First practice of the regular season is today. Out with the old and in with the new. Time to get it started.

 

Gotta beat edm, and it should be a good game. 

The old trope of the east division being a free pass to the gc every year hasn’t worked out for west teams. That said, I feel like that path would be the best case for us. 

Hosting a play off game is always a big deal, but the next best outcome imo, is the east. 

Here's hoping its a win for us on Saturday.

Fwiw, +7 for a high next Sat in the 780.... Game is 2-5pm so it'll be chilly by the end be of the game. Wife and I are likely headed up there for it... Not sure we'll have the full ice fishing gear on, but wouldn't be far from it...

Edited October 5, 2025Oct 5 by Noeller

On 2025-10-03 at 8:34 PM, 17to85 said:

It actually goes back before they won a cup...

Find me one coach this site didn't complain about? Ok you got me on DC Tim Burke. Everybody loved him. Why don't we try him out at head coach?

34 minutes ago, brett_c_b said:

Find me one coach this site didn't complain about? Ok you got me on DC Tim Burke. Everybody loved him. Why don't we try him out at head coach?

Burke quit coaching as a Head Coach. He had no talent & he knew it. So, he coached like it. He inspired no one. Great example by the way. Job well done. 

2 hours ago, brett_c_b said:

Find me one coach this site didn't complain about? Ok you got me on DC Tim Burke. Everybody loved him. Why don't we try him out at head coach?

Bud Grant 🤣

4 hours ago, wbbfan said:

Gotta beat edm, and it should be a good game. 

The old trope of the east division being a free pass to the gc every year hasn’t worked out for west teams. That said, I feel like that path would be the best case for us. 

Hosting a play off game is always a big deal, but the next best outcome imo, is the east. 

I think MTL is likely the best team in the league. Id rather go west and have them in the gc than go there

Just now, Bigblue204 said:

I think MTL is likely the best team in the league. Id rather go west and have them in the gc than go there

They look very good with Davis Alexander, so so otherwise. Can they keep him healthy?

2 hours ago, SpeedFlex27 said:

Burke quit coaching as a Head Coach. He had no talent & he knew it. So, he coached like it. He inspired no one. Great example by the way. Job well done. 

Burke was never cut out to be a hc, he clearly learned that fast. Excellent defensive coach though. Packed it in when he realized he wasn’t gonna rise up. 

3 hours ago, brett_c_b said:

Find me one coach this site didn't complain about? Ok you got me on DC Tim Burke. Everybody loved him. Why don't we try him out at head coach?

Football has the shortest shelf life for coaches. You either die a hero or live long enough to become a villain.

The last guys we had that the fan base would’ve preferred keep imo, are coach cal and riley. 

The stretch of coaches we had after ritchie and before mos was horrid. As was the pre ritchie era. Perpetually the worst coached team. 

 

The reality is football evolves faster than other sports, and the talent/athleticism scales like crazy. You can also rebuild a team in a single year. In order to stay on top of coaching at the pro level you need to do an otherworldly job of evolving not just to match the game but also to out pace others. That also makes it harder to have a high enough peak of performance to win ships. Hcing and Ocing are the hardest jobs in coaching. It’s not fair, and many of the very best coaches in all of football are uprooting their life and family every couple years. And for no reason other than the timing didn’t line up well enough for them. 

 

We all know the roster management knock. The problem now is much more pervasive. Finer points of execution like tackling and stupid play discipline which where always strengths in the past are weaknesses now. We seldom adjust well any more or have great starts, and we aren the finishers we used to be. our 3rd quarters are handily the worst in the league. We aren’t good with a lead, and don’t play well from behind. 

We have maxed out how long you can go with out evolving. but don’t seem to recognize that fact. 

13 minutes ago, Bigblue204 said:

I think MTL is likely the best team in the league. Id rather go west and have them in the gc than go there

mtl is a way better team than their record shows. But with out a running game or consistency at qb they are aren’t the biggest play off threat. We match up really poorly with calgary, and not a lot better vs ssk. 

 

14 minutes ago, rebusrankin said:

They look very good with Davis Alexander, so so otherwise. Can they keep him healthy?

Hard to be in and out and that young then perform well in the play offs too 

15 hours ago, rebusrankin said:

Bud Grant 🤣

Mike Riley

14 hours ago, wbbfan said:

mtl is a way better team than their record shows. But with out a running game or consistency at qb they are aren’t the biggest play off threat. We match up really poorly with calgary, and not a lot better vs ssk. 

MTLs QBing will be ten fold better now that Alexander is back. That will help the run game as well. Their biggest problems have been staying healthy and it seems like they are finally over that. VA won't play well in the cold playoffs and I'm not sold on SSK offense at all. They've come back to reality, they were 1 horribly thrown ball by Brown away from losing against OTT. Not to mention BC is playing much better...1 home game and 1 road game vs 2 road games out east. That's just an easy choice imo.

14 hours ago, Bigblue204 said:

I think MTL is likely the best team in the league. Id rather go west and have them in the gc than go there

I have no faith in our Coaching to prepare this team to win 2 road games in West to get to cup....If we sneak into 2nd....we may catch lightening

I think tho this yr the West team that crosses over will be a first time Grey Cup participant, and seeing we in 4th currently and the Edm game  is no gimme at all we could be that cross over team.

We have shown zero consistency all yr, and have generally had our butthanded to us the majority of the season in the second half against the good teams (winning records) so although I like what I saw last game....was it an aberration, or do they come out of the bye and expand on that?....that will be the indicator if we are an actual Cup contender and until i see it 2..3 games in a row coming up have my doubts....hope I wrong but to think otherwise is foolish

And I am sure based on past seasons Osh will make a couple extremely dumb decisions re the roster, or what is occurring in the game and will cook our goose...so there is also that X factor

My opinion....closing out and into the playoffs...we gonna need everything to go perfect, and have a few opponents along the journey pulla cpuple their own Osh's and help us out

That being said I will gladly eat crow and Osh does a glorious job....but I'm not getting out my fork and knife just yet

 

 

18 hours ago, brett_c_b said:

Find me one coach this site didn't complain about? Ok you got me on DC Tim Burke. Everybody loved him. Why don't we try him out at head coach?

Already said Riley...Richard Harris too....always wanted him to be HC here....true player coach and guy who could relate to anyone....he would have been a great one

38 minutes ago, Booch said:

I have no faith in our Coaching to prepare this team to win 2 road games in West to get to cup....If we sneak into 2nd....we may catch lightening

I think tho this yr the West team that crosses over will be a first time Grey Cup participant, and seeing we in 4th currently and the Edm game  is no gimme at all we could be that cross over team.

We have shown zero consistency all yr, and have generally had our butthanded to us the majority of the season in the second half against the good teams (winning records) so although I like what I saw last game....was it an aberration, or do they come out of the bye and expand on that?....that will be the indicator if we are an actual Cup contender and until i see it 2..3 games in a row coming up have my doubts....hope I wrong but to think otherwise is foolish

And I am sure based on past seasons Osh will make a couple extremely dumb decisions re the roster, or what is occurring in the game and will cook our goose...so there is also that X factor

My opinion....closing out and into the playoffs...we gonna need everything to go perfect, and have a few opponents along the journey pulla cpuple their own Osh's and help us out

That being said I will gladly eat crow and Osh does a glorious job....but I'm not getting out my fork and knife just yet

 

 

Already said Riley...Richard Harris too....always wanted him to be HC here....true player coach and guy who could relate to anyone....he would have been a great one

Cmon, memory is selective, for example Burke was fired wasnt he? His team had the 2nd worst passing defence in the league, finished 3&15, you think he wouldn't be torn apart by this crew?

The only thing that was on his side was having GM Mack to complain about the first 6 games

Every head coach gets complained about even one thats taken their team to 5 grey cups I complain about him as well it basically comes with the job

20 hours ago, Noeller said:

Fwiw, +7 for a high next Sat in the 780.... Game is 2-5pm so it'll be chilly by the end be of the game. Wife and I are likely headed up there for it... Not sure we'll have the full ice fishing gear on, but wouldn't be far from it...

Game is at 5:00pm isn't it?

5 minutes ago, HardCoreBlue said:

Game is at 5:00pm isn't it?

Yup, game starts 6pm WPG time.

2 hours ago, Booch said:

We have shown zero consistency all yr, and have generally had our butthanded to us the majority of the season in the second half against the good teams (winning records) so although I like what I saw last game....was it an aberration, or do they come out of the bye and expand on that?....that will be the indicator if we are an actual Cup contender and until i see it 2..3 games in a row coming up have my doubts....hope I wrong but to think otherwise is foolish

And I am sure based on past seasons Osh will make a couple extremely dumb decisions re the roster, or what is occurring in the game and will cook our goose...so there is also that X factor

My opinion....closing out and into the playoffs...we gonna need everything to go perfect, and have a few opponents along the journey pulla cpuple their own Osh's and help us out

So what you are saying is that we need our o-line to gel (for once) ,  Zach to remain healthy and not force throws,   fringe receivers to step up and play like starters,   O'Shea to sit Thomas and use the roster properly and rotate guys on the d-line.  the lbers to remain healthy,   dbs to continue to press and guys like Houston to step up rather then revert back to getting burned.   We need to pray that the terrible play on the O was not a result of Hogan playcalling and more so Zach + o-line issues.   We need to hope that none of the key starters get hurt and then trotted out like Bighill was.    We need to hope that the weather turns cold and miserable.   We need to hope that other teams like Calgary continue to struggle.   We need to make sure that we don't face a back up QB who for whatever reason will have the game of his life against us.     And if all of this happens we might have a shot of winning it all?  

1 hour ago, HardCoreBlue said:

Game is at 5:00pm isn't it?

I'm not sure what I was looking at... Yes 5pm. Gonna be a very chilly game. Ice fishing clothing it is!

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2 hours ago, Pete said:

Cmon, memory is selective, for example Burke was fired wasnt he? His team had the 2nd worst passing defence in the league, finished 3&15, you think he wouldn't be torn apart by this crew?

The only thing that was on his side was having GM Mack to complain about the first 6 games

Every head coach gets complained about even one thats taken their team to 5 grey cups I complain about him as well it basically comes with the job

I not sure what you getting at in egards to my post....Burke was a decent coord...crappy HC ....Tho was also in a dead man walking situation too

1 hour ago, bigg jay said:

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190 pound DE?!?

7 minutes ago, Bubba Zanetti said:

190 pound DE?!?

pretty sure thats an oopsie.....dude dont look no 190

14 minutes ago, Bubba Zanetti said:

190 pound DE?!?

But he's hella quick....

1 hour ago, Brandon said:

So what you are saying is that we need our o-line to gel (for once) ,  Zach to remain healthy and not force throws,   fringe receivers to step up and play like starters,   O'Shea to sit Thomas and use the roster properly and rotate guys on the d-line.  the lbers to remain healthy,   dbs to continue to press and guys like Houston to step up rather then revert back to getting burned.   We need to pray that the terrible play on the O was not a result of Hogan playcalling and more so Zach + o-line issues.   We need to hope that none of the key starters get hurt and then trotted out like Bighill was.    We need to hope that the weather turns cold and miserable.   We need to hope that other teams like Calgary continue to struggle.   We need to make sure that we don't face a back up QB who for whatever reason will have the game of his life against us.     And if all of this happens we might have a shot of winning it all?  

Imo, the OL is beyond just needing to gel. It needs more fresh blood. Vanterpool would go a long way, but we have too many liabilities 1on1 on the line today. 

The wr core isn't fringe anymore, imo. They need to continue what they've been doing, and if they can step up furthe,r that would be great. 

We either need to give up on DL pressure, or relegate Thomas to the end roster Canadian he is. I think we all know which of those is more likely. 

We don't need much from the Lbers, it would be great if they stay healthy, and if Jones could do a better job of getting back, but it isn't make or break. 

The DBs, yeah, and from what they've shown, I think they will continue in the right direction. 

We need to pray that the offence can do exactly what it did vs Hamilton, in every single remaining game this year. By hook or by crook, not much less will do. 

If the O can do what it did to hamilton in every game remaining, and the secondary continues to do what it's been doing, and we don't get blitz happy, we have a much better chance than we deserve based on this year. 

IF we had a big addition by subtraction type injury, (thomas, kola etc) and made the right replacement, that would be a tremendous boost. 

 90% of our shot lies in Zachs hands. If he can do what he did to hamilton, straight beating their rush with decision making and getting the ball out, in 2 step drops, we could beat any one in any game. 

15 minutes ago, Tracker said:

But he's hella quick....

 

31 minutes ago, Bubba Zanetti said:

190 pound DE?!?

 

22 minutes ago, Booch said:

pretty sure thats an oopsie.....dude dont look no 190

I mean, we list Ayers as a DE... He listed as light as 221 in high school lol.  Fun fact, he also returned a squib kick for a TD twice in high school. He listed 260, and that might be a bit generous given his short height. 

He reminds me of Habba. Stocky, one move rusher with solid athleticism, and a low below pads rush type. He does show much better hand usage than Habba, and he is an extremely versatile guy. He played DE, some 3-tech, 3-4 OLB (Jack), Mac, Wil, and Sam.  He also played a bunch of teams. 

40 minutes ago, Bubba Zanetti said:

190 pound DE?!?

Just put him on the FatBoi diet and he'll be tiptoeing up to the play in no time!

31 minutes ago, Booch said:

pretty sure thats an oopsie.....dude dont look no 190

Yeah i think they just enter the height/weight for Williams twice (both listed as 6'1, 190).    Most places have him listed at 6 or 6'1 and around 255.