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I think Lions will do what the Stampeders did. Campbell survives, but 3 or 4 coaches are let go, including either the OC or DC.

I don’t think it will happen but the team regressed this year after loading up for a home Grey Cup. Campbell and the entire coaching staff should pay the price, but I don’t know if the coaching cap will allow that to happen. At the least, the Lions need a new DC.

I don't see any coaches leaving but I can see some player changes in a few spots pretty much like any off season.

If you saw the sort of rant by the new EE boss, he recognizes that instability is killing that franchise top to bottom. He cites their winning era and how stability was important.

Co-GMs/HC & Coaching Staff

• Take the time to do a critical assessment of what's worked well, what needs to fixed
  
  Determine. what it will take to turn this franchise and team in GC winners able to get out of the West. This ideally will lead to the conclusion that more of the same wont' get a better result

Mace seems to have instilled successfully the Riders "Obsession for Possession" given how the OFF and DEF top the CFL in +/- in those areas.
It has to be more than that.

I'd not be tossing REC out.

Embrace Barker's mantra - you've got to be able to run when you want to and be able to run when you need to. That alone was a crucial factor. Sure Stanback got lots of yards but teams know where BC will run. That means more creativity in run schemes.

Can they trade VA before the year end for some key piece that will turn around the DEF?

Is this VA's contract?

The B.C. Lions have signed quarterback Vernon Adams Jr. to a contract extension through the 2026 CFL season, per sources. Adams Jr. receives a $200,000 signing bonus with $395,000 hard money in 2024, $500,000 hard money in 2025 and $505,000 hard money in 2026 with half his base salary guaranteed in the final year

I'd assume they'll keep Nathan Rourke as he's younger and hope that a summer off from worrying about where he's playing and a full off season to prepare and a full TC will bring back out the former Nathan.

From statements from Rick Campbell they had zero idea that Rourke would come back so soon or that VA contract extension might have got deferred:

Adams, 31, was slated to become a free agent following the 2024 campaign.

https://www.sportsnet.ca/cfl/article/ro ... ver-lions/

If I am Amar Doman, I am having private meetings at Grey Cup week to get people's take on what went wrong with the season and what changes are needed. Yes, this includes the question, would you keep the coaching staff intact?

I'd have one meeting with team leaders like TJ Lee and David Mackie, getting their private thoughts, and others with CFL insiders such as Farhan Lalji (who knows this club better than anyone as he talks to a lot of players), Paul LaPolice (who can break down film and has been a HC himself), former Leos who watch this team closely etc.


DH

I believe the remaining two years on Campbells contract makes firing him too tough a pill to swallow. I may consider demoting him to DC if allowed to do so.

The key position is GM and I will restate my opinion that Neil McEvoy is more well suited to the administrative side of the game. Sorting out salaries for next year is going to be a challenge. Whoever decided pay Alexander Hollins was wrong about that. It comes down to people making lazy choices.

John Murphy might be a good choice as GM.

David wrote: Sun Nov 03, 2024 1:27 am If I am Amar Doman, I am having private meetings at Grey Cup week to get people's take on what went wrong with the season and what changes are needed. Yes, this includes the question, would you keep the coaching staff intact?

I'd have one meeting with team leaders like TJ Lee and David Mackie, getting their private thoughts, and others with CFL insiders such as Farhan Lalji (who knows this club better than anyone as he talks to a lot of players), Paul LaPolice (who can break down film and has been a HC himself), former Leos who watch this team closely etc.


DH

I agree with the above, but would add: just don't ask Wally to consult.

Pro Sports is odd in that the GMs and HCs don't seem to take well to coaching and advice.
They just simply die doing the same old things then they get fired but often at the expense of another losing season.

The ONLY exception I see in the CFL of a HC who has made a remarkable change and has openly spoken of taking advice from his GM and is now successful is Jason Maas where Maas and Macocia have openly talked of what the GM wants from his HC. Danny Macioca, GM in Montreal is not remotely close to the way he was in Edmonton. He learned something in his years out of the CFL.

IF Jon Hufnagel did the same thing with Dave Dickenson pre-2024 season about his open frustrations and his leadership, it might have changed Calgary this season.

More of the same, will not get a better result.

Solutions-Focused Consulting seems foreign in pro sports coaching but it's the ONLY way I've ever taken on an assignment in business.
Too often, traditional consultants focus only on the leader identifying problems, assigning blame, and dwelling on past failures. They design 360s similarly which is why I won't use them as points fingers only at the boss. I work with bosses and teams and gather data that doesn't focus solely on problems and blame but also focuses on the future "what it take to build a championship team and organization."

You still gather data from all in the organization and assemble an issues focused report but present it without attribution to avoid finger pointing. You don't use words that identify such as when a CIO from a global firm rightly said "X has sharp elbows when...." I'd not use those words in a consulting but say in words that didn't identify who said it.

If it was a team of coaches I'd present the report to the boss if the boss were the client. If the leader is on the hot sit, not open to this process, then I like the boss as the client. My preference is if the leader is the client and they agrees to share reports etc with his boss. That is the only way for me to have the leader's confidence in me and make progress. If I'm consulting I'm there to help the leader and team - not talk behind his back like the snakes do.

This process where I was a participant just moved to the EXEC to have my CEO boss fired (I was not the consultant ) was used by an outside temp CEO after our big financial loss and 3 ugly consulting reports I compiled into 6 groupings. It was a big ulgy even I was threatened with firing but the possibility thinking changed the culture and even the execs who hated this person from slow moving 'it will take a year' to when the new CEO came in to where 'it can be done in 6 weeks if we...."

BUT if you're firing someone like GM/HC you better have candidates lined up who can bring in the right team of coaches etc or you're in trouble for years.

Dinwiddie to Toronto (Calgary East) - briliiant.

Jones back to Edmonton - disastrous.

Mace to Sask - looking brilliant

Retooled Macocia and Maas to Montreal - looking brilliant.

The model in the CFL looks to be WPG although I know zip about their culture.
BUT O'Shea took some time to WIN.

Here are some great quotes that support/confirm solution-focused approaches:

"The belief that one's own view of reality is the only reality is the most dangerous of all delusions." - Paul Watzlawick

"The mind's direction is more important than its progress." - Joseph Joubert

"If one is truly to succeed in leading a person to a specific place, one must first and foremost take care to find him where he is and begin there." - Søren Kierkegaard

"Problem talk creates problems - Solution talk creates solutions." - Steve de Shazer

"Your imagination is your preview of life's coming attractions." - Albert Einstein

"You sort of start thinking anything's possible if you've got enough nerve." - Joanne Rowling

"The answers you get depend upon the questions you ask." - Thomas Kuhn

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore... Dream... Discover." - Mark Twain

"Every person's map of the world is as unique as their thumbprint. There are no two people alike. No two people who understand the same sentence the same way... So in dealing with people, you try not to fit them to your concept of what they should be." - Milton Erickson

This could be posted in the WSF postgame thread, but VA made some interesting comments today in his postseason media availability. He said he was disappointed that he wasn’t given his starting job back when he got healthy but he still considers Rick Campbell one of his favourite coaches, and he credits Jordan Maksymic with making him a better quarterback.

One thing about Vernon Adams is that he played the best football of his pro career as a B.C. Lion.

Do not see anything after the Dec. 14, 2022 news release extending Rick Campbell and Neil McEvoy through the 2024 season.

https://www.sportsnet.ca/cfl/article/b- ... xtensions/

John Hodge mentions Campbells contract has another year to go.

https://3downnation.com/2024/11/04/rick ... -as-i-can/

Anyone surprised the Lions made no coaching announcements this week. It suggests to me they are really seriously thinking this over. No rash decision to fire anyone and no rash decision to give the coaching staff a vote of confidence. My feeling is no announcements will be made till after the Grey Cup.

don corleone wrote: Sun Nov 03, 2024 3:55 am
John Murphy might be a good choice as GM.

John Murphy might know his scouting stuff but is otherwise a buffoon to be avoided.

JohnnyMusso wrote: Fri Nov 08, 2024 7:13 pm Anyone surprised the Lions made no coaching announcements this week. It suggests to me they are really seriously thinking this over. No rash decision to fire anyone and no rash decision to give the coaching staff a vote of confidence. My feeling is no announcements will be made till after the Grey Cup.

I wouldn't expect any announcements by now or prior to Grey Cup unless they are purging the senior levels as in Campbell, McEvoy and a Coordinator or two. Moves like that must be announced as soon as possible to let the rest of the CFL know the "Help Wanted" sign is up.

Farhan Lalji said in the first pregame show today that the Lions didn’t want to make an announcement now lest it be a distraction during Grey Cup week. Expect to hear something soon afterwards.