GCn20

Masterful coaching job this week. Gotta give credit where credit is due. Players played hard..MOS has not lost this room...Condell awesome playcaliing...Younger pointed our guys downhill for a change. Locker room leaders like Tony Jones and Neufeld stepped up their physicality as well and it was infectious.

For those eating crow today, I would remind those talking trash about Tony Jones to get their fork out too. Guy was sensational last night.

Shouldn't be any complaints after this game. We owned the field tonight. About time.

This is my last game as a Bomber! Signs not a one year, but a two year extension not even two weeks later. Maybe I should be questioning Drew Wolitarsky's credibility? I'll have my friend get him to respond to this. MBB maybe gets a new member. Here is an article a couple days after he signed his extension really early in December 2019 (from last game as a Bomber to 2 year extension within 2 weeks) https://www.bluebombers.com/2019/12/15/bombers-sign-receiver-drew-wolitarsky-two-year-extension/ Please note his comments about O'Shea....something doesn't pass the sniff test. Ed Tait@EdTaitWFC Share There are many, many places on this earth where Drew Wolitarsky can find peace. Sometimes it can be on the football field with his Winnipeg Blue Bombers teammates, especially after celebrating a Grey Cup victory. Or it can be virtually anywhere as long as he has his guitar in his hands. But on Sunday morning – not long after the club had announced a two-year contract extension for the veteran receiver – Wolitarsky was chilling at a Starbucks in Newport, CA when a call came from Winnipeg. “It’s a beautiful spot, man. I’m good right now. So good,” began Wolitarsky, in a chat with bluebombers.com. “I’m reading ‘Jurassic Park’, the book. Truthfully, I like it better than the movie so far. It’s pretty intense. It’s scary. Michael Crichton (the author), he’s a beast. Smart dude. He was a doctor and said, ‘I want to write.’ He’s amazing.” Scheduled to become a free agent in February, Wolitarsky admittedly couldn’t have imagined himself in different Canadian Football League colours. Understandably then, when the club made a contract offer he found to his liking, he quickly scratched his signature onto the thing. “That would have been very odd, wearing a different uniform,” said Wolitarsky. “Heading into free agency… It was like, ‘I don’t know, man. This is my squad.’ I saw Osh (head coach Mike O’Shea) is coming back and I love playing for him. I just feel his style of coaching and his personality is something I vibe with really well. “Dude, I’m excited. It’s a huge relief. I obviously wanted to be back and then it was just a matter of finding a reasonable deal. Then the team came through really huge. It’s pretty cool. “I’ve met a lot of people, have a lot of friends there and have some music going on… there’s just a lot of great stuff going on in that city for me. I’ve really grown up there. It would have been really hard to leave that behind.” A popular teammate and solid receiver – he had 33 catches for 361 yards and four touchdowns in 17 games and added eight more receptions for 118 yards in the playoffs after going 45-650-5 in 2018 – Wolitarsky was born and raised in California, but his mother hails from Montreal and he provided the necessary documentation to qualify as Canadian. He’s found a chance to spread his creative wings off the field here, too, and has proven to be a gifted writer and an aspiring and passionate musician who has already been in the recording studio. “I just love making music,” he said. “I love playing with people. It’s a cool language that requires no words. That’s why I like it the most… you’re able to express your inner-most feelings without necessarily having to say a thing. It’s beautiful.” A gritty receiver, free spirit and deep thinker, Wolitarsky is one of those ‘whatever it takes’ players who can play both wideout and slotback. He’s also got an enviable ability to not only live in the moment, but appreciate every nanosecond of it. An example that sums up his personality perfectly: “I was on a hike yesterday with my mom and thinking back to the Grey Cup game,” he said. “I was telling her that it still seems weird that we were there and we won. I had so much adrenaline, so much focus. But I can hardly even remember the day. It was kind of like a dream, but it was so cool we were in that position, in that moment. It only happens once a year, it’s a slim moment of time to be in one place and it’s difficult to get to there. And then we were there and we won… it’s just so cool. “Thinking back to three years ago and the first time I was in the room and hearing Coach O’Shea talk about winning the Cup, being a team and what it means… it was so cool to see that team progress and grow, myself grow in my role and progress. “It really is cool journey, dude,” Wolitarsky added. “Football is a journey, especially at this level with people coming and going to the team, the ups and downs of a year and the length of the season. It’s amazing what you can do with literal strangers over six months. It’s incredible.”

Ok so a direct PM from Drew is tripe, but "trust me bro" holds water. Got it. I never claimed to know anything about you other than what your own words say and your reluctance to back them up. I could give a **** where you went to school or Buddy Morris. None of that is relevant to the claims you are making. I am simply asking you to reveal your source if you are going to make claims about players feelings on the club. If you can do so fine, until then I am not really sure why the mods even allow it. If you can say you heard it directly from the horse's mouth I will believe you. You just never offer up anything more than 'trust me I have sources". If Drew said that to you in conversation then say so and I will give it some credence but just saying I know things without backing it up is rumor mongering. It doesn't matter who you are or where you've been, that's a universal truth.

Booch you go totally unhinged when someone chooses not to believe a "just trust me bro" on an internet forum, and you are talking about me having a rough life? LMAO. IF you choose to share who you are hearing this from then one can weigh the source, unsourced it is quite likely all made up. Sorry you will not bend my opinion on that. If someone comes on here and tells me they heard it straight from Drew Wolitarsky's mouth I may believe it. But just saying it and offering no supporting source for the information is not proof of anything. I have my sources is the oldest bullshit on the internet. You may very well have sources...name them. If not, don't expect a ton of people to believe it. Drew is a good friend of my friend who used to run Earl's. I'll get him to ask Drew and send me the PM to post up. Either it will back your story or not. If it backs your story then I will be man enough to eat crow. Hope you will do the same if it doesn't.

We have seen MANY of our cast offs picked up across the league. Not a single one has made an impact anywhere. Sure there are guys cut in EVERY teams TC that probably could be impact players if they had gotten a chance. That is not exclusive to us. You have 3 weeks to assess a 100 guys. Some will slip through the cracks, that's inevitable. That happens to every team ever. Some get picked up by other teams and go on to become stars. Chad Owens, Kenny Lawler etc. The vast majority though, and certainly in our case, of players that cut are cut because they aren't good enough. The overwhelming majority of backups in this league never amount to more than that. That's football.

It might be easier to take your 'inside knowledge" if it wasn't proven wrong again and again. Sorry you have to own that. You told us that you had first hand knowledge that Willie was never going to re-sign because of Osh a couple years ago. He was literally our first signing and he took less than market value to boot. So keep on with it, but once credibility is hit it's not forgotten. There is no one on this forum that can corroborate your rumors. No one...not even yourself. Talent rises to the top. Smith is also a great example of a guy not being held back by a coach. He suffered and may still be suffering through some mental issues that we are not privy to. It is quite possible that him being eased in is exactly the right move. He has fully admitted he is recovering from mental issues he is suffering from. To say he is being held back is possible, but it's also possible that being held back a little is exactly the right move. Maybe, just maybe, our coaching staff has more inside information than even you. You keep yapping like you know it all and have all the information that the coaches have....you don't and you never will. There are a thousand things about every player that none of us will ever know.

This notion that Smith is being held back is a completely false narrative. He is a second year guy who is gradually and consistently seeing more and more playing time. I agree, he is progressing exactly as one would expect.

I have similar concerns about how talent is utilized overall on our roster, but that doesn't make the bottom of our roster some treasure trove being held back. The examples you gave are an example. What have Ja'Kobe Clinton or Micah Vanterpool shown...not much. I get that we would like to see aging vets sat when there best before date hits, the notion that this will automatically make our team better is what I dispute. Micah is no greenhorn and he was absolutely horrid when he replaced Stan. This is a guy that not only should he not be starting before Stan, he probably shouldn't be here at all.....and that's my point. You guys are arguing in many cases for change for the sake of change, and that rarely works. We have to get guys in here that can actually do the job when the opportunity arises. Jaylen Smith is doing well in limited time and is a head scratcher that I will concede that he deserves more time.....however, his usage is continually going up as well. You guys keep saying how do we know what we have until we play them and then we play them and they are completely underwhelming.

Name one player who has ever left here that deserved more playing time than the guy ahead of him. ONE. Ok...maybe BOOL but it only took him what...3 years after leaving here to become a solid, not great, receiver. C'mon, it is a stretch to say that we are holding talent back, if we are i'd like to know who because absolutely none of it has turned up elsewhere. Our recruitment is awful and we are actually keeping a lot of guys too long as JBR has pointed out.

The fly in the ointment and what you consistently fail to recognize, is that cutting guys after signing them their signing bonuses still count towards the cap. Therefore, you must have an in house replacement ready to go. The guys we rode too hard is because of three things, one is that we have nothing ready behind them that is worth a crap, and two you can't cut vets after game 8 without paying their season salary, and three in cases like Stan a big part of their salary is paid already up front and counts to the cap. There is more to cutting guys than just cutting them. You have to have replacements, and you have to have money for replacements. I know you think you know things but your math has never been your strong point and that is where your arguments legs start to quiver. If we could just carte blanche cut guys I would agree but when you are eating a ton of salary to make it happen it also becomes a business decision.

Irony thy name is Booch.

DBs need a new coordinator.

Who offers the contract? Who gets them to sign it. I have not met many coaches who will put a warrior down, it is almost exclusively the job of the GM to not offer new contracts when a player expires. It is not only his job it is necessary so that the coach can save face with the dressing room. Somewhere along the line a lot of people here have given Walters a free pass for not having the wherewithal to do a big part of the job he is paid to do. Go around the league and ask any HC if he doesn't want a vet in camp and you will not get many no's from any of them. Unless you are suggesting that Stanley, Jake, and Kolanowski lost their game in season but should not have been played after? In which case I will ask you who was their better on our roster? Lawson was down, that left Fatboi or Korny....hate to say it but Fatboi was the better choice. Stanley hasn't been near as bad as ppl here are making out, but the game he did miss Vanterpool absolutely sucked, and we have seen how bad Eli is at centre. So again I will ask, how many of these roster choices are due to there being even less talent behind them and that is a GMing problem.

Baloney, and you know it. The HC has limited input into who comes into camp, or at least that is the way it's supposed to work. He gives his wish list to the GM, and the GM does his work within the confines of the SMS to bring in/bring back as much as he can. No coach refuses talent add and to suggest otherwise is insulting everyone's intelligence here. This notion that MOS has some kind of "we good" power over Walters just illustrates, if true, even more reason why Walters should be canned first. I coached for a long time at various levels of football, even did guest coaching gigs at TCs at Div 1 and CIS schools. I have NEVER met a HC who says "we good" in the offseason, never met a coach whose wish list wasn't way bigger than a GM could ever accomplish, and it would be 100% against any coaches DNA to ever refuse talent when offered. Any coach who would most definitely would never attain employment or consideration at a pro level. THAT'S FACT. You may have played the game Booch but you don't know **** from shinola about coaching it.

The ONLY successful move is to fire both Walters and Osh. Leaving either behind is keeping half the problem and we will see zero success. Walters cannot manage his HC, and his HC knows it....as will any other coach hired.

Not that I completely disagree....actually I do. There is no hidden all stars on our bench, all our all stars were allowed to leave town already. I am sure glad that all these guys were on lifetime contacts and the GM had no say whatsoever. Crock of bull laying an aging roster at the feet of the coach. GM decides that. It's his job.

Same goes for Walters.

Is that not exactly what I said?

This is the crux of the state of debate these days. No middle ground anymore. MOS and Walters were immensely successful for many years and both are very good at their jobs, however, both men are struggling right now as their competition was forced to raise their games and they stopped raising the bar. Both things can be true. We dont need to attempt to rewrite history to win an argument. What we need is a GM and coach with the same hunger to succeed as they had before. If they do there is no better coach and GM this team could ever hope for. Both sides of this debate are right. MOS and Walters are the best duo in the CFL, but only if they get off their asses and raise the bar like they used to do. People saying MOS and Walters are shitty are clueless, people saying that MOS and Walters are doing a good/their best job right now are also clueless. Both men are exceptional at their jobs but both men need a swift kick in the arse to get them going again.

Show the math for 5 straight West finals. I've been told facts matter.

Not going to argue the success of the CDN mafia..dont have to.

That tends to happen when ham and eggers are at QB

Miller has committed to the trinity whether u like it or not. You can scream how shitty you think MOS is. Those with the power to get rid of him extended him for 3 years. That's not a we want better contract, that's a we believe in your ability to turn it around contract...for both men. Who can blame Miller really? He was on the verge of firing one, or both men, but they did turn it around and gave Bomber fans a magic run of dominance. Walters and MOS are safe as can be for this and next season for sure. 7 straight WF..10 straight 10 win or more seasons..2 Grey Cups in a league with one year contracts is no fluke, or a lucky streak by clueless people and it is overwhelmingly ignorant for you to suggest that. You can criticize the work lately for sure, but give credit where credit is due. At one time the Canadian Mafia was the gold standard in this league and players played their asses off because every player in this league would trade places to be part of it. How that fell off, who knows, but both KW and MOS were at the top of the heap for many years.