Dave Campbell
CFL.ca
It’s been two weeks since the Edmonton Eskimos dismissed Danny Maciocia as their general manager and now the search is on for a replacement.
Will the position be filled sometime in the 2010 season? Not likely.
For now, the GM duties will be shared by Head Scout Ed Hervey, Assistant General Manager and Scout Paul Jones, and Manager of Football Operations and Director of Canadian Scouting Dan MacKinnon.
“Right now, we’re all working in unison to make sure that the club is heading in the right direction as far as the on-field and personnel moves are made,” Ed Hervey explained. “But Richie Hall is the head coach. The things that he wants done, we’re trying to actively get done for him. When it comes down to the football moves for this football club, it falls squarely on the shoulders of Coach Hall.”
That’s right; head coach Richie Hall essentially has the final say on all personnel decisions with the football team. Hall does say however that he does ask for input from all involved, and says that’s how the structure worked with Danny Maciocia. The structure is still the same even though there’s now one less person involved with the process.
“The situation doesn’t change, you’re just doing it with one less person,” Hall said. “The job still gets done and the onus falls on all of us. Am I more involved? Yes, I’m more involved.”
On Wednesday, veteran offensive lineman Joe McGrath was released by the Eskimos because of his lack of toughness and lack of willingness to do what it takes to win in the CFL. The 1-5 club is trying to change the attitude of the team and the final decision was Richie Hall’s.
“The buck always stops with someone and right now regarding the personnel in that manner,” said Hall.
“Was releasing Joe McGrath my decision? It was my final decision. We all had a say-so in what we thought, expressed ourselves. And when it was all said and done, we came back and made a decision.”
Hall has been busy this week. He also released rookie defensive tackle Andre Coleman simply because they’ve changed the ratio on the defensive line to include one Canadian in Adam Braidwood.
Hall also brought in wide receiver Tremayne Kirkland to give the team a deep threat because of the injury to slotback Fred Stamps. Stamps will miss at least two games with a dislocated shoulder. Also back is defensive back Randee Drew who was cut at the end of training camp.
Drew was bothered by a shoulder injury and couldn’t get on the field. He says he now fully healthy for the first time in two years. He had also previously ripped up his knee in August of 2008 in a game in Toronto while he was a member of the Montreal Alouettes.
Chess game
Have you noticed over the last few years in the CFL that offences are not quite going down field as much as they used too? Defences have had enough of getting eaten up for chunks of yards and points and now are employing strategies to make life more difficult for offences.
“In my first couple of years in ’02 and ’03 it was pretty vanilla as far as what defences were doing,” explained Ray.
“They used man coverage, cover 3 (variation of a zone defense), a couple of different zones, and a little bit of cover zero (safety blitz). When I came back in ’05, defenses were playing a lot heavier zone coverage, a lot more zone blitz coverage, mixing it up in the back-end by playing deep and taking away the deep stuff.”
Many fans and media find the short passing game hard to take. They especially want to hurl when they hear “we’ll take what the defense gives us”. Every team in the Canadian Football League uses some form of the short passing game and as receiver Andrew Nowacki explains, a short gain is better than nothing.
“You can’t fit a square peg into a round hole. You have to take what you can”. Nowacki said. “With the players we have in this offence, we can take an eight yard pass and turn it into a 12-yard or a 15-yard gain, or even a 20-yard gain”.
When you take a look now in the CFL, defences are slowly starting to mix up their coverages and become more aggressive Ray points out.
“A lot of teams are starting to play a little bit more of man coverage, getting in your face, be physical with you and mix in some zone coverage.”
And if you look at the recent CFL ratings, I think fans are just fine with how the game is played.
Notes: The Eskimos will be without running back Calvin McCarty for Sunday’s game against the Calgary Stampeders. McCarty has his left hand in a form of a cast this week, running back Pascal Fils will come into the lineup. Defensive back Lenny Walls is out for a second straight week because of a foot injury, Lawrence Gordon will continue to play halfback while Randee Drew will back-up. Sunday’s game marks the first meeting between the Eskimos and Stampeders, they’ll play each other three out of their next four games.