Blitz wrote:Solar Max wrote:I think it goes deeper than OC and DC.
Wally still calls the shots on the field imo, and it cost Benevides. Now it's Tedford's turn, and unless Wally lets Tedford's bring in his own people (goodbye Chuck McMann) then nothing changes with Wally calling the shots.
Wally has been surpassed by modern coaches like Jones, Milanovitch, Austin. Campbell. There is no room for " playing not to lose " 1995 coaching imo. Either be the GM only or step aside completely. It's time.
I couldn't agree more Solar Max.
Our Leos team had continued to slide from our Grey Cup victory in 2006 and got off to another terrible start in 2011. But desperate, Wally allowed Chap to do more of his own thing rather than force him to stick with the old Calgary playbook and allowed Benevedes to go with a rotation on the defensive line - those changes plus the trade for Arland Bruce and the insertion of Harris, who had languished on the bench under Wally but got a chance due to an injury, got things changed around. Of course we had a lot of talent too but it was being misused. But Wally was viewed as genius again as he retired from the sidelines.
But Buono valued control over wisdom. He hired Benevedes, who had been 'mentored' by Buono for years for the top job. It was obviously a terrible job of mentoring. But with two experienced coordinators in Stubler and Chap, good player leadership, and good talent, our Leos played very well in 2012. But Benevedes was losing the team and should have been jettisoned at the end of 2013. Instead Wally chose to make Stubler and Chap the scapegoats. Instead we got Mark Washington and Khari Jones.
During this off-season, Buono thought he had gotten lucky by hiring Tedford. Tedford had experience in running a big program, had developed many future NFL stars, had a rep as a quarterback coaching geru, and he had also been hired as an offensive coordinator for an NFL team - and NFL teams do a lot of due diligence before hiring an offensive coordinator - they have a wide array of candidates.
But Buono saddled Tedford with a roster devoid of player leadership and had weaknesses in a number of positions that were not addressed in the off-season.
I#m guessing that Tedford assumed the CFL would be a less stressful and less challenging gig. Kown for working horrendous hours, Tedford thought he could hand over the reins of the offence to experienced coordinator George Cortez and continue letting Mark Washington ('a brilliant guy according to Buono) run the defense while super special teams coordinator Chuck McMann ran special teams. Tedford's role would be to guide the team with his experience, do some quarterback whispering, and lean on Wally's sage advice from time to time.
Well, it hasn't worked out that way. Cortez has been stuck in his boring spread offence for a long time and has never adapted, Washington is a Wally clone who thinks you can play defense like it was played in the 1990's, and Chuck McMann has always been mediocre.
Tedford has had an awakening. The CFL is not the CFL that Tedford coached in the 1990's. The spread offence in Calgary in those days was very innovative and defenses were slow to adjust. Today's CFL, as WCJ and others point out, has a lot of very good coaches and its sophisticated. Defenses know how to stop a simple spread offence. Defenses don't sit back and play passive zone defense like they did in the 90's.
We have an antiquated GM who can't sign free agents or bring in talent to key positions and whose fingerprints are still all over this team from assistant coaches to players. We have an antiquated offensive coordinator running an antiquated offensive scheme and a young defensive coordinator who runs an antiquated defensive scheme. We have a special teams coach who constantly looks confused.
We don't have an impact rush end or an impact offensive receiver. We have a starting quarterback with a history of shoulder problerms and a 34 year old backup. We are not developing quarterbacks anymore, as we did in the days of Chapdelaine. We don't have player leaders who can help set a winning attitude and help create team chemistry.
We are losing fans in droves. Buono is past his due date. Complacency has set in and he is living off his rep while still wanting to command and control the ship. But the ship is hitting icebergs and he won't change course - too set in his ways. He has let vet coaches go and let vet players go without considering the ramifications. Its like he thinks he can do anything and all will be fine because he is Wally Buono. That kind of thinking only leads to disaster.