Sunday through Friday because Tedford and Cortez were so detail-driven that players knew they were better prepared than opponents.

Chemistry between players is frequently discussed in sports. But there is chemistry between coaches, too, and Tedford and Cortez seem to have it.

“I think we have that on our whole staff,” Cortez said. “There’s a lot of crossover. A lot of guys on the staff have worked with a lot of other guys on the staff in different places. You know you can trust guys to do their job and you’re not looking over your shoulder. (Chemistry) is important, just like it is for the guys on the team.”

GRID BIT — The Lions placed Canadian offensive tackle Hunter Steward (broken foot) on the six-game injured list, which will complicate the team’s import/non-import ratio.

Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/sports/Iain ... z3cEiLZslv

[WestCoastJoe]

His fifth Grey Cup, in 2013 with the Saskatchewan Roughriders, came 21 years after his first with Wally Buono’s Calgary Stampeders in 1992. Tedford left the Stampeders about a month after Cortez arrived, embarking on a career in U.S. college football that landed him the head coaching job at Cal-Berkeley in 2002.

His first offensive coordinator was Cortez. Together, they turned a Golden Bears team that was 1-10 in 2001 into a perennial winner that cracked the top-10 college rankings.

“It was a great time,” Cortez recalled. “We had a lot of fun. When we first went there, the team had only won one game. We won seven games the next year and we went to Michigan State and won and beat Stanford for the first time in six or seven years. It was an exciting time.”

And yet, after an 8-4 season in 2005, Tedford replaced Cortez with offensive coordinator Mike Dunbar.

“It was nothing he was doing wrong, by any means,” Tedford explained Thursday. “George was doing a great job. But I was leaning towards going to more of a spread offence and I had a chance to get someone who was really on the cutting edge of the spread offence and wanted to come. I wanted a different approach.

Huge credentials with these two. Xs and Os, with vast experience at the highest levels. --> Totally necessary in today's game in the CFL, it seems to me.

“When you look back, it was a lot of work to change the culture, change the mindset (at Cal). And George was a big part of the foundation we created there. You won’t find a guy who works harder or is more committed to his team. I love George. George is a great friend and a great coach. I can really trust and rely on George.”

Like Tedford, Cortez is regarded as a football innovator offensively. Their great Cal quarterback, Aaron Rodgers, said last week that the school defeated teams on Saturday but really won Sunday through Friday because Tedford and Cortez were so detail-driven that players knew they were better prepared than opponents.

We got lucky. We essentially have two highly successful OCs, Tedford and Cortez, to draw up the schemes and Xs and Os. With another young one on staff, Khari Jones. We need that against the likes of Hufnagel/Dickenson In Calgary, and Austin/Condell in Hamilton. Lots of great staffs around the league.

[WestCoastJoe]

http://www.bclions.com/video/index/id/110873

Wow. Tedford radiates a clear blueprint in a quiet manner. He has the buy-in of the players. High expectations, competition for positions, fast tempo at practice, solid plan, patient yet demanding approach.

No B.S. in his brief comments to the media. Focus on the process. I think he has his cuture in place, in a remarkably short time. It helps to have Lulay, Solo, Biggie etc., and his familiar long time colleagues, Cortez and Ross.

As much as Trestman, Austin and Hufnagel have raised the bar for coaching in the CFL, it seems to me that Tedford is continuing in that mode.

No guarantees of huge win/loss success. But fans can have hope. We are in the Xs and Os ballgame, big time.

One can almost imagine the old days, the very old days, perhaps in the 1950s: "Well, what are we going to do today?" LOL Coaches like Paul Brown began to prepare detailed practice plans that ran at a fast tempo, got the work done, and got the players off the field. Other teams were slogging it out, pounding each other.

[WestCoastJoe]

Tedford talking to the media ...

[Toppy Vann]

The culture and performance standards and expectations are critical in a team - especially football with the numbers of players.

WCJ mentions among his list of top coaches - Marc Trestman. I too think like that and while Trestman had no CFL 12 man experience as does Tedford - it took Trestman some to time to get himself established and there is always the potential that it will happen with BC.

Jennings sounds and looks good in the video and ideally it'd be great to see these back ups perform as LuLAY as Jennings calls him is unsure bet.

[MexicoLionFan]

It's exciting for sure Joe, Tedford's style of coaching usually results in yielding more production from what players are used to giving, which in the case of the Lions COULD put them over the top. One of the biggest changes we will see from an up-tempo mindset is FEWER MISTAKES, such as the unforgivable procedure calls and too long getting the ball in play, which have KILLED the Lions over the last few years.

Not THINKING and just playing INSTINCTUALLY often results in much greater production and let's face it, this approach was desperately needed on our OLINE! By the end of his tenure, the Mad Professor had our OLinemen crawled up into the fetal position from overthinking every snap! Solid OLine play could turn our offence, with a healthy Lulay and Harris, into a juggernaut!