Rids

Vavra is moving forward with the recruiting. The offensive players have posted comments of support for the move. I could see Buratto holding the title all of 2015.

Buratto named interim HC - http://godinos.com/news/2014/12/12/FB_1212144726.aspx

Former Montreal Alouette player might be all the connection necessary.

My reason for being where I am

Rumor has it that Mark Washington is in the running for the McGill head coaching job.

Here's a look back to the 1985 season - http://www.packershistory.net/1985PACKERS-YEAR-CFL.html Ken Hobart got his first start in Week 5 (4th game). Much like this season Hamilton came from way back in the pack to finished tied at the top with Montreal.

You guys don't read my blog articles often enough. George Cortez was at Cal for 4 years and worked with Kyle Boller and Aaron Rodgers there. Even won the Las Vegas Bowl game with Joe Ayoob as the QB in the transition year after Rodgers. Jeff Tedford was in the CFL for 5 seasons with 4 teams and on the Stampeders coaching staff for 3 years alongside Wally Buono, John Hufnagel and Tom Higgins. He left at the end of the 1991 season and Cortez joined the Stamps in 1992. http://blog.ridleyscouting.com/Kent_Ridley_Thoughts/My_Thoughts/Entries/2014/12/5_Ode_to_George_Cortez.html

They also worked together at Cal too.

Saw this on another forum - Mark Killam might be a guy that would be interested. He did interview for the U of Alberta job.

Some thoughts on the Scouting Bureau's list - http://blog.ridleyscouting.com/Kent_Ridley_Thoughts/My_Thoughts/Entries/2014/12/12_Scouting_Bureau_December.html

Burratto's got some tread left still. I think I'd put him into that role with DeLaval being groomed to take over. I believe he lives in Boise during the winter. Worst thing about all this is that the GoDinos website still has Blake Nill listed as their head coach. CIS is embarrassing at times.

I think it stays internal myself. Steve Burrato would be a nice fit there and crank up that offense again. There really aren't many CIS coaches with winning records out there. So many have been lifers with 15 to 20 year runs at their schools that when they are done they really aren't looking for another coaching job. The ones that have been a year or two or three at a school mostly leave due to low success.

Lol, yeah that's what I thought at first too. Cheap move on Montreal's part. They should have been made to shovel the field too. Not technically against the rules, but it's petty. Montreal didn't have to shovel because they didn't even practice at the same place. Instead they used the bubble at Concordia for a couple sessions. Again in previous Vanier Cups both teams have been required to use the same practice field, stay at the same hotel and get meals there. This year Montreal did their own thing and nobody picked up the slack for the road team. Imagine if that happened in the NCAA? It'd be a major, major issue and on every channel/radio show.

Actually it has a lot to do with the other CFL clubs. Both in individuals that are now available (Would Benevides be an improvement from Etch as a DC?) and also in the size of the contract needed to secure a coach in the future. Also in another form do those open jobs hold any interest in current Bomber coaches. Everything that happens in the CFL has a ripple effect on the other teams.

Dangit Biebs you beat me to posting this. Mods feel free to delete my thread.

In 1985 and even 1995 there was a major difference in how recruiting worked in college football. It used to be said that every game on national TV was worth 5 recruits but now nearly every game is available nationally on some cable package. Nebraska used to own the mid-west and was the biggest football program on the Prairies. They had a huge recruiting area and could draw the top players from Nebraska, North/South Dakota, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa and Minnesota. By the way one of the rumors is that Mike Riley will bring Ed Orgeron in to coach the defense. If you used to be a Nebraska fan be prepared to become one again. They'll be a force in 4 years with those two recruiting the nation.

The football problem for Michael Sam is that he wasn't even the best DL prospect on his own team let alone being the best defensive player in his conference (he shared the award with CJ Mosley). For Missouri he was 9th in total tackles. The number one tackler in the SEC last year had 111 total tackles (Michael Sam's career total). Let's take some numbers: Michael Sam career Games - 52 Solo Tkl - 60 Total Tkl - 111 TFL - 32.5 Sack - 18.5 Passes Defended - 3 INTs - 2 Forced Fumbles - 5 QB Hurries - 15 2013 Season Games - 14 Solo Tkl - 31 Total Tkl - 48 TFL - 19 Sack - 11.5 Passes Defended - 2 INTs - 0 Forced Fumbles - 2 QB Hurries - 5 Kony Ealy (LDE for Missouri) had similar career numbers in 13 fewer games. Jadeveon Clowney had better career numbers in 16 fewer games. Sam didn't look good at Senior Bowl and most of the draft coverage from quality sources load up the "Strengths" category with backhanded compliments. Things like "Considering his size, Sam is surprisingly effective in run defense." show up regularly. He's smaller than most DEs and too slow to be a LB that can cover running backs or slot receivers. So until a team feels comfortable playing him as a rush end on a 4-3 front, and hoping the 2013 Missouri version can repeat itself, he'll be sitting on the sideline. http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/draft/players/1700418/michael-sam http://www.kansascity.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/red-zone/article337729/Senior-Bowl-losers-Transition-to-linebacker-tough-for-Missouris-Michael-Sam.html

Two things: #1 there's a lot of smoke to clear after the BC Lions and Riders have cleared out a bunch of coaches from their staffs and players start getting NFL workout offers. #2 Most of the front office focus right now is on Vegas and the start of the tryout season. First open tryout hits the field on Sunday.

Mike Riley has been on the hot seat there for a while but when it comes to the hire it's not as far out of left field as you may expect. I would attribute it more to the James Franklin hire at Penn State. A very good recruiter moving from a program that is stuck being the second fiddle program in their home state no matter what happens to moving to the clear #1 program in a new state that opens up a new recruiting ground for the program. Nebraska has 12 players that played high school right in Lincoln and only 7 that came from west of Colorado. Riley will open up the Inland Northwest for them. Also Riley is 6-2 in Bowl Games. They've gone to bowls in 5 in the past 7 years! Riley had OSU up to #7 in 2012 an routinely played a schedule that faced 4 or more ranked opponents every year. Oregon State has only been to 17 bowls total (11-6 record) with Riley winning more than any other coach. Bo Pelini is 4-3 in Bowl Games (one win as an interim head coach and 3-3 as full time head coach) but also lost all three conference championship games including that memorable loss to unranked Wisconsin in 2012 while being the #14 ranked school in the country. I was surprised but think it's a good hire for Nebraska. The next coach in Corvallis will have a tough time.

And yesterday this showed up - http://www.tmz.com/2014/12/03/michael-sam-im-not-in-the-nfl-because-im-gay

Do you think he's got the potential to be a CFL starter in say 1-2 years? Hypothetically, where do you think he'd be drafted if he were in the 2015 draft? Likely drafted in about the same area. Interesting to note that Ottawa's 7th round draft pick Vincent Desloges did the same thing this year.

Has left Oregon State for Nebraska! Most felt like he was going to be a lifer in Oregon State's spot.

The nice thing about Quinn is that he's a brawler. He played both sides of the line at times this year and picked up his pass blocking quickly all things considered. Mount Allison had a freshman running back that put up nearly a thousand yards (unlike the NCAA that's a big friggin deal in Canada). The downside is that Mount Allison averaged 35 rushes a game which just won't happen in the CFL. Quinn will have to polish up his pass blocking but he's in a better spot now than a year ago.

Lemon actually said he would only play for Calgary.

Just an aside to bring some numbers to it because some of the numbers tossed out in the thread aren't correct. From the 2010 census in Ferguson, Missouri: Total Population 21,203 St. Louis County: Population Total Population 998,954 http://www.census.gov/2010census/popmap/ipmtext.php?fl=29:2923986 St. Louis County is basically the area west of St. Louis proper and east of St. Charles. Jennings, Missouri where Darrin Wilson was first hired as a police officer is 3.7 miles from Ferguson and their entire police department was released from their contracts due to corruption charges (missing money from cases) against those at the top. Much more involved than simply chalking it up to race issues. Jennings now contracts their police service from the city of St. Louis. While the Ferguson police department only has 5 members of visible minority they only have a force of 60 members total. However the St. Louis County Police has 845 members and also serves the area. Carry on.