Wally is playing for keeps, more this year than ever, it seems to me, as he approaches the inevitable retirement. No fooling around.
Loyalty cuts both ways. It can be good for an organization, and it can be bad also. But Wally seems to be on a mission this year. He has adjusted in some ways, something he never really had to do earlier in his career. His patience is at a much lower level. And he seems relatively calm in the midst of this football season, a pretty good trick if you can manage it.
We fans have seen the workings of this team under Wally since 2003. We have seen some assistants stay well beyond their best before date. The bottom line in pro sports is production.
The O Line is getting some serious scrutiny now. It is about time. Stability, productivity and growth are needed. And we have discussed on this forum the possibilities that a National O Line give to ratio considerations on the roster. We have not been able to focus on Nationals there. We have tended to rely on the ready-made skills that come with NFL-experienced International O Linemen. In many ways, we have failed with the OL since 2003. And we have gotten by, no doubt because the guys are in there, doing their best to block, giving their all. The failures of this regime with the OL have been pretty well documented on this website.
Just IMO. It is pro sports. Scrutiny comes with the territory. No place to hide.
Can things settle down? Is it possible we could have stability and productivity with the O Line? Sure. But it seems to this fan, if we get there, we did not need to go through chaos to get there. Longer term hopes for 5 or even 4 Nationals on the O Line? Dunno about that ...West Coast Joe
Dan the Man, with his amount of experience, should not have made such a big mistake in recommending Adcock as free agent. It was obvious that Adcock played too upright and lacked the quickness to pass block edge rushers with speed. Dorazio saw enough of him in Saskatchewan to know better assesss his talent and weaknesses.
I've commented a few times that our Leos offence gave up the most sacks of any CFL team, during the time of Dorazio's tenure here from 2003-2014. There were some pretty bad CFL offences during that period of time and some pretty bad offensive lines and yet we were the worst. Some of that can be blamed on scheme but we also had some very mobile quarterbacks (Printers, Pierce, Jackson, Lulay) during that that period of time plus Dave Dickenson. We gave up the most sacks (65) in the CFL in both 2005, when we won the WDF and in 2006 (56) when we won the Grey Cup.
In 2006, we had a great offensive line, anchored by Reid, Murphy, and Jiminez. We lost a ton of games to injuries during Dorazio's tenure here. Whether it was Dickenson, Pierce, Jackson, Printers again, or Lulay, we lost more quarterback games to injury than any other team during that time as well.
One would think the results would be better for an offensive line 'geru' as Dorazio is often credited for. Dorazio has a lot of coaching experience. He understands how to teach technique.
But one has to wonder about some of the things that he does. For example, in 2005, he used Mo Elonowibi as a left tackle in the WDF and Dickenson spent the game on his back as Mo could not handle the speed rushers. He also played Mantyka as a starter that season even though he could only use one arm to block.He believed he could make Valli a center. He believed that Reid was finished demoted him for Valli and the experiment was a disaster and then we had to go back to Reid.
We didn't develop a backup center, once Reid returned to the center position. When Reid got hurt in training camp in 2014 we had no one to play the position. We had to use Norman, a rookie guard, who had never played center in college and never played a pro game, to start at center from Game 1 of that season. When Dorazio left last season, Tedford was forced to go with an International at center because we really had no National who could step in right away to play the position.
Sometimes I think Dorazio has coached for so long, he just gets bored and therefore likes to experiment.
Where I wish he would experiment is with the running game instead. He has been mostly in charge of our running attack since 2007. Its been the same old inside read play with the same old zone blocking almost all of the time. We get an occasional quick pitch from him every few games. The only real change in our running attack was in 2013, when Wally got frustrated, brought in Logan, and forced Dorazio to change the blocking scheme later in the-season because it was being stuffed. We had four 200 plus yard rushing games to end that season, after the changes.
The coach who has changed the most this season is Buono himself, as you note West Coast Joe. I think he got some good perspective from stepping away from the game on the sidelines. He also made sure, once he was Head Coach again, that he got the players he needed. He brought in free agents such as Edem and Stewart for the defensive backfield. He signed Nick Moore as a receiver and O'Neil to play center. (Husband beat him out). He made sure Rainey was signed. He also signed Adcock on Dorazio's recommendation. That was a different Wally, this season, with his free agent signings.
He's also deals with his quarterbacks differently. Gone are the days when he couldn't decide whether to start Dickenson or Printers or Pierce or Jackson, or Printers or Lulay. No quarterback controversy even if we have a backup quarterback that he has confidence in. Its been Jennings all the way as our starter.
He hasn't cut a player as a motivational tool. Instead he's motivated, had high expectations, but also adapted to a more positive style. Not many CFL prognosticators expected this kind of season from Buono. But he knew he had a young talented team with an exciting young quarterback with a few holes that needed patching. It mostly just needed some direction, expectation, and discipline.
As I watched Benevedes yesterday, with his baseball hat on backwards, trying to be cool, or thought about the distant Tedford, who was anything but enthused, for whatever his reasons) and therefore disappointing) the return of Buono has been a good thing for our Leos this season. He can drive one crazy at times with clock management, game management, timeouts, challenges, etc. but he has the big picture down. The vets are happy because they know he will keep the young players disciplined and focused.
Buono didn't like what he was seeing and did something about it, even after a win. Adcock is gone. Steward is starting again. That is a winning approach.