Etcheverry's first comments since being hired. Interesting gentleman...

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/sports/football/bombers/new-defensive-guru-looks-only-at-future-255124031.html

BRADENTON, Fla. -- If you were thinking getting fired from his last job after just five games had humbled Gary Etcheverry, well, think again.

The new defensive co-ordinator of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers was defiant here Sunday when asked about his brief -- and winless -- stint in 2012 as head coach of the University of Ottawa Gee Gees football team.

Asked how the Ottawa experience -- in which he was abruptly fired after opening the 2012 season at 0-5 -- had changed him as a coach, Etcheverry invoked the memory of one of the world's most famous firings. "Kind of the way maybe getting fired by the company he founded changed Steve Jobs 11 years later when he went back to save Apple," Etcheverry said Sunday on Day 1 of the Bombers' first-ever spring mini-camp in Florida.

"They weren't ready for me, and I wasn't ready for them."

Well then.

It was one of just two Apple references Etcheverry invoked Sunday in what were his first public comments to the Winnipeg media since he was hired as the Bombers' new DC in February. "People always talk about a playbook. We don't have a playbook," Etcheverry said in reference to his unique -- and famously confusing -- defence.

"Well, when you used to have a VCR you had a playbook like this," Etcheverry continued, holding his hands several inches apart, "and you still couldn't set the damn clock. And nowadays if you have an Apple product, what's the playbook? What's the user manual?

"But they say we're behind the times because we don't have a playbook? S , we're so far behind the times we're ahead of the times."

Confidence

What emerged here Sunday is that the Bombers have secured for themselves a new defensive co-ordinator who, if nothing else, is certainly not lacking in confidence.

But then why would he be? Now in his 35th year in coaching, the 57-year-old Etcheverry has coached everywhere from college to Europe to the NFL to 10 years in the CFL, which included a brief stint as head coach of the Toronto Argonauts in 2002.

A Grey Cup winner in 1997 with the Argos and more recently the architect of stingy defences in Saskatchewan from 2008-10, Etcheverry is considered a master of a defence that can best be described as organized chaos, with defenders expected to play all over the field and in strangely named positions such as rover.

"I believe he's thought more about football than a lot of people and he's thought about it in a lot of different ways," says Bombers head coach Mike O'Shea, who played under Etcheverry in Toronto. "He's very thorough in his thought process on how defensive football should be played and how offensive football should be played."

The admiration is mutual. "I've told people that there's nobody that I've worked with at any point in time that I've had more respect for," Etcheverry said of O'Shea. "It's very exciting. Certainly he's elated and I am for him. Our job now is to get us to where we need to be."

So how will he do that? With fleet and finely tuned athletes, instead of the physical behemoths so commonly associated with CFL defences, Etcheverry says. "We do a lot of things that require interchangeability among our players, so we can't have a bunch of 300-pounders out there, because they can't run on this big-ass field...

"We cause confusion, there's no question about it," Etcheverry continued. "We want to be multiple, and to be multiple you gotta have interchangeable athletes... Multiple everything. Multiple alignments, multiple movements, multiple coverages, multiple, multiple, multiple...

"If we're gonna err, we're gonna err on the side of speed."

Ken Moll worked out some guys & then invited them to a camp. And they brought down their veterans at some positions. It was nothing close to what they do now.

 

I'm surprised you're giving Walters and co. a free pass just based on effort.  I'm still interested to see the results of all these camps before I go on praising the wonderful job these guys are doing.  Sure it looks great in the media but how about on the field?  The jury is still out.

 

The Bombers had invitation camps rather than open camps under Mack.

 

It would take a lot to convince me that the camps the Bombers held this off-season weren't the same for the most part, just that they tried to recoup some of the cost with registration fees.  They had guys they wanted to see, they were in touch with agents who represent players that they could send to free agent camps for a look.

 

It's all semantics.  Based on the NFL resumes of all the guys we're signing, they aren't exactly digging up any Vince Papale's.

 

 

Ken Moll worked out some guys & then invited them to a camp. And they brought down their veterans at some positions. It was nothing close to what they do now.

 

I'm surprised you're giving Walters and co. a free pass just based on effort.  I'm still interested to see the results of all these camps before I go on praising the wonderful job these guys are doing.  Sure it looks great in the media but how about on the field?  The jury is still out.

 

 

Agreed.  And the ratio of guys with relatively lengthy NFL careers in their late 20s to younger imports, the overlooked coming out of college or guys who were in a mini-camp with the NFL type, is a concern for me.  A guy like McRath could be a great MLB for us, but he's at the very end of his football career and coming off serious injury.

 

If they hit on a couple of those guys, they might adapt quicker given their experience in pro football, and that could be what they are going for in terms of putting the best team on the field in 2014.  I'd like to see some guys that might have some potential longevity in the CFL in the mix too.

At least they're trying. They're following a formula the Stamps, Riders, Lions, Als & Argos use that I know of. All of those teams have found players who came in, started & played well for their teams. We didn't have 12 free agent camps in one of season under Mack & Moll. And then invite the best guys from each camp about 60 in all to one camp where they intend to invite up to 15 to the main camp. The coaches all got to evaluate the players at each camp. Not just Moll. The other teams charge for workouts as well. 

 

 

The Bombers had invitation camps rather than open camps under Mack.

 

It would take a lot to convince me that the camps the Bombers held this off-season weren't the same for the most part, just that they tried to recoup some of the cost with registration fees.  They had guys they wanted to see, they were in touch with agents who represent players that they could send to free agent camps for a look.

 

It's all semantics.  Based on the NFL resumes of all the guys we're signing, they aren't exactly digging up any Vince Papale's.

 

 

Ken Moll worked out some guys & then invited them to a camp. And they brought down their veterans at some positions. It was nothing close to what they do now.

 

I'm surprised you're giving Walters and co. a free pass just based on effort.  I'm still interested to see the results of all these camps before I go on praising the wonderful job these guys are doing.  Sure it looks great in the media but how about on the field?  The jury is still out.

 

 

Agreed.  And the ratio of guys with relatively lengthy NFL careers in their late 20s to younger imports, the overlooked coming out of college or guys who were in a mini-camp with the NFL type, is a concern for me.  A guy like McRath could be a great MLB for us, but he's at the very end of his football career and coming off serious injury.

 

If they hit on a couple of those guys, they might adapt quicker given their experience in pro football, and that could be what they are going for in terms of putting the best team on the field in 2014.  I'd like to see some guys that might have some potential longevity in the CFL in the mix too.

 

Or better yet they hit on a guy like a corner/linebacker Keon Raymond who was found at a FA camp. Or middle linebacker Juwan Simpson & receiver Joe West. Another promising player, receiver Jeff Fuller also a FA signing who attended these camps. Calgary's roster is full of players taken from FA camps they've held over the years. 

But again, does it matter how you find them if you find new players to the CFL who can play? You can't tell me that Mack and Moll didn't bring in rookies who were good. Hell that was ultimately their downfall. They found good rookies, but their teams lacked experience. I think you're just bitching for the sake of bitching and you love to completely trash the last management for anything whether it's valid or not. 

But again, does it matter how you find them if you find new players to the CFL who can play? You can't tell me that Mack and Moll didn't bring in rookies who were good. Hell that was ultimately their downfall. They found good rookies, but their teams lacked experience. I think you're just bitching for the sake of bitching and you love to completely trash the last management for anything whether it's valid or not.

I would say the downfall was the coaching way more then the guys they brought in. Lots of the random new guys were quite talented and played great.

 

But again, does it matter how you find them if you find new players to the CFL who can play? You can't tell me that Mack and Moll didn't bring in rookies who were good. Hell that was ultimately their downfall. They found good rookies, but their teams lacked experience. I think you're just bitching for the sake of bitching and you love to completely trash the last management for anything whether it's valid or not.

I would say the downfall was the coaching way more then the guys they brought in. Lots of the random new guys were quite talented and played great.

 

No leadership from either coaches or veteran players. It's all part and parcel of the same problem. If you go with a young inexperienced team you need that leadership from the coaching ranks.

 

But again, does it matter how you find them if you find new players to the CFL who can play? You can't tell me that Mack and Moll didn't bring in rookies who were good. Hell that was ultimately their downfall. They found good rookies, but their teams lacked experience. I think you're just bitching for the sake of bitching and you love to completely trash the last management for anything whether it's valid or not.

I would say the downfall was the coaching way more then the guys they brought in. Lots of the random new guys were quite talented and played great.

 

Sure they found some good rookies, any team who is looking and has connections could...but they often didn't find them for the positions that were needed at the time. Mack was too stubborn to deal with other teams, and didn't fix the QB position and the offensive line. He also hired Burke as the head coach. Your blind deference of the man is amusing.

Anyone read Doug Brown's column? Etcheverry blew a job as HC with SFU because he refused to discuss or let any of the interviewers see his playbook. And this is the paranoid individual MOS has trusted our defense to?

When others read the article, they will not come to the same conclusion…the only one using the word paranoid is you.

 

View the full article

I read the entire article. How can you not say the guy is paranoid his players will lose their playbooks & an enemy team will find it? Or that a disgruntled player will sell his playbook to the highest bidder? That's what I got out of it. The SFU example is ridiculous.

What I'm saying is relax…we haven't had any long runs or long passes against us yet and you're just too ready to crucify the guy.

How did Brown put it? 

"In fact, maybe coining this as "mildly disturbing" is simply an old-school mentality getting the best of me. As long as it works, I'm sure Bomber fans and players won't care if he scrolls out his weekly blitz packages in disappearing ink."

Brown's having fun with it and until something different happens, maybe we can take it lightly for now too.

 

I'll take it lightly if his defense works the entire season. People will be all over the guy if it sucks.

I'll take it lightly if his defense works the entire season. People will be all over the guy if it sucks.

In other news, water is wet and the sun is bright..

Yep, you got it SpuDs. You can't say I don't support the new regime as some people are questioning my faith in Kyle Walters & MOS on another thread. But their hire of Etcheverry??? I think it will be a big mistake. Hope I'm wrong.

Yep, you got it SpuDs. You can't say I don't support the new regime as some people are questioning my faith in Kyle Walters & MOS on another thread. But their hire of Etcheverry??? I think it will be a big mistake. Hope I'm wrong.

 

Just curious but who would you have put a gun to and forced them to come here to be the defensive coordinator instead? cuz seems to me, the guys we wanted (stubler for sure) didnt want to come here. So sure maybe ETCH is a bit of a crazy person or strange i guess, maybe the phrase best used to describe etch would be "not normal" but... he came here. Stubler didnt, others didnt. why is that? cuz others didnt want too probably. So basically, seems like ETCH was the best we could get. Oshea trusts the guy, honestly osheas opinion should mean more then a bitter doug brown who has done nothing but crap on the team who paid him hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to play and not win for. So just curious, who would you have made come here? cuz i think oshea tried to get other guys but they didnt want to come. Happens when you fire coaches every year. Guess you get the reputation that your organization is a joke... who would you have wanted to come join the joke of an organization?

let me be clear, im not saying the organization is a joke, but a few months ago, it was quite the gong show for a while... for a few years really it was a gong show, sure we may not be as much of one right now as we were, but... it doesnt take 3 months to fix what took years to get too. We are still a gong show of sorts, and probably are known as one throughout the league, why would coaches want to come here? cuz recent history suggests you come here and your career is ruined.

 

Oshea hired ETCH, so be it. its his choice. If etch fails, he fails but i think basing thoughts on his past and what he says in media written articles or opinion colums like doug browns, i dont like that. Lets see what he does as a blue bomber first then we can crucify him if he fails.

 

I think after last year and the previous regime, i think based on last season, if anything, this year will/should be entertaining. say what you will about etch and the coaches and all that but ones things for certain. Last year was boring dull not exciting, we sucked so bad and were losing so bad that games were over by half time most games. This year... say what you will but i think the entertainment factor will be high. Yes we all want the team to do well and win win win but if not, i think most of us just want to be entertained. 60$ a ticket, give me something to cheer for or get excited about . Last year, i had nothing. This season, im betting ill have a few things to entertain me.

 

Yep, you got it SpuDs. You can't say I don't support the new regime as some people are questioning my faith in Kyle Walters & MOS on another thread. But their hire of Etcheverry??? I think it will be a big mistake. Hope I'm wrong.

 

Just curious but who would you have put a gun to and forced them to come here to be the defensive coordinator instead? cuz seems to me, the guys we wanted (stubler for sure) didnt want to come here. So sure maybe ETCH is a bit of a crazy person or strange i guess, maybe the phrase best used to describe etch would be "not normal" but... he came here. Stubler didnt, others didnt. why is that? cuz others didnt want too probably. So basically, seems like ETCH was the best we could get. Oshea trusts the guy, honestly osheas opinion should mean more then a bitter doug brown who has done nothing but crap on the team who paid him hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to play and not win for. So just curious, who would you have made come here? cuz i think oshea tried to get other guys but they didnt want to come. Happens when you fire coaches every year. Guess you get the reputation that your organization is a joke... who would you have wanted to come join the joke of an organization?

 

I'd have hired a young up & coming defensive coach from another team. Don't ask me who in particular as I can't answer that. 

I'm hoping for the best... but, yeah, all I wanted was a coaching staff without a 'guru' or a 'mad genius'...  maybe next year...