Lionbackers.com

B.C.FAN wrote: ↑

Wed Jan 03, 2018 11:37 am

maxlion wrote: ↑

Wed Jan 03, 2018 11:13 am

It didn't take long for Khari Jones to land another job. Named OC in Montreal.

http://3downnation.com/2018/01/03/new-a ... xperience/

Good for Khari. He faces a tough task. Who will he have at QB, Darian Durant, Drew Willy, James Franklin or Johnny Manziel? The Als have some good receivers but that doesn’t mean much without a dependable QB.

Good for Khari and good for Montreal. IMO the important aspect is that Sherman is surrounding himself with CFL-experienced staff.

Good for Khari. I think he knows his stuff, and he has paid his dues. Not much he could do here as OC to get the OL pass blocking better -- not his job per se.

The tendency to use the same old game plans (as with all Lions' coordinators) may have come from higher up. --> Focus on execution, not so much on fresh plans for different opponents.

He does not seem to have all that much to work with in Montreal, but makeovers can happen fairly fast in the CFL.

Just IMO ...

While I tend to take most of what 3DownNation offers with a grain of salt, at least initially, it's interesting they cite Jeff Hamilton of the Winnipeg Free Press as claiming (via sources close to the hiring process) that Buck Pierce was first offered and turned down the OC job with the Als. Buck is one of my football heroes -- a solid citizen (who I wish to heck we could have somehow kept in the Lions organization -- while knowing that now that he's married a Winnipeg gal and has a business venture established in the Peg that wasn't really ever in the cards,... But, in this case I'm relieved (and not at all surprised) he's staying put with the Bombers. Another good common sense call.

Glad to see Jones land on his feet pretty quickly...i think Bouno controlled too much of the offensive mindset here

While I am happy for Khari, I still am not a fan of him as OC and I disagree with Leolife. The one series that stands out in my mind is when BC was on 3rd or 4th yard line in one game and never once handed the ball off choosing to throw twice and kicking a field goal. I recall Buono looking over at Jones in disbelief clearly not happy with the calls made by Jones. That was the day Jones was gone in my mind. I personally do not think he is a good OC and only reason he got the job in Montreal was there were limited choices for the Als. I think Condell would have been a better choice and no idea if he was offered the job.

Montreal is going to be terrible again this year without a QB and run by that clown Kavis Reed. Hiring a US coach with no CFL experience will not work and Montreal is an old team that is in need of a major rebuild that will take years and by then Sherman and all his assistants and Reed will be gone.

The question now where will AC go? To another team or to another job outside of football.

Anthony Calvillo will not be part of Mike Sherman's coaching staff with the Montreal Alouettes, as the former quarterback great plans to take a year off from coaching, according to a report from Herb Zurkowsky of the Montreal Gazette.

JohnnyMusso wrote: ↑

Wed Jan 03, 2018 3:23 pm

Montreal is going to be terrible again this year without a QB and run by that clown Kavis Reed. Hiring a US coach with no CFL experience will not work and Montreal is an old team that is in need of a major rebuild that will take years and by then Sherman and all his assistants and Reed will be gone.

You may turn out to be right, but I think Reed inherited an impossible situation--SMS troubles, coaching troubles, aging roster, no qb--and has done a decent job of addressing these issues. Having Chaps, Thorpe and Calvillo as your top 3 coaches was a recipe for disaster. Sherman is a pretty solid outside-the-box hire. Bringing in Durant and Olafioye didn't work out as planned, but I thought it was a good strategy at the time. If Reed can start to build a new team identity around some younger players, that will a success. I wouldn't judge him yet.

Good for Khari Jones. Bad news is they have no QB.

Buck Pierce is reported to have turned down the OC offer - no doubt based on his love of living in WPG and his pretty good situation. He can also see that with no QB in MTL the chances of lasting there weren't good either nor does he likely know the new HC thinking.

MB told me not long after Buck went to the Bombers as a player that his dad believed he'd live in Winnipeg long term. I can't grasp that concept - but I've never lived outside Vancouver or Hong Kong other than 11 months and 10 and 8 month stints in Tahsis, BC.

I think Buck is making a good football decision as WPG is now stable and who knows - OC for him if Lapo ever moved on. Again Lapo is not one easily moved now out of WPG. In some ways, Buck might be mirroring the career of Jarius Jackson who hooked up with Chris Jones and stayed with him over two teams until branching out to BC recently as the new OC here.

I'm not knocking WPG as a place to live as I recall Teemu Salanne's last year in the NHL when his wife and family all were there when they played the Jets. Not only that they stayed in a friend's home when they could clearly have stayed in the best hotel there.

At the HOF ceremony Selanne said this of WPG where he played his first 4 years:

Despite spending only a fraction of his 21 NHL season in Winnipeg, Selanne still remembers what it was like playing in front of Jets fans.

"In 1992 I went to Winnipeg. What a four years that was," he said during his acceptance speech, broadcast on TSN.

"There's no really words to describe that feeling — the way how the people, the fans, the city lived those four years with me. It was something that I'm never going to forget."

Lived in wpg for 15 yrs. It felt good. People were good, except for bomber fans always chanting BC sucks. If the winters were not so harsh and the summers not so mosquito infested, I could see myself moving back there for better housing and living costs.

Herb Zurkowsky has more on the Montreal hirings of Khari Jones and Kahlil Carter and on Anthony Calvillo's decision to take a year away from coaching.

Calvillo, who began 2017 as the Als’ quarterbacks coach but became the OC in September, following the firing of head coach Jacques Chapdelaine, said he’s mentally exhausted from his time on the sideline, adding he wasn’t enjoying himself. He has notified general manager Kavis Reed his desire is to take a year away from coaching.

Calvillo, 45, has no plans to depart the city and still sees coaching in his future. He said it’s conceivable he would consider a Canadian university coaching position at one of the three Montreal schools, but would be unlikely to follow Jim Popp and Marc Trestman to the Toronto Argonauts should the defending Grey Cup champions come courting.

But it’s more likely Calvillo will take a role as an Als’ ambassador, making community appearances in 2018 on behalf of the club, should that request be made by owner Robert Wetenhall.

“I still want to coach,” Calvillo told the Montreal Gazette, “but the last three years have been challenging. I don’t like the way I’ve been feeling.

“The plan now is to take a year away from coaching, but I also know that timing’s important and they’re only so many (CIS) positions available.”

Kahlil Carter, who quit the Calgary Stampeders believing DeVone Claybrooks would become the Als’ head coach and would bring him along, has now landed with Montreal as the defensive co-ordinator.

“I have a great vision for that defence. I’m a player favourite around the league,” Carter said from his Iowa winter home. “I’m going to get great players to come to Montreal. You’re going to see that.”

It was Reed who recommended Jones to Sherman. Following an initial telephone conversation, Jones flew to Montreal, spending close to three days last month with Sherman.

But Jones might not have been the Als’ first choice. According to the Winnipeg Free Press, Blue Bombers quarterbacks coach Buck Pierce was offered the job only to spurn the opportunity.

Jones, a CFL quarterback for 11 years, has coaching experience in the league with Hamilton, Saskatchewan and British Columbia. He was the Lions’ OC the last four seasons. Jones said he played under 12 different co-ordinators, so has experience with various offences.

“I’m going to come in fresh and feeling good about whoever we have at quarterback,” Jones said. “We’re going to make it work. As a quarterback, if nothing else, I was known for getting the ball into the end zone.

“I know there’s more than one way to get it done. Use the talent we have. If a guy shows me he can do something, I want to use that to our advantage and not necessarily rely on a system.”

Alouettes name new assistants, but Anthony Calvillo won't be on staff

Toppy Vann wrote: ↑

Wed Jan 03, 2018 4:56 pm

MB told me not long after Buck went to the Bombers as a player that his dad believed he'd live in Winnipeg long term. I can't grasp that concept - but I've never lived outside Vancouver or Hong Kong other than 11 months and 10 and 8 month stints in Tahsis, BC

It's amazing the pull that Winnipeg has for certain guys. Buck Pierce, Paul LaPolice, and Doug Brown all come to mind (off the top of my head). These are Winnipeg "lifers." You could seemingly offer any one of them a 100% pay increase in another town and it's doubtful they'd leave the Manitoba capital.

Not that this should be completely surprising. I believe the place gets unfairly maligned. I have been to Winnipeg several times (although not in the winter) and viewed it quite favourably. But the devotion it receives from guys who are from elsewhere has always struck me as slightly odd.


DH

"In 1992 I went to Winnipeg. What a four years that was..."

Of course, some have said that after a long weekend in Winnipeg.


DH

KnowItAll wrote: ↑

Wed Jan 03, 2018 5:13 pm

Lived in wpg for 15 yrs. It felt good. People were good, except for bomber fans always chanting BC sucks. If the winters were not so harsh and the summers not so mosquito infested, I could see myself moving back there for better housing and living costs.

I had a contract with Husky Energy in Minnedosa from August 2008 through to the end of January 2009. I rented an apartment in Brandon. It's the only time I've ever lived and worked outside of BC. I quite liked Brandon.

Another Tahsis ex-pat Toppy. Having spent 23 years either going to school or working just over the mountains in Woss I'm well aware of Tahsis. I played hockey for Vernon Camp for a couple years. We had a couple Tahsis guys on the team. Eventually they put together their own team the Tahsis Road Warriors. I got picked up by them a couple of times for tournaments and often played against them in tournaments in Gold River or other north island locations. My brother is a Woods Manager for Nootka Sound Timber at their Kendrick Arm camp on Nootka Island. When they travel to camp for their 14 day shifts they launch out of Tahsis. Since relocating to PG and spending a lot of time in sawmills all over BC I frequently run across guys who worked in Tahsis in the 80s and 90s. On my current project with Interfor I've been working with the Maintenance Planner at Interfor in Castlegar who spent a few years at the Tahsis mills. The Interfor contact I had who put me in touch with the Project Manager for this work was also in Tahsis back in the day.

Buck Pierce turning down the OC job in Montreal to stay in Winnipeg does not surprise me at all. He has family and business ties to Winnipeg. The Bombers are moving in the right direction. Paul LaPolice is going to be offered a head coaching job somewhere sooner or later. When LaPo goes, Buck will slide into the OC job. Buck Pierce is becoming a BRAND in Winnipeg.

All the Als offer is an instant promotion and a high risk of being out of work in a season or two.