With Rookie Camps getting underway Wednesday, it's time to talk about the 2026 CFL season!

17 hours ago, Gail said:

I remember reading that when Walters was head coack at Guelph he did a lot of scouting and recruiting and other duties that were of the GM ilk. He didn’t become Wpg’s GM by just being a scout for them.

All head coaches recruit. That's part of their job at the college level. U Sport teams don't have scouts like pro teams do. They also don't have player personnel dierectors. With NIL in the US, college teams in D1 do now have GMs when they didn't before to track NIL.

10 hours ago, GCn20 said:

JT is doing an excellent job. Not sure what you are on about now. Our DL is playing well.

Totally. JT can absolutely evaluate their tech and fine tune it without demonstrating it himself. That's just nonsense. By that logic 80% of the position coaches in the entirety of football should not be in their respective positions.

Bob Wylie ever jump on the line and demo tech? Nope. One of the best tech teachers the CFL has ever seen.⁷

Just another drive by at JT. Let it go Booch.

never said the dline wasnt playingwell...prob the one unit thats been consistently good all yr...But it's not because of JT's coaching is all I am saying...If it was his leadership and glue traits and how he played to show others how to do it wouldnt have had our dline bottom of barrel last 2..3 yrs

And in all honesty..Positional coaches save for a legit QB coach in the CFL are pretty much all ado about nothing...Just a position to over see the drills...thats on all teams btw...not just here

And I agree...there are some gys who never played a down who made a great coach...never said its not true....all I said was a

guy who had zero tech...no hand skills isnt the best to demonstrate it to a et...and if he had all this abiity he would have shown it...man some hyou people here sure get yer panties twisted

And yeah if i wanna drive by anyone...for good reason I will...so theres that too...deal with it

10 hours ago, Noeller said:

Also JT was a fine NI DT for years... He just got too many tros toward the end. But this narrative that he was shitty is false. He was a good player for a number of years. And I have zero doubts that he's a great teacher.

I don't ever remember a time on these boards or anywhere else that anyone ever said Jake Thomas was a fine or a talented player. He was just a guy who was just there.

I also don't remember ever going to a game and hearing the crowd roar when the PA announcer would get excited after a big Jake Thomas play. I do still have memories in my head from 30 years ago when the PA guy would say "K.....D... WILLIAMS" after the dude would make a big play.

Thomas could be a good coach, I'll give him a chance.

Jake was a fine backup guy. It was when they decided he was a starter that things got stupid. But his career is over and it appears he’s a solid coach and a smart football mind. Rumour has it he was always in the film room. So he will make a good coach.

Don Matthews was a great coach and he never played pro ball. Andy Reid has won three Super Bowls and never played pro ball. Jake will likely be fine.

Do we even know if this is what he wants to do long term? Perhaps his long term goal is to be the next Phil Dunphy.

I think history prob shows us that great players don’t make great coaches. Great right so I’m talking like elite athletes like milt or Montana maybe or guys with natural athletic ability. It’s the guys like Jake who do tho, average players on the field but perhaps had to work a bit harder cuz they don’t have that elite athleticism like a milt or Montana or I dunno name a superstar really.

Wayne Gretzky, perhaps the goat hockey player, one of the worst coaches ever.

On the other side a guy like Paul Maurice, certainly not a great player at all, his stats are brutal but a pretty damn good coach.

Edited August 18Aug 18 by Goalie

41 minutes ago, Goalie said:

I think history prob shows us that great players don’t make great coaches. Great right so I’m talking like elite athletes like milt or Montana maybe or guys with natural athletic ability. It’s the guys like Jake who do tho, average players on the field but perhaps had to work a bit harder cuz they don’t have that elite athleticism like a milt or Montana or I dunno name a superstar really.

Wayne Gretzky, perhaps the goat hockey player, one of the worst coaches ever.

On the other side a guy like Paul Maurice, certainly not a great player at all, his stats are brutal but a pretty damn good coach.

Yup, it's very obvious that there's zero correlation between being a good player and being a good coach. Completely different skill sets.

1 hour ago, Jesse said:

Yup, it's very obvious that there's zero correlation between being a good player and being a good coach. Completely different skill sets.

For sure.

1 hour ago, Goalie said:

I think history prob shows us that great players don’t make great coaches. Great right so I’m talking like elite athletes like milt or Montana maybe or guys with natural athletic ability. It’s the guys like Jake who do tho, average players on the field but perhaps had to work a bit harder cuz they don’t have that elite athleticism like a milt or Montana or I dunno name a superstar really.

Wayne Gretzky, perhaps the goat hockey player, one of the worst coaches ever.

On the other side a guy like Paul Maurice, certainly not a great player at all, his stats are brutal but a pretty damn good coach.

it’s almost the greater a player you are the worse coach you are. Mj and soo many others. mostly it’s mediocre players and fringe guys who end up being great coaches.

4 hours ago, Brandon said:

I don't ever remember a time on these boards or anywhere else that anyone ever said Jake Thomas was a fine or a talented player. He was just a guy who was just there.

I also don't remember ever going to a game and hearing the crowd roar when the PA announcer would get excited after a big Jake Thomas play. I do still have memories in my head from 30 years ago when the PA guy would say "K.....D... WILLIAMS" after the dude would make a big play.

Thomas could be a good coach, I'll give him a chance.

Thomas was useful in his day- not an all-star, and was kept after his best-before date due to O'Shea's biases. Whether he is a good coach has yet to be determined, but O'Shea's judgement in hiring positional coaches has hardly been good. I stand by opinion that this edition is worse than last year and needs a drastic overhaul.

6 hours ago, wbbfan said:

it’s almost the greater a player you are the worse coach you are. Mj and soo many others. mostly it’s mediocre players and fringe guys who end up being great coaches.

Because if you don't ooze natural talent, you have to be a student of the game. You can't keep up if you don't.

Ah mean, Chuckdiesel ain't gonna coach anyone, anywhere, anyhow

9 hours ago, Mark H. said:

Ah mean, Chuckdiesel ain't gonna coach anyone, anywhere, anyhow

well...He has coached youth in Sacremento area so that blows your statement all to ****

3 minutes ago, Booch said:

well...He has coached youth in Sacremento area so that blows your statement all to ****

but is he coaching them in night life stuff? LOL

Coaching kids is a whole different thing. I like the fit for him though. I wonder if those kids know the incredible level of talent they are coached by.

14 hours ago, Goldkobra said:

Because if you don't ooze natural talent, you have to be a student of the game. You can't keep up if you don't.

100%. In football, it tends to be the fringe guys who have the incredible desire as well. That's why you see guys like Kingsbury, who was a very fringy pro, to guys like maccioca who was a fringe everything.

18 hours ago, Tracker said:

Thomas was useful in his day- not an all-star, and was kept after his best-before date due to O'Shea's biases. Whether he is a good coach has yet to be determined, but O'Shea's judgement in hiring positional coaches has hardly been good. I stand by opinion that this edition is worse than last year and needs a drastic overhaul.

Jake was an excellent role player. A career overachiever who was instrumental in some of our best DLs and Ds doing what they did. He ate a whole lot of $#*& so other guys could eat steak, so to speak. He was never a guy who should be taking 800 snaps a season, though. He should've packed it in 2 years earlier and should've been playing 200- 300-ish snaps a season before that. Going away from the IMP NT beside him was a huge mistake as well. He was already too late in his career to be the primary nose next to an IMP 3-tech. Going to the full NI DT spot made us even worse. Even with Cam, the 3rd guy was always so bad.

We changed the philosophy to make Jake a starter, then a feature of the defence, and it made us worse continually. And still today, we don't carry an IMP nose, didnt bring any into camp, and only 1 imp DT 3tech.

4 minutes ago, wbbfan said:

but is he coaching them in night life stuff? LOL

Coaching kids is a whole different thing. I like the fit for him though. I wonder if those kids know the incredible level of talent they are coached by.

100%. In football, it tends to be the fringe guys who have the incredible desire as well. That's why you see guys like Kingsbury, who was a very fringy pro, to guys like maccioca who was a fringe everything.

hhaha...hope to hell not!! Too many times I had to get him home....But next day at practice you would never know...a quick cig...some greasy Mcdonalds breakfast and he was good...Oh what could have been if he gave a crap about the off-field stuff

But he has shown clips and talked quite a bit about his days up here, so they well aware...That being said he is still quite reveared down there anyway from his days with the Hornets

24 minutes ago, wbbfan said:

Jake was an excellent role player. A career overachiever who was instrumental in some of our best DLs and Ds doing what they did. He ate a whole lot of $#*& so other guys could eat steak, so to speak. He was never a guy who should be taking 800 snaps a season, though. He should've packed it in 2 years earlier and should've been playing 200- 300-ish snaps a season before that. Going away from the IMP NT beside him was a huge mistake as well. He was already too late in his career to be the primary nose next to an IMP 3-tech. Going to the full NI DT spot made us even worse. Even with Cam, the 3rd guy was always so bad.

We changed the philosophy to make Jake a starter, then a feature of the defence, and it made us worse continually. And still today, we don't carry an IMP nose, didnt bring any into camp, and only 1 imp DT 3tech.

How can guys managing & coaching at the pro level be so dense?? Trinity? Spit. No miracles will be performed with this team.

So current CFL Head Coaches

HOF Career-MOS+DD

Solid pro-Buck, Maas, Mace

Fringe to so so career-Millanovich, Dinwiddie

Not a pro-Killam and Miller

The NFL is different. Most of the head coaches went into coaching very early.

32 minutes ago, rebusrankin said:

So current CFL Head Coaches

HOF Career-MOS+DD

Solid pro-Buck, Maas, Mace

Fringe to so so career-Millanovich, Dinwiddie

Not a pro-Killam and Miller

The NFL is different. Most of the head coaches went into coaching very early.

That is very true. I wonder if that is a reason why the NFL seems to be evolving a bit more (play design/game management etc) than the CFL. DT often talks about how NFL teams go for it on 4th down way more often than CFL will go for it on 3rd. NFL also has evolved to a more pass centric league (though they did borrow from CFL).

52 minutes ago, Bigblue204 said:

That is very true. I wonder if that is a reason why the NFL seems to be evolving a bit more (play design/game management etc) than the CFL. DT often talks about how NFL teams go for it on 4th down way more often than CFL will go for it on 3rd. NFL also has evolved to a more pass centric league (though they did borrow from CFL).

DT has a bee in his bonnet about a few weird things. There's no comparison to how many times NFL teams go for it on 4th and 1 to 2 vs CFL teams going for it almost 90% of the time, even on their own side of the field.

4th and 3 NFL is at less than 1/3 conversion attempts.

CFL teams go for it way more on 3rd down.

The most aggressive NFL team over the past 3 season averages less than 2 4th down conversion attempts per game.

CFL teams have guys on their roster just to go for it on 3rd down. No NFL team is signing Tommy Stevens to do that job.

1 hour ago, Bigblue204 said:

That is very true. I wonder if that is a reason why the NFL seems to be evolving a bit more (play design/game management etc) than the CFL. DT often talks about how NFL teams go for it on 4th down way more often than CFL will go for it on 3rd. NFL also has evolved to a more pass centric league (though they did borrow from CFL).

I would imagine the NFL uses analytics more than the CFL.

3 hours ago, Booch said:

well...He has coached youth in Sacremento area so that blows your statement all to ****

That must require large amounts of rye, neat

3 hours ago, Booch said:

hhaha...hope to hell not!! Too many times I had to get him home....But next day at practice you would never know...a quick cig...some greasy Mcdonalds breakfast and he was good...Oh what could have been if he gave a crap about the off-field stuff

But he has shown clips and talked quite a bit about his days up here, so they well aware...That being said he is still quite reveared down there anyway from his days with the Hornets

Legendary. That is all.

1 hour ago, Mark H. said:

That must require large amounts of rye, neat

Legendary. That is all.

not sure what the comment is supposed to imply...But kind of an odd thing to say

8 minutes ago, Booch said:

not sure what the comment is supposed to imply...But kind of an odd thing to say

Just that I saw him do that once. Paper cup - straight rye

2 hours ago, rebusrankin said:

I would imagine the NFL uses analytics more than the CFL.

Yeah and they punt more on the final down.