Terry Jones comments
Chopping block
By TERRY JONES, Edmonton Sun
Meaningful moves are coming. But you’ll probably have to wait until Wednesday.
And Richie Hall probably isn’t going to be one of them.
“We are actively working with our senior management in every area,” said Edmonton Eskimos board chairman Doug Goss Monday, indicating moves will be made in the next 48 hours.
A series of meetings dealing with short term and long term were being held Monday and will continue Tuesday with more than one move expected to be announced by Wednesday.
“No one is going to be happy until this is fixed,” said Goss.
But will the fix include the firing of Richie Hall?
Or is the head coach going to be asked to be part of the solution even though the failure of his team to play for him at the beginning and end of games is perhaps the biggest part of the problem?
It looks like the latter.
Hall appears to be involved in the meetings. And he’ll be making himself available to the media Tuesday to talk about injuries and answer other questions head coaches normally do after a game.
The problem is that, thanks to Danny Maciocia, the fix is so deep that it isn’t just a simple solution of firing Hall like the Eskimos fired Pete Ketella in 1983 after losing in Calgary on Labour Day and bringing in Jackie Parker to take over. And there is no Jackie Parker to take over.
It’s looking like whether they think Hall deserves to remain head coach or not, they’re going to have no choice but to keep him in the job.
This team is so screwed up they may have Hall, who is definitely not a quitter (unlike a significant number of his players) to somehow be part of the solution beyond simply walking the plank for the players he’s failed to inspire to show up to play for him or have the character not to capsize completely in fourth quarters.
Five members of the assistant coaching staff are Danny Maciocia hires and he’s had a heavy influence on choosing others. They may be the bigger problem than Hall himself.
Replacing a head coach isn’t an easy solution if you know that whoever you find to come in for the interim has no chance of success with the assistant coaching staff he’ll be working with or the lot of losers with hearts the size of peas who Maciocia picked as players, talented though many of them may be.
Maciocia is now being exposed as a con man who had people inside and close to the organization fooled but who didn’t fool the fans. Two weeks after firing him, the reality has hit that his dismissal didn’t cure anything short term. The only benefit is that it has totally exposed more of the mistakes he made.
It’s what happens next that will have far more impact.
You’d figure they’d be more likely to fire Kevin Strasser, Jeff Bleamer, Noel Thorpe, Dan Kepley, Mike Walker, Terry Eisler, Stacey Hairston, Jason Tucker or Rob Ralph than make one of them head coach to replace Hall.
Head coaches have been fired during seasons before but has anybody tried to replace two-thirds of a coaching staff? Then again, do you really need all nine of them to do the job they’re doing?
While Strasser has probably replaced Maciocia as Public Enemy No. 1 in Edmonton for Eskimo fans, the guy who deserves to be gonged first is Bleamer. And that one, I’m pretty sure, will happen, regardless of how many other heads roll.
The offensive line is in such a state of disarray that there is no justification for this guy to stay another day. And Strasser can share the same cab to the airport with him with the play calling and offensive game plans he’s provided since running his record to 5-12 after Maciocia put him in place to take over from a then 5-4 Rick Worman on Labour Day.
But the problem is also very much the players.
There just aren’t enough Eskimos on this team. And one of the so-called stars, Maciocia’s big free-agent signing of last year, middle linebacker Maurice Lloyd, is a high-profile part of the problem within this group.
If you’re going to make an example of somebody in uniform, he’d be the guy I’d pick quick.
This team has major leadership issues and Lloyd has clearly established himself as a cancer within this club.
The Eskimos can’t continue to look the other way with him. But Hall was his old coach in Saskatchewan.
If it works out that the Eskimos have no choice but to keep Hall as head coach until the end of the season, does that mean Lloyd stays, too?
It’s a good thing this is a bye week situation because it’s giving the Eskimos time to take a long, hard look at coaches and players, short term and long term.
And it has to be quite clear to everybody now that there’s no quick fix here on a year when Edmonton plays host to the Grey Cup.
Forget Grey Cup or bust. It’s bust.
By TERRY JONES, Edmonton Sun
Meaningful moves are coming. But you’ll probably have to wait until Wednesday.
And Richie Hall probably isn’t going to be one of them.
“We are actively working with our senior management in every area,” said Edmonton Eskimos board chairman Doug Goss Monday, indicating moves will be made in the next 48 hours.
A series of meetings dealing with short term and long term were being held Monday and will continue Tuesday with more than one move expected to be announced by Wednesday.
“No one is going to be happy until this is fixed,” said Goss.
But will the fix include the firing of Richie Hall?
Or is the head coach going to be asked to be part of the solution even though the failure of his team to play for him at the beginning and end of games is perhaps the biggest part of the problem?
It looks like the latter.
Hall appears to be involved in the meetings. And he’ll be making himself available to the media Tuesday to talk about injuries and answer other questions head coaches normally do after a game.
The problem is that, thanks to Danny Maciocia, the fix is so deep that it isn’t just a simple solution of firing Hall like the Eskimos fired Pete Ketella in 1983 after losing in Calgary on Labour Day and bringing in Jackie Parker to take over. And there is no Jackie Parker to take over.
It’s looking like whether they think Hall deserves to remain head coach or not, they’re going to have no choice but to keep him in the job.
This team is so screwed up they may have Hall, who is definitely not a quitter (unlike a significant number of his players) to somehow be part of the solution beyond simply walking the plank for the players he’s failed to inspire to show up to play for him or have the character not to capsize completely in fourth quarters.
Five members of the assistant coaching staff are Danny Maciocia hires and he’s had a heavy influence on choosing others. They may be the bigger problem than Hall himself.
Replacing a head coach isn’t an easy solution if you know that whoever you find to come in for the interim has no chance of success with the assistant coaching staff he’ll be working with or the lot of losers with hearts the size of peas who Maciocia picked as players, talented though many of them may be.
Maciocia is now being exposed as a con man who had people inside and close to the organization fooled but who didn’t fool the fans. Two weeks after firing him, the reality has hit that his dismissal didn’t cure anything short term. The only benefit is that it has totally exposed more of the mistakes he made.
It’s what happens next that will have far more impact.
You’d figure they’d be more likely to fire Kevin Strasser, Jeff Bleamer, Noel Thorpe, Dan Kepley, Mike Walker, Terry Eisler, Stacey Hairston, Jason Tucker or Rob Ralph than make one of them head coach to replace Hall.
Head coaches have been fired during seasons before but has anybody tried to replace two-thirds of a coaching staff? Then again, do you really need all nine of them to do the job they’re doing?
While Strasser has probably replaced Maciocia as Public Enemy No. 1 in Edmonton for Eskimo fans, the guy who deserves to be gonged first is Bleamer. And that one, I’m pretty sure, will happen, regardless of how many other heads roll.
The offensive line is in such a state of disarray that there is no justification for this guy to stay another day. And Strasser can share the same cab to the airport with him with the play calling and offensive game plans he’s provided since running his record to 5-12 after Maciocia put him in place to take over from a then 5-4 Rick Worman on Labour Day.
But the problem is also very much the players.
There just aren’t enough Eskimos on this team. And one of the so-called stars, Maciocia’s big free-agent signing of last year, middle linebacker Maurice Lloyd, is a high-profile part of the problem within this group.
If you’re going to make an example of somebody in uniform, he’d be the guy I’d pick quick.
This team has major leadership issues and Lloyd has clearly established himself as a cancer within this club.
The Eskimos can’t continue to look the other way with him. But Hall was his old coach in Saskatchewan.
If it works out that the Eskimos have no choice but to keep Hall as head coach until the end of the season, does that mean Lloyd stays, too?
It’s a good thing this is a bye week situation because it’s giving the Eskimos time to take a long, hard look at coaches and players, short term and long term.
And it has to be quite clear to everybody now that there’s no quick fix here on a year when Edmonton plays host to the Grey Cup.
Forget Grey Cup or bust. It’s bust.
I have to wonder, though. Why did it take this long ?
http://www.edmontonsun.com/sports/co.../15043731.html
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