DeVone Claybrooks fired

The Place for BC Lion Discussion. A forum for Lions fans to talk and chat about our team.
Discussion, News, Information and Speculation regarding the BC Lions and the CFL.
Prowl, Growl and Roar!

Moderator: Team Captains

User avatar
MikeAK
All Star
Posts: 424
Joined: Sun Jun 05, 2011 3:01 pm

It was such a disastrous season and some of it has to land on the coach. The team just never really looked properly prepared. Still though, I fear there are deeper issues than just a coaching change that need to be addressed before we truly see change.
User avatar
BC 1988
Legend
Posts: 1357
Joined: Sat Oct 26, 2013 1:58 pm
Location: BC (since 1988)

Sir Purrcival wrote:
Wed Nov 06, 2019 9:42 am
BC 1988 wrote:
Wed Nov 06, 2019 9:15 am
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.
Of course all Head Coaches get their first gig because someone was willing to take a chance on them. MTL offered Claybrooks HC in 2018, but he declined and returned to the safety of staying on as DC in CGY.

As we've seen with what has just happened, Braley was not prepared to give Hervey much leeway after going 1-10 and ultimately 5-13 (and shutout vs the West.) Farhan was just on with Donnie and the Moj, and he said Braley had misgivings with hiring Claybrooks in the first place. It would have taken a winning season for him to survive, not this shambles.
JohnnyMusso
Champion
Posts: 963
Joined: Mon Nov 23, 2015 6:03 pm

I just heard the news. This is Braley's decision. Hervey gave him a vote of confidence at the end of the season and said he did an excellent job. Then a week later, they fire him.

Certainty his record killed him. I feel sad for him, but I for one felt he was a better DC than a head coach. Does this mean Rick Campbell will be hired. I would have no problem with that choice. I just hope it is not Jason Maas.

I bleed orange and will always be a Lions fan and though I feel sad for Devone, I do feel it was the right decision, but feel Hervey needs to go too.
User avatar
B.C.FAN
Team Captain
Posts: 12580
Joined: Mon Nov 15, 2004 10:28 pm

Farhan Lalji has a long list of potential replacements in addition to the widely speculated Rick Campbell and Jason Maas.





Do we want Mark Washington or Mike Benevides back? Could the Lions sell those names to the fan base?

Tommy Condell and Paul LaPolice are good offensive coaches but they don't have many links to B.C.

Mark Kilam's special teams in Calgary have been more of a disaster this year than those of his understudy in B.C., Taylor Altilio. Calgary gave up the most big kick returns and kick return touchdowns in the league and ranked near the bottom in several other special-teams categories. And if Claybrooks' hat was an issue for some Lions fans, Kilam's image may also be deemed unprofessional by those who care about such things.
User avatar
Hambone
Hall of Famer
Posts: 8175
Joined: Mon Nov 01, 2004 10:25 pm
Location: Living in PG when not at BC Place, Grey Cup or Mazatlan.

BC 1988 wrote:
Wed Nov 06, 2019 9:15 am
That was Hervey's biggest mistake--offering Claybrooks the HC position (with zero experience) when he should have hired him as DC.
GMs can't win. They get criticized for hiring a guy with zero HC experience if it doesn't work out and they get criticized just as harshly if they go to the HC recycle bin.

Hervey wasn't going to lure Claybrooks out to the left coast for a lateral move. If the offer was for a DC he would have stayed in Calgary. I don't know what his contract situation was but if he still had term left Huf likely would not have granted permission to talk to him unless it was for a promotion.
You're as old as you've ever been and as young as you're ever going to be.
User avatar
Hambone
Hall of Famer
Posts: 8175
Joined: Mon Nov 01, 2004 10:25 pm
Location: Living in PG when not at BC Place, Grey Cup or Mazatlan.

prairielion wrote:
Wed Nov 06, 2019 8:50 am
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.
His leash was a year and a half longer than Claybrooks' and he started out with a poorer rookie record than Devone. Lapolice went 4-14 in Year 1 then 10-8 in Year 2 before getting fired part way through Year 3 when the Bombers started out 2-6. Final record 16-28 for .364 winning percentage.

What might have saved Lapo after that 4-14 rookie season was the fact the Bombers were no doubt still paying Mike Kelly who was canned after the 2009 season and possibly Doug Berry who was fired after the 2008 season. They may not have had an appetite for a 3rd annual coach firing.
You're as old as you've ever been and as young as you're ever going to be.
User avatar
B.C.FAN
Team Captain
Posts: 12580
Joined: Mon Nov 15, 2004 10:28 pm

J.C. Abbott's post-mortem on the Lions' season is a long and fascinating read. I agree with almost all of it, including his belief that Claybrooks should have been given another year. Some excerpts:
It was a steep and slippery learning curve for DeVone Claybrooks as a first-time head coach, one that often exposed his inexperience. What was promising, and the reason I had hoped he’d return next season, is the amount of growth that he demonstrated throughout the season and the fight that his team demonstrated on his behalf. There were building blocks there for him to become a good head coach, he simply had to be given the opportunity.
While changes to his staff were absolutely needed, the firing of Claybrooks is a massive black mark on the franchise. It signals to potential candidates that this is an organization without patience, one more than willing to throw you under the bus and will hit the reset button on any progress made this season. If Claybrooks’ undoing was hiring a raw staff, then it is the person who allowed a rookie head coach to do so who is truly at fault. That same person is the one who failed to provide him with the necessary pieces to win. This firing was done to save face and save a job in the front office, and that is frankly shameful.

Finally, it’s time for the Lions to move on from offensive coordinator Jarious Jackson, despite his relationship with both Hervey and the franchise. His rigidity in scheme and play-calling has actively hurt the team over the last two seasons and its time to give the controls to someone with a little more innovative ability. The pieces on this offence are too good to keep being wasted. I would encourage the Lions to think outside the box with this hire. There are some brilliant offensive minds in Canadian football and many are looking for their first chance at a pro offence.
Off the field, the Lions first priority has to be a complete revamp of their American scouting. For all the work they do, the Lions managed to find just one impactful American rookie this season. That is a simply abhorrent rate of success, part of a larger trend of failing to reload the teams’ talent base in recent years.
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: postmortem on a lost Lions’ season
User avatar
B.C.FAN
Team Captain
Posts: 12580
Joined: Mon Nov 15, 2004 10:28 pm

Another strong take from J.C. Abbott, this time via Twitter:

User avatar
Hambone
Hall of Famer
Posts: 8175
Joined: Mon Nov 01, 2004 10:25 pm
Location: Living in PG when not at BC Place, Grey Cup or Mazatlan.

I do have to ask, Who is JC Abbott and what is his background? I'm not criticizing or downplaying his knowledge. It's just that I'd never heard of him before this season.
You're as old as you've ever been and as young as you're ever going to be.
User avatar
B.C.FAN
Team Captain
Posts: 12580
Joined: Mon Nov 15, 2004 10:28 pm

Hambone wrote:
Wed Nov 06, 2019 3:06 pm
I do have to ask, Who is JC Abbott and what is his background? I'm not criticizing or downplaying his knowledge. It's just that I'd never heard of him before this season.
I also hadn't heard of Abbott before this year. His bio at 3downnation is brief:
Abbott is a UBC student, youth coach and lifelong CFL fanatic. Born in Edmonton but raised in Vancouver, he considers the Ricky Ray trade to be the darkest day of his life.
His writing reflects the level of analysis of someone who has been studying the game for a long time.
User avatar
B.C.FAN
Team Captain
Posts: 12580
Joined: Mon Nov 15, 2004 10:28 pm

Another strong and accurate take on Twitter, this time from John Hodge of 3downnation:

maxlion
Legend
Posts: 1099
Joined: Sat Aug 01, 2015 12:49 am

MikeAK wrote:
Wed Nov 06, 2019 10:37 am
It was such a disastrous season and some of it has to land on the coach. The team just never really looked properly prepared.
I agree with this. The team was in disarray in all three phases for most of the year. While we seemed to improve in the second half of the year, the only victories came against struggling teams. We didn't win a single game against a western opponent. Many or most of Claybrooks' choices for positional coaches were poor. The offensive line was a disaster until Hervey stepped in to fix things.

Hervey deserves blame for a lot of the problems as well, but I can easily understand why Claybrooks was let go.
User avatar
BC 1988
Legend
Posts: 1357
Joined: Sat Oct 26, 2013 1:58 pm
Location: BC (since 1988)

B.C.FAN wrote:
Wed Nov 06, 2019 2:58 pm
Another strong take from J.C. Abbott, this time via Twitter:

Interesting take on Condell. Does Abbott know he will be available?--I guess he's echoing Farhan's earlier tweet. Also, Hervey on with Donnie and the Moj indicated that they are looking at candidates who will not be available until after Grey Cup, so don't expect a hiring until mid-December.

Typical of how disorganized the Argos are--Condell is still listed on their website as part of the coaching staff (while also correctly with HAM).
https://www.argonauts.ca/coaches/tommy-condell/
https://ticats.ca/coaches/tommy-condell/
Last edited by BC 1988 on Wed Nov 06, 2019 4:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Reggiemac
Rookie
Posts: 55
Joined: Mon Dec 17, 2018 3:00 pm
Location: Coldstream BC

jst Hervey trying to keep his job. Hervey should have been te guy fired. I think that the only assistants to survive will be Stubler and Bates. the new owners wikl have a lot of say after they get rid of Hervey. but he will try to absolve himself by blaming othersbut hopefully he falls on his sword when requested to.
User avatar
B.C.FAN
Team Captain
Posts: 12580
Joined: Mon Nov 15, 2004 10:28 pm

Hervey made several comments at his news conference about Claybrooks being too close to his players and about some players taking advantage of a lack of discipline. That is a valid concern and is something I noticed from the outset of training camp. A prime example was how Duron Carter and Odell Willis were were allowed to wander around chatting with teammates while everyone else was lined up in rows on the ground stretching during warmups. Carter and Willis are free spirits who seemed to get away with things that would not be tolerated by most coaches, and they were considered team leaders. It's probably no coincidence that they both under-performed on the field this year.

From J.J. Adams of The Province:
DeVone Claybrooks never lost the B.C. Lions’ locker-room, but it’s also why the rookie head coach ultimately lost his job.

The team’s 5-13 record was one major reason served up by general manager Ed Hervey for Claybrooks’ dismissal on Wednesday, but the perception that he and his young staff were too close to the players to be effective coaches was also a factor.

“The season is about winning and losing, first and foremost. So we have to start there,” Hervey said. “We have to look at the organization as a whole … and what image we want for it.”

“I don’t think it was to the point where it was a detriment,” he added of Claybrooks’ affable personality and approach to coaching. “But at the end of the day, it’s how the players respond to the coach … to the environment and the culture that’s being set.

“Regardless of what I thought, it’s more how our record was and how they responded to it. You look at it in player interviews and have those discussions, and you begin to realize there were things there that needed to be looked at and discussed … and here we are today with the decision we made.

“There’s a line that’s always going to be there. I’m not going to sit here and point the finger at DeVone’s personality or the relationship he builds with the player,” said Hervey.

“But there are players I can see who would take advantage of that personality … and because of that, you don’t get the maximum effort from those players. And before you know it, it creates a culture where guys are relaxed because they feel that things were OK, when in fact they’re not.

“In conversations that I’ve had, many of them in the past few days have stressed the fact that they require (structure and leadership), they need it, they want it, and in some cases questioned whether it was there at times.”
B.C. Lions fire head coach DeVone Claybrooks
Post Reply