http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/sports/football/bombers/Dont-put-a-stopwatch-on-Miller-Time-326774901.html

 

Wade Miller doesn’t need the job. Which in the end may enable him to do it properly.

The CEO of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers could clean his desk out at Investors Group Field tomorrow and move back to Pinnacle or one of his other businesses. He doesn’t need the paycheque and has other interests to keep him busy. This isn’t to say he doesn’t want the job. He does. And he wants to be successful, returning the Bombers to a position of relevance in the CFL.

But he won’t do it dancing to someone else’s tune. He can’t. It doesn’t work that way in pro football — or any business. Too many cooks, as they say. Or in the case of the Bombers — too many passionate observers.

Miller doesn’t have to take advice from a well-meaning but misinformed booster. He doesn’t have to allow the now mounting pressure from fans or his board of directors to influence his decisions.

He can quite confidently say, "I’m doing it my way and if you don’t like that — go find someone else."

A loss in Saturday’s Banjo Bowl will very likely signify the end of any playoff hopes for this season and put Miller in the latest of tough spots.

Hey, maybe if they fall to 3-8, the Bombers will find a way to win six of their last seven and get to nine wins which may or may not qualify them for the post-season. But the more realistic guess is they’ll be toast and thoughts will once again have to turn to next season.

The clamour for change will hit new heights and Winnipeg the football market will become a crucible.

Miller has lots of qualifications for the job he holds but his ability to be impenetrable and above the whims of others may be the most important.

It may save the organization from yet another in a series of inglorious gaffes. From a continuation of poor hirings and quick firings which has kept this team championship-less for 25 years. From changing direction well before it’s clear they’re headed to the wrong destination.

Fans are already staying away from the stadium. The ultimate pressure — a drop in revenue will soon be on Miller’s doorstep. The board will have questions and in the past it’s right about now when they’ve wanted to be involved in providing the answers.

Less than two seasons into a fresh start program, people will want to hit the ejector seat button and start anew. It’s more difficult to continue on a path — even one facing challenges — and let people complete the tasks as put forth in a plan. Historically the Bombers have taken the easy way out. We know what that’s gotten this city’s football fans.

It may prove the planners are flawed and indeed misplaced, but it’s too early to reach that conclusion. Miller knows this.

Will he lie down in front of his office door and tell his board they’ll need to fire him in order to get to his football operations staff?

This is where it gets tricky in Bomberland. Where a volunteer board with no football administration experience gets involved in decisions from which they should be kept away. In the past they couldn’t help themselves and had to put their fingers in the pie.

They got it right when they hired Miller and board chair Brock Bulbuck promised his group would be hands-off. Now it’s time to stick to those vows. That part of the process is more important than the results of today.

Same old Bombers, you say? Attempting to influence or even removing Miller would truly be the same old Bombers. The board-influenced Bombers that fired Cal Murphy, gave Jeff Reinebold and Mike Kelly the keys to the kingdom, allowed Brendan Taman to be forced out, hired Joe Mack, extended Joe Mack, fired Paul LaPolice, installed Garth Buchko and oversaw a stadium file riddled with ineptitude.

Letting the CEO do his job and allowing him to let GM Kyle Walters and head coach Mike O’Shea continue with their plan would actually represent true change and offer hope that a new day is actually upon the Blue Bombers.

Two years isn’t enough time to turn around a professional sports franchise.

Miller has held strong on the football operations end of things to date. He hired Walters and he was involved in the process of selecting and courting O’Shea. These are his guys. He wants them to succeed. Left to his own devices, Miller will let this duo return for next year.

It’s impossible to predict what will happen next season with this team. Walters has improved the roster but he hasn’t had time to create depth. The point of Walters’ plan was to build an organization with depth and the ability to overcome injuries and the loss of talent due to free agency. To construct a scouting department which constantly churns out useful players. To hire a coach who would grow with the team and eventually take them to a Grey Cup. And then another. And another. To win championships and be a perennial contender.

From the beginning, he said it would take time. Winnipeg loved the sound of it when Walters first spoke as GM and laid out his scheme. But now, with the pain of potentially missing the playoffs once again taking hold, many in Bombers nation have developed short memories. Or they ignored the bit about time all along.

Maybe the guy in the luxury suite with purple teeth after a few too many glasses of pinot noir should be heard and his words acted upon. Perhaps the person in line at the Rum Hut sporting a paper bag has all the answers.

Or maybe it’s time to give people a real opportunity to do their job. Maybe Miller Time should be judged with a dispassionate eye and not a stopwatch.

Yep. Good old Mr. Superfan. Much rather get into the whole name calling thing.

Fact is you cannot do any less than pull out the insults because there is no evidence to back your pleas for patience.

Stability follows success, never the other way around. (Which is why Winnipeg hasn't had stability, at least on the coaching side, and now on the GM side. They did have the GM stability for a bit under Bauer)

Walters has put the recruiting processes on a much better footing and has made several key acquisitions which ought to serve this club well in time to come. Admittedly, the Import talent needs some better bodies, but filling the pipeline will likely take another year. McManus and Goveia (sp?) need to up their game. I am willing to give Walters another year, but have given up on O'Shea.

I'll refer you to the topic A Comprehensive Review of Kyle Walters by AKAChip. His take is hardly flattering and while the recruiting process may be on a better footing who are the key acquisitions Walters has made? Surely not Moore or Picard and the QBs have been a disaster although it remains to be seen what Nichols may be able to do. Walters entire body of work to date has done little to improve this club. We are agreed on O'Shea and I suspect Walters will get another year but I don't hold out much hope of seeing any earth shattering personnel moves. I hope I am wrong.

willy isnt a disaster.. Nichols is still a to be determined. moore, ok. picard has been serviceable.. We havent had to forcefully yank him yet and he hasnt had any brutally bad snaps. He also brought in Westerman, Bryant, Bass and even hurl could be argued to be better then what we had last season.

Your myopic view of what walters has done betrays you yet again. Our canadian depth imo is better then its been in a long time. We could be looking at some good pieces in the future at LB, DB and Safety.

You can't honestly believe that Picard has been anything but a disaster, can you? Sure none of his snaps have been over the QB's head, but they are either extremely low or floaters that take nearly a full second to get to the QB. Combined with his atrocious blocking, undisciplined penalties and salary and you get a disaster. Just because he hasn't been forcefully yanked doesn't change that. In fact, it's a testament to O'Shea's lack of accountablity for veterans.

No.. Hes been supbar and borderline useless BUT disaster is a bit much. If he was a disaster, Goose or an american would be in there.

Hes far from dominant and hes far from the best but whos to say he wasnt selling out hard to cover up greaves play?

I'd argue that fighting over an adjective to describe Picard's awful play is pointless but you can call him borderline useless and I'll call him a disaster with no purpose playing pro football. Close enough.

 

 

 

Walters has put the recruiting processes on a much better footing and has made several key acquisitions which ought to serve this club well in time to come. Admittedly, the Import talent needs some better bodies, but filling the pipeline will likely take another year. McManus and Goveia (sp?) need to up their game. I am willing to give Walters another year, but have given up on O'Shea.

I'll refer you to the topic A Comprehensive Review of Kyle Walters by AKAChip. His take is hardly flattering and while the recruiting process may be on a better footing who are the key acquisitions Walters has made? Surely not Moore or Picard and the QBs have been a disaster although it remains to be seen what Nichols may be able to do. Walters entire body of work to date has done little to improve this club. We are agreed on O'Shea and I suspect Walters will get another year but I don't hold out much hope of seeing any earth shattering personnel moves. I hope I am wrong.

willy isnt a disaster.. Nichols is still a to be determined. moore, ok. picard has been serviceable.. We havent had to forcefully yank him yet and he hasnt had any brutally bad snaps. He also brought in Westerman, Bryant, Bass and even hurl could be argued to be better then what we had last season.

Your myopic view of what walters has done betrays you yet again. Our canadian depth imo is better then its been in a long time. We could be looking at some good pieces in the future at LB, DB and Safety.

You can't honestly believe that Picard has been anything but a disaster, can you? Sure none of his snaps have been over the QB's head, but they are either extremely low or floaters that take nearly a full second to get to the QB. Combined with his atrocious blocking, undisciplined penalties and salary and you get a disaster. Just because he hasn't been forcefully yanked doesn't change that. In fact, it's a testament to O'Shea's lack of accountablity for veterans.

 

Bang on and what about Moore? One touchdown in 2 years at that salary? Yikes! What about our O-Line? Arguably the worst in the league. Can't block for the run. Can't pass protect. Yet Walters sees fit to make them one of, if not the highest paid O-Lines in the league.

I like what Austin did to Sinkfield, sat his ass for 4 games because he wasn't playing like a 'pro'. We couldn't field enough players for a game if we had those kind of expectations here.

in pro sports, especially the cfl you only get soo many chances. I hope they get it done, i think its a great combo of pres/gm/hc

@SteveMorley62: @garylawless @WinnipegNews @ShareThis it was Grey Cup contenders all off-season. Now it's, another rebuilding year. I'm so confused...sigh..

 

 

So you guys think the Bombers would be better off if they fired Miller and/or O'Shea right now?

 

This team has been firing coaches and GMs every 2 years for a while now, and it hasn't worked so far. Maybe it's time to keep one for a while and see if letting the guy get some experience works better.

 

OR, just hire someone with prior experience in the job for once.

 

Which severely limits your options, basically to people who nobody wants.  Generally people with opportunities for other jobs have been saying thanks but no thanks when the Bombers put together their shortlist in the last decade because of how dysfunctional the organization has been.

Exactly.. I have zero doubts in my mind that we have made offers, probably substantial ones, to the Austins, Buanos, etc when they have come available and they have simply passed because of our history in the last ten seasons.

 

You can't have zero doubts when you don't know who Miller talked to. Sorry, just not possible. 

I personally like most of the moves walters has made, I just think our coaching stinks and they arent utilized properly. Our import scouts need upgrading but afaic that isnt necessarily on walters either, it was no secret when he got promoted to interm gm after mack was turfed that his forte was canadian talent and cis scouting.

Id def. Give miller n walters 1 more yr, but like most am tired of the inept coaching from HC down (ritchie hall not included)

Everyone assumes these experienced coaches would want to come here buy I think it's obvious they don't because of the lack of stability. Was rumored we wanted to interview millanovich when we hired lapo but he said no thanks. Instead of pretending that these guys would come here and crapping on the people in charge, ask yourself why they won't come here. I give you a hint. .. it's because we fire coaches and gms every 2 years. Those experienced coaches won't come here until our perception changes

As for Walters he's a newbie gm, learning, making moves making mistakes trying to improve the team personally i think he deserve a few mulligans let him tinker with the team. The playoffs may pass us by but there's no reason the team can't improve by season's end. 

Expectations with Willy = playoffs.

Without Willy = very very lowered expectations

Found the article laughable considering it's coming from Lawless who has told the team what to do the last month.

This board has gone insane... And that's coming from me. Wow.

I'm not going to comment on the quality or lack there of of the article but it does echo my feelings of the WBB power troika.  I'm still confident in Miller, Walters and O'Shea expect that the necessary changes will occur.   We fans expect immediate results and sure this year we haven't progressed as much as we hoped but sometimes you need to regress further in order to see progress.    

 

I'm a big supporter of Walters and believe that his moves will work out long term for the club.  Miller is keeping himself behind the scenes which is what a President should be doing.  O'Shea is the one that I could go either way on but I'm still wiling to give him a third year to see what he can do.  Now if Huf comes knocking on our door looking for a job. Well that changes the landscape a bit and would sway me towards tying a can to O'Shea.   

 

Change for the sake of it is not always the right decision and I've seen this happen in business where you make a change and all it does is cost a crap load of money and it produces the same results as before.  Miller is the guy but he needs to be left alone to work thru his plan.  

Standing pat for the sake of standing pat & hoping things will get better next year isn't the answer either. What if the Bombers go 4-14 this season? Will you feel the same way you do now? I think if that happens, a lot of posters here who now support Miller, Walters & O'Shea are going to be calling for heads to roll including Lawless. I'm not advocating for a total housecleaning if the team doesn't do well but O'Shea should be shown the door then at the end of the season.

Everyone assumes these experienced coaches would want to come here buy I think it's obvious they don't because of the lack of stability. Was rumored we wanted to interview millanovich when we hired lapo but he said no thanks. Instead of pretending that these guys would come here and crapping on the people in charge, ask yourself why they won't come here. I give you a hint. .. it's because we fire coaches and gms every 2 years. Those experienced coaches won't come here until our perception changes

Yeah load of BS. Austin first went to Sask, then Hamilton with no stability at either franchise. Huf went to a relatively unstable Calgary, Hervey took a job in Edmonton, then hired Jones. Ottawa was able to land good GM and coaches. Wally Buono was willing to go to an unstable BC.

Some folks won't come here because they think Winnipeg, the whole city, has nothing to offer. We are not Toronto, Montreal, Calgary, etc but we are more crime riddled than most other cities. Our cost of living is through the roof for a city our size,etc. So if we want some of these good guys then we are going to have to pay. Clearly Austin will go where the pastures are Green. Barker, not so much. Barker is a big city guy.

It isn't some grand conspiracy nor is it a lack of stability. When you are hiring someone the prospect KNOWS it is to return to stability. The organization also knows that despite what is said they still may not have found that stability with a new hire. It may become evident right away it may take longer.

Success is the evidence of that. If there is success the stability comes. There isn't a single large corporation out there that doesn't go through a spell of adversity. Some sit on their hands and watch the ship sink, others react, and often react until success, even muted success, returns.

Right now this team has no success so there will be no stability. Sure some guys will be afraid to come here and that is likely because they doubt their abilities. Some won't because Winnipeg is a small city that has big city problems and not all the amenities of a big cities. It happens and so you gotta move on. Some of the guys will take more money to come here though.

Me I don't really care who we get in. I care about the job they do. I was never keen on Walters to start with because he was unable to either stand up and make his voice heard or deliver the goods. The team has been average or below average the entire time he has been here. If, like he so boldly stated two years ago, the right man is in the job now, where is the proof? Yep he found a few good players, every GM has, but has he found enough? Nope. Has proven he can deal with more than one or two parts of the team at a time? Nope.

I think it is nuts that people are willing to give MOS and Walters more time. Especially with a good year and a half of proof that they can't do the job. ( and more than ample evidence coming out of Edmonton and Ottawa that IMPROVEMENT can be expected in that time)

How about this. For years we have been accused of being impatient and getting the coaches fired.  Why not give the organization one more chance. Let them prove to us we were wrong. Then if we were not let them pay for the mess left behind. I am a little tired of being blamed for the problems there. Go ahead Miller do your thing but I would expect by the end of next year we would have a real contender on the field or you go back to the jobs you really like.

How about this. For years we have been accused of being impatient and getting the coaches fired. Why not give the organization one more chance. Let them prove to us we were wrong. Then if we were not let them pay for the mess left behind. I am a little tired of being blamed for the problems there. Go ahead Miller do your thing but I would expect by the end of next year we would have a real contender on the field or you go back to the jobs you really like.

Blaming the fans for wanting success is lame. For most of the last 24 years we haven't had it and for the most part any stability that was creeping in was destroyed by impatient people in the organization.

How about this. For years we have been accused of being impatient and getting the coaches fired.  Why not give the organization one more chance. Let them prove to us we were wrong. Then if we were not let them pay for the mess left behind. I am a little tired of being blamed for the problems there. Go ahead Miller do your thing but I would expect by the end of next year we would have a real contender on the field or you go back to the jobs you really like.

We already did that with Mack.  See how that worked out?

Think about the regimes that brought us success over the years. They've been the ones that have been given the time to get it done.

Expectations with Willy = playoffs.

Without Willy = very very lowered expectations

With and without I was expecting improvement. I wasn't hopeful after the preseason game here and a few games into the season because our secondary was truly awful. The offence I thought would improve. Even before Willy went down it was becoming very evident that this team was fated to the basement of the west.

Think about the regimes that brought us success over the years. They've been the ones that have been given the time to get it done.

Because they proved it with success on the field. Hoping these lead bars will turn to gold is truly insane

Think about the regimes that brought us success over the years. They've been the ones that have been given the time to get it done.

Because they proved it with success on the field. Hoping these lead bars will turn to gold is truly insane

That success didn't come overnight. It was built on a foundation that was years in the making.

They should stay as long as there is real improvement.  We decide that with a YEAR END review.

Each season ticket holder should get one vote at the end of each season to determine whether the HC, GM and CEO stay or are fired.