DeVone Claybrooks fired

[B.C.FAN]

It didn't take long. The head coach has taken the fall for the Lions' 5-13 season.

LIONS DISMISS HEAD COACH DEVONE CLAYBROOKS

[DanoT]

I just heard on 610 am NL radio in Kamloops that Claybrooks is gone.

Another "Farhan Says" as he was reporting the rumor days ago.

I would have liked to see him get another year.

[squishy35]

A very quick decision which leads me to believe that the Hervey will be going after Rick Campbell.

[DanoT]

A very quick decision which leads me to believe that the Hervey will be going after Rick Campbell.

Ya, I much prefer Campbell over Maas. I like Maas as a OC but I'm thinking Maas goes back to Ottawa as HC.

Claybrooks likely ends up as a DC somewhere.

[prairielion]

I'd like them to pursue Paul Lapolice. I feel like he had a short leash as head coach in Winnipeg, and still think he would be a great head coach. Just my opinion.

[cms22]

the whole thing is bizarre.

i put the 80% of this mess on hervey........... if keeping hervey one more year makes sense, then so undoubtedly does keeping claybrooks.

will a high profile, well respected coach be ok working with current personnel? or will he want 2 year personnel turnover like we just had?.

really, what has hervey done as a GM that can be labelled good?............ basically, if you make some tortured argument that there are many positives, surely that analysis would also look favorably on claybrooks.

if we are going to get a high profile new coach, why not make him co-GM with someone else, like geroy simon?............ i would like to know simon's role with hervey. it seems like it's been pretty disappointing as to developing import talent.

[jwbavalon]

This is major league sports. You loose and you fire the coach (face to the fans). Nothing personal, it is just business. Imagine if you are an assistant and waking up to this news.

[B.C.FAN]

This is a standard management survival tactic. Hervey built the team and hired the head coach. It didn't perform, so he made the head coach the fall guy. Hervey and Claybrooks both made many mistakes but they made improvements during the year, especially on defence.

The one area that Claybrooks couldn't fix was the one that Hervey saddled him with, the offensive coordinator. The defence was No. 1 in the league in the second half of the season. Claybrooks and Rich Stubler deserve credit for that.

The offence ranked 7th in the league despite Hervey pouring much of his salary cap into the acquisition of Mike Reilly, Duron Carter, Lemar Durant, John White and Sukh Chungh. Hervey and Jarious Jackson should take the fall for that.

[SammyGreene]

If your goal each season is to host the Western Final and you go 0-10 against divisional opponents there are going to be casualties.

I just hope the Lions realize this is far more than Claybrooks and his staff. It began with some questionable FA signings and a very underwhelming off-season of US recruiting that resulted in suspect line-up decisions going into the teeth of their schedule to start the season.
Starting 10-11 nationals seemed too good to be true and it was and that falls on the lack of competition Hervey brought to camp. He also said Claybrooks was his #1 choice at the time of the hiring so add that to the list.

[BC 1988]

A very quick decision which leads me to believe that the Hervey will be going after Rick Campbell.

Ya, I much prefer Campbell over Maas. I like Maas as a OC but I'm thinking Maas goes back to Ottawa as HC.
Claybrooks likely ends up as a DC somewhere.

That was Hervey's biggest mistake--offering Claybrooks the HC position (with zero experience) when he should have hired him as DC.

[VictoriaFan]

Too bad I liked Claybrooks more than Wally at the end, now all the crooked hat haters will be happy, till next year when Jarious Jackson is still running his crappy offensive plays

[B.C.FAN]

The Lions need an offensive-minded coach. Rick Campbell, like Claybrooks, was a defensive coordinator before he became head coach. When the Redblacks lost their QB, top receiver and offensive coordinator during the offseason and couldn’t find suitable replacements, their season went down the toilet.

[Sir Purrcival]

A very quick decision which leads me to believe that the Hervey will be going after Rick Campbell.

Ya, I much prefer Campbell over Maas. I like Maas as a OC but I'm thinking Maas goes back to Ottawa as HC.
Claybrooks likely ends up as a DC somewhere.

That was Hervey's biggest mistake--offering Claybrooks the HC position (with zero experience) when he should have hired him as DC.

I don't know that I would call it a mistake. More like trying to predict who is going to be the next great coach and getting your hooks into him before he can go somewhere else. Something that we might have done with Dickenson if a certain someone had gotten out of the way sooner. Claybrooks had already been a DC, no reason for him to leave a winning team as DC to be be a DC on a losing team. You roll the dice, if he turns into a great HC, you are a genius. If he doesn't, then you look like you took an unjustified risk on a rookie but every HC in this league was a rookie HC at one some point. Somebody took a chance on them being great. Sometimes it works, this time it didn't. He will be a HC again in this league I'm pretty certain and he will probably be better for the disaster here.

[Pistrinus]

I think clearly this year players were played that shouldn’t have . Who made these decisions the head coach or the general manager because I think that is totally where this ridiculous 1-10 start came from

[Sir Purrcival]

There were a lot of ridiculous things on this team this year. For me the beginning of the end was the so called "review" that took place to try and right the ship when the time to do that had passed by 3-4 weeks earlier. Should have happened when we were 1 and 5 not 1 and 9 and well into late August. It seemed a little like looking for more icebergs after the Titanic had already struck one. Too late to make an appreciable difference.