Which head coaches are most likely to get fired at end of season?

[Belize City Lion]

Which head coaches do you think will be unemployed when the 2022 season ends?

Personally, I think Craig Dickenson is done in Regina if the Riders don’t win a home playoff game. But even winning the WDSF at home may not be enough. Dickenson’s future likely depends on the Riders playing in the Grey Cup game, and if they are the visitors from the east only a win saves his job.

Chris Jones is most likely safe in Edmonton. He’s only in year one of a huge rebuild and the community owned team likely won’t be willing to pay him not to work.

There will be pressure on Ottawa to make a change, but LaPo should get a third season as HC. He got a mulligan for the Nichols disaster, and nobody expected Masoli would get hurt. Instability at this point would be worse for the Redblacks than waiting to see what the team is capable of under LaPolice once Masoli returns.

Orlando Steinhauer may not get the same consideration as LaPolice. The team has greatly underperformed and it’s not just because Dane Evans loves to throw picks. This is a team that probably should have had a Grey Cup championship by now and it doesn’t look like they will anytime soon. Steinhauer is a good coach and a very popular guy, but the TiCat are trending in the wrong direction.

If Steinhauer gets canned, likely so does Ryan Dinwiddie. For no reason other than to make room for Orlando Steinhauer to become the next HC of the Argos. Dinwiddie could definitely improve his job security situation by finishing the season at least a few games over 500 and playing in the Grey Cup this November.

I would think Danny Macochia is on very thin ice in Montreal, especially if Adams has success in BC. However, there certainly seems to be something going on behind the scenes with ownership in Montreal. My gut tells me that Gary Stern doesn’t agree with the rest of the ownership group who may be pro-Macochia. The timing of the Adams trade coming a few days after Stern walked away from the Als suggests to me that he may have had a very different vision about who should be coaching and starting at QB in Montreal. So does Macochia survive and remain as GM? Yeah probably, if the remaining owners have his back.

Dave Dickenson is not going anywhere as long as John Hufnagle is GM. Mike O’Shea only leaves Winnipeg if another team offers him the job of GM and HC. Rick Campbell could possibly be coach of the year at the end of the seson.

Who do you think gets shown the door at the end of the season?

[TheLionKing]

LaPolice in Ottawa. Good as an offensive coordinator but terrible as head coach

[Hambone]

In order of those listed in Belize's detailed post:

C.Dickenson - vulnerable for sure. Lots of questions being raised in Regina between O'Day and Dickenson. GMs usually get one coaching firing bullet to use before the gun gets pointed at them. O'Day may need to use it this winter to keep his own job. Could be a Ackles firing Rapp scenario unfolding. Ackles moved on from Rapp not because he thought he was doing a poor job. He just thought Rapp was not going to get the Leos to the next level.

Jones - safe for the same reasons you indicated. It would be shocking if Ciu decided to rip things up after only 1 year to turn things around.

Lapolice - gets my vote. I think his stock was badly inflated due to his ability to play a good coach on TV as part of the TSN panel a few years back. With the big? win over Edmonton he now has a career 20-46 record for a 0.303 winning percentage. He was 10-8 in 2011 in Winnipeg and 10-38 (0.208) over the rest of his career. There has been a lot of very questionable coaching, scheme and play-calling decisions being made this year that all have OC Lapolice's fingers all over them. Excluding 2021 when Covid restrictions forced limited capacity Ottawa never had a crowd under 21000 since returning to the CFL in 2014. Their last 2 crowds of 20452 and 19382 were the two smallest in REDBLACKS history. The fans may be starting to speak with their wallets. They may find it very difficult to sell Lapolice on the Ottawa market. Also lest we forget just like the Montreal situation Lapolice was not new GM Burke's hire. He inherited him and might be interested in having his "own guy". If Ottawa's season continues the way it's been going and they wind up something like 5-13 Burke will gave more than enough justification to make a change.

Steinauer - complicated situation as he's also the President of Football Operations. He'd either have to remove himself as HC or "Caretaker" Bob Young would have to decide to totally clean house. Young seems loyal to a fault in that regard.

Maciocia - he claimed when firing Jones that returning to the sidelines was not his preference. He said he only did it as an interim measure so he could hire the right guy after the season. Only time will tell but as a person who is not fond of hiring a new coach mid-season I support the context. IMO it's much more prudent for him to wear the HC hat for the rest of the year to be tossed aside when he has access to the full pool of coaching candidates that the offseason can offer. Promote someone internally on a temporary basis or hire from outside mid-season and if the team shows any signs of life the rest of the year and the GM pretty much has no choice but to make that person the permanent HC. I guess we'll see in December whether he was honest when he said he would hire a new guy and go back to being GM only.

D.Dickenson & O'Shea - agreed on both. I do wonder though if at 70 Hufnagel might be starting to think about relinquishing some of his GM duties and just be team President. That could be attractive to Dickenson and perhaps necessary if another team wants to offer a GM/HC role. No idea if Dickenson is interested in front office work or would rather just be HC. Similar for O'Shea. It appears there's no place farther up the org chart for him. Depending on what happens when it comes to getting to and winning the Grey Cup he might be ready to move on to a new challenge. Like Dickenson I have no idea of being a GM is something that interests him.

[Hambone]

LaPolice in Ottawa. Good as an offensive coordinator but terrible as head coach

There's a long list of guys who were thought to be good future HCs only to find out being a coordinator was the best place for them.

[B.C.FAN]

A case can be made for canning coaches of most of the underperforming teams but most get a pass due to key injuries (Ottawa and Saskatchewan) and short timelines (Edmonton). I don’t see any excuse for Hamilton’s underperformance other than poor management and coaching for putting too much faith in Dane Evans.

[Coast Mountain Lion]

If O'Shea is going anywhere, I can see him in a front office position in Toronto. Clemons was a decent coach and is a great ambassador for the team, but his talents don't lend themselves to upper operations or managing a club. O'Shea has that ability in spades, and it would be a homecoming for him.

[Toppy Vann]

Barron Miles DC with Ottawa Red Blacks!

Bob Dyce as new HC hires Khari Jones as OC and now Barron Miles. Montreal West.


Not sure that Mike Benevides as DC was the Redblacks problem last season!
First it was Masoli's leg break and no back up who could light up their offence and Paul Lapolice who is a brilliant OC showing how little he learned from being fired by the crazy GM of the Bombers and what the role of the HC.

Not that Barron Miles is a bad DC either.

The move leaves incumbent Mike Benevides on the outside looking in after a challenging season in Ottawa, as new head coach Bob Dyce begins to shape his staff in his own image.

https://3downnation.com/2022/12/05/otta ... ordinator/

Bob Dyce hires Khari Jones as OC and Miles.

Meanwhile, Montreal is yet to hire their HC or an OC.

Alouettes plan to have next head coach in place by Christmas
Once the head coach is in place, GM Danny Maciocia said he will focus on re-signing receiver Eugene Lewis and QB Trevor Harris.

Maciocia declined to reveal any names, but wants someone with CFL experience. It could come from within the coaching staff — defensive coordinator Noel Thorpe and assistant head coach André Bolduc might be candidates — or an individual from another organization. It could be someone who’s bilingual, Maciocia added, although that’s not a priority.

Unimaginable that the bilingual Jacque Chapdelaine messed up the way he did as Als HC! Not involving his coaches in meetings- that was nuts.

https://montrealgazette.com/sports/foot ... -christmas

Anthony Cavillo has recently got out his book and says he's ready to be a HC, but I'm not sure he fits the bill based on actually no information I have lol but a sense he's not that kind of leader required of a HC. I could be wrong.