Wally HC/ GM Again

[The_Pauser]

So how did we get here? Much ink will be spilled and airtime filled with how this all went down. To me, it had to have been one of two things:

1) A huge rift developed between Tedford and Buono over the course of the year, either a personality clash or differing philosophies. TSN 1040's The Moj believes that it had to do with Tedford's frustration with the low infrastructure budgets in the CFL, although this is a bit of a stretch considering he already played/coached up here.

2) Tedford had a bit of a mutiny on his hands with some or majority of the players. Perhaps the leaders approached Wally with their grievances and Wally realized it was an untenable situation.


Scenario #2 seems unlikely without something being leaked to the media. I also don't think Wally would do something radical like return to the sidelines (after retiring from coaching) if it had everything to do with a 7-11 record.....unless he was completely delusional about the talent and depth here. For all their bluster about "no one wants to face us in the playoffs," the team effectively played to their record and 3rd place standing in Calgary.


DH

I would say scenario 2 is most likely what happened, assuming there was a rift between Buono and Tedford. Even without a rift being there, scenario 2 is what I'm looking at.

[Hambone]

Interesting comments from Wally re: free agency this morning. Blake Price quizzed him about that andand how Wally typically isn't a player in the FA market. Wally's response was yes but times have changed. Said he just got the list from the CFL. He said used to be like a 2 page flyer. Now it's like a phone book. I've heard that between the Ticats and Riders alone there are close to 70 names. Last year there were like 125 name league wide range start with.

[TheLionKing]

Buratto was an Offensive Coordinator in his previous stint with the Lions and I think he would do an excellent job but I highly doubt Buono will rehire him back. Perhaps if the Players Council approach Buono...................

I'd be surprised if any current players had even heard of Burratto. After being fired as head coach here, he was steadily demoted to lower level positions on various teams before going to the university ranks. His CFL record is far from stellar, he's been out of the league for years, and he's in his 70s. So, no to Burratto for me!

He led the Lions to the 88th Grey Cup after taking over for Greg Mohns. In addition he was the offensive coordinator when the Lions won the Grey Cup under Don Matthews. Age is just a number. There are a number of posters on this forum who wanted Dave Ritchie back. He's in his 70's

[WestCoastJoe]

Buratto was an Offensive Coordinator in his previous stint with the Lions and I think he would do an excellent job but I highly doubt Buono will rehire him back. Perhaps if the Players Council approach Buono...................

I'd be surprised if any current players had even heard of Burratto. After being fired as head coach here, he was steadily demoted to lower level positions on various teams before going to the university ranks. His CFL record is far from stellar, he's been out of the league for years, and he's in his 70s. So, no to Burratto for me!

He led the Lions to the 88th Grey Cup after taking over for Greg Mohns. In addition he was the offensive coordinator when the Lions won the Grey Cup under Don Matthews. Age is just a number. There are a number of posters on this forum who wanted Dave Ritchie back. He's in his 70's

I am a big fan of Steve Buratto. At any age. But Wally did push him aside. Not sure they can go back there. Buratto must be very happy working with UBC. Same for Blake Nill. Nill could be there for years, with his abilities. Not sure his mehods would work with the pros. I gather he can be very, very tough.

[Hambone]

Age may be just as a number but it's one thing to be a septegenarian working OC hours for a CIS team with an 8 game schedule over 2 months and quite another to do it for a CFL team for 18 games over 20 weeks.

[B.C.FAN]

Dennis Skulsky told Mike Beamish that Wally will be here until 2018.

What you need to be rest assured of is that Wally is going to be here until 2018,” Skulsky said. “Wally and I have agreed that, to bring a future head coach on board, we need some stability with Wally being there. We have a succession plan. (But) it changed as a result of coach Tedford exercising his option to resign.”

Vancouver Sun article

[WestCoastJoe]

Dennis Skulsky told Mike Beamish that Wally will rbe here until 2018.

What you need to be rest assured of is that Wally is going to be here until 2018,” Skulsky said. “Wally and I have agreed that, to bring a future head coach on board, we need some stability with Wally being there. We have a succession plan. (But) it changed as a result of coach Tedford exercising his option to resign.”

Vancouver Sun article

Hooray. Hooray. LOL

Wally forever.

How dare anybody call for his dismissal? I will show you, says Braley. I will appoint him for life. No wonder Wally almost teared up talking about working with and for David Braley.

This loyalty has to be some kind of record in the world of sports.

And, again, I am not sure it is a good thing. 16 years. Unbelievable.

I expect some fans will be seriously troubled, even depressed, by this development.

[CardiacKid]

Interesting comments from Wally re: free agency this morning. Blake Price quizzed him about that andand how Wally typically isn't a player in the FA market. Wally's response was yes but times have changed. Said he just got the list from the CFL. He said used to be like a 2 page flyer. Now it's like a phone book. I've heard that between the Ticats and Riders alone there are close to 70 names. Last year there were like 125 name league wide range start with.

I imagine the recent emergence of the 1 year contract has contributed to this. Case in point Chris Williams in Ottawa came back with a one year deal; fyi I understand he is looking to extend in Ottawa.

This notion of Wally not being active in the free agent market is a curious thing. Yes, of late the Lions have not stacked up well against the other clubs in terms of signing the high profile names or even solid role guys. But Wally has inked some high profile names as free agents. It wasn't that long ago the Lions signed Ben Archibald in 2011, the year after he won Outstanding Lineman. Keron Williams signed in 2010, the year after being a CFL All-Star. Anton McKenzie signed in 2008, the year after being a CFL All Star. Byron Parker was a CFL All-Star in 2011 and then signed with the Leos for the 2012 season. Lin-J Shell was the 3rd leading tackler in the league for 2011, goes to the Leos the next season.

I agree these signings are spread over a few years and occurred a few years ago. But they do seem to go against what even Wally says in regards to himself, that he doesn't dabble in the free agent market. What gives? Were these signings experiments that Wally deems "busts"? I can't believe that as they were all pretty solid performers for the club.

No, my big fear is Braley has slowly been turning off the tap to splurge on free agents. And Wally is not going to rat him out.

There have been a few articles detailing some of the bigger names in this upcoming free agent market but I haven't seen a complete list (not sure that is available for public viewing). A premier rush end would be a prime target in my wish list; Willie Jefferson is good and maybe a potential All-Star. I would also like to see what National Centres are available. But maybe it is all academic if there is no $ in the well......

[DanoT]

Interesting comments from Wally re: free agency this morning. Blake Price quizzed him about that andand how Wally typically isn't a player in the FA market. Wally's response was yes but times have changed. Said he just got the list from the CFL. He said used to be like a 2 page flyer. Now it's like a phone book. I've heard that between the Ticats and Riders alone there are close to 70 names. Last year there were like 125 name league wide range start with.

I imagine the recent emergence of the 1 year contract has contributed to this. Case in point Chris Williams in Ottawa came back with a one year deal; fyi I understand he is looking to extend in Ottawa.

This notion of Wally not being active in the free agent market is a curious thing. Yes, of late the Lions have not stacked up well against the other clubs in terms of signing the high profile names or even solid role guys. But Wally has inked some high profile names as free agents. It wasn't that long ago the Lions signed Ben Archibald in 2011, the year after he won Outstanding Lineman. Keron Williams signed in 2010, the year after being a CFL All-Star. Anton McKenzie signed in 2008, the year after being a CFL All Star. Byron Parker was a CFL All-Star in 2011 and then signed with the Leos for the 2012 season. Lin-J Shell was the 3rd leading tackler in the league for 2011, goes to the Leos the next season.

I agree these signings are spread over a few years and occurred a few years ago. But they do seem to go against what even Wally says in regards to himself, that he doesn't dabble in the free agent market. What gives? Were these signings experiments that Wally deems "busts"? I can't believe that as they were all pretty solid performers for the club.

No, my big fear is Braley has slowly been turning off the tap to splurge on free agents. And Wally is not going to rat him out.

There have been a few articles detailing some of the bigger names in this upcoming free agent market but I haven't seen a complete list (not sure that is available for public viewing). A premier rush end would be a prime target in my wish list; Willie Jefferson is good and maybe a potential All-Star. I would also like to see what National Centres are available. But maybe it is all academic if there is no $ in the well......

Are you saying that you fear Braley is forcing his GM to progressively spend less and less each year on player salaries so the team is significantly below the salary cap total? Or are you saying you fear Braley is telling Wally where and how to spend the the SMS money? I don't have any special inside info, but I just don't think either is happening.

[CardiacKid]

Interesting comments from Wally re: free agency this morning. Blake Price quizzed him about that andand how Wally typically isn't a player in the FA market. Wally's response was yes but times have changed. Said he just got the list from the CFL. He said used to be like a 2 page flyer. Now it's like a phone book. I've heard that between the Ticats and Riders alone there are close to 70 names. Last year there were like 125 name league wide range start with.

I imagine the recent emergence of the 1 year contract has contributed to this. Case in point Chris Williams in Ottawa came back with a one year deal; fyi I understand he is looking to extend in Ottawa.

This notion of Wally not being active in the free agent market is a curious thing. Yes, of late the Lions have not stacked up well against the other clubs in terms of signing the high profile names or even solid role guys. But Wally has inked some high profile names as free agents. It wasn't that long ago the Lions signed Ben Archibald in 2011, the year after he won Outstanding Lineman. Keron Williams signed in 2010, the year after being a CFL All-Star. Anton McKenzie signed in 2008, the year after being a CFL All Star. Byron Parker was a CFL All-Star in 2011 and then signed with the Leos for the 2012 season. Lin-J Shell was the 3rd leading tackler in the league for 2011, goes to the Leos the next season.

I agree these signings are spread over a few years and occurred a few years ago. But they do seem to go against what even Wally says in regards to himself, that he doesn't dabble in the free agent market. What gives? Were these signings experiments that Wally deems "busts"? I can't believe that as they were all pretty solid performers for the club.

No, my big fear is Braley has slowly been turning off the tap to splurge on free agents. And Wally is not going to rat him out.

There have been a few articles detailing some of the bigger names in this upcoming free agent market but I haven't seen a complete list (not sure that is available for public viewing). A premier rush end would be a prime target in my wish list; Willie Jefferson is good and maybe a potential All-Star. I would also like to see what National Centres are available. But maybe it is all academic if there is no $ in the well......

Are you saying that you fear Braley is forcing his GM to progressively spend less and less each year on player salaries so the team is significantly below the salary cap total? Or are you saying you fear Braley is telling Wally where and how to spend the the SMS money? I don't have any special inside info, but I just don't think either is happening.

I don't have any inside info myself but I guess I am combining two things and coming up with one conjecture; namely that Braley is wanting to shrink player salaries as a means of maxing out his profits before selling the team.

I don't think it was any secret that Braley did his best Yorkshireman impression during the final year(s) of his ownership of the Argos...namely his willingness to open up the coffers was like that of a Scotsman who had all the generosity squeezed out of him. Now maybe the Lions are the apple of Braley's eye and the Argos were the red-headed step-child ("I will look after you until you turn 18...then its out the door!")

The 2nd thing that forms my conjecture (supposition?) is what appears to be a trend with the Lions spending on acquiring player talent. Wally has this reputation as a guy who simply doesn't pursue free agents because he doesn't want to spend the money. And yet the club under his tenure as GM have gone from spending money on a Most Outstanding Offensive Lineman winner and several CFL All-Stars to a guy in Chris Rwabukamba who got supplanted by an guy in Eric Fraser that had been out of football.

My fear (hunch) is Braley has been restricting the funds available to Wally to pursue free-agents as a means of operating under the salary cap.

But as I mentioned this is purely conjecture on my part.

[cromartie]

On the football ops side he really made only one key move. He hired Buono to run the football ops and empowered him to do so.

Yeah, this isn't quite true. Bob Ackles had a wealth of contacts from his years in the NFL. When he passed, a lot of those contacts and business relationships went away. So there was an element to the front office that was hindered when Bob passed on the football operations side.

[David]

WB told reporters "the players love me".

As Price said to Sekeres when relaying that "but we weren't able to see the twinkle in his eye when he said that". Anybody not recognizing Buono said that with tongue in cheek must be new to following the Lions.

True, but whoever is working Wally's Twitter account sure ain't helping the perception of a healthy ego by re-tweeting every encouraging fan Tweet from his coaching announcement!

DH

BTW, I saw his presser last night. He was dead serious when he said the players love him (and I am sure some do, at least some of the ones with a ring).


DH

[CardiacKid]

Interesting article by Lowell Ullrich at 3Down Nation....

http://3downnation.com/2015/12/02/ullri ... -the-lions

[maxlion]

No, my big fear is Braley has slowly been turning off the tap to splurge on free agents. And Wally is not going to rat him out.

Wally has made pitches every year to free agents, but lately has been coming up short. Given what went down in Toronto in Braley's last days, I think your concern is very legitimate.

Is Braley going to go through the same cost-slashing process as he did in Toronto, or will he try to build the franchise up to make it attractive to buyers? To me, logic would dictate the latter, while past history suggests the former.

[South Pender]

I'm a bit confused by this discussion. Surely, Wally, like all GMs, will spend up to the cap for players. Who would agree to field a team with salaries totaling up to significantly less than the cap? So, I think concerns about skimping on free agents to save money are likely unfounded, unless Wally wants to save money there to free up more for incumbents or new players--which would constitute a case of salary allotments, rather than saving overall on salaries. Where some savings might occur with an austere budget would be around coaching staff, other personnel, and infrastructure expenses (unless I'm not understanding the SMS correctly).