John Mackinnon
Edmonton Journal
“This is not about me,” Ed Hervey said at Monday’s news conference introducing him as the Eskimos’ new general manager. “This is about the Edmonton Eskimos.”
Judging by the upbeat mood of the locker room, where the announcement was held, the CFL club’s choice to replace the fired Eric Tillman certainly was a popular one.
Office staff lined one side of the locker room, while former players like Sean Fleming, Hervey’s great friend, Rob Brown, Rick Walters, and Taylor Inglis all turned out for the announcement.
Assistant coaches Tim Prinsen and Marcus Crandell also were on hand.
And defensive lineman Rashad Jeanty, released early last season, chirped in on Twitter: “The Eskimos will be a contender for years to come. Why? It starts from the top.”
It has been a long, bumpy road from Compton, Calif., the tough Los Angeles neighbourhood where he grew up, to the top of the Eskimo football operations department for Hervey.
When he retired after eight CFL seasons as a big, fast, tough deep-threat receiver on Eskimo teams that won two Grey Cups, Hervey’s second career initially was going to be running his own trucking business, of all things.
It was Danny Maciocia, then the club’s head coach and director of football operations, who created a scouting position for Hervey in 2007, which Hervey thanked him for Monday.
Six years later, four of them as the club’s head scout, Hervey is the man Eskimo CEO and president Len Rhodes has chosen to lead the Eskimos out of a ditch of dysfunction and back to a championship.
Hervey noted that the club’s foundation of excellence was built on great players, but also on “all the employees – everyone.”
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| Former kicker Sean Fleming congratulates his friend on being named the Esks’ new GM. |
“This is about our team, our organization, our direction,” Hervey emphasized. “Our direction is simple – we want to win. “We will because that’s who we are.”
Anyone who knows Tillman understands he, too, was about striving to win championships – he has won three titles with three different CFL organizations – but his style was not as inclusive as the managerial approach Hervey outlined Monday.
In the end, Tillman simply was not a good fit for the Eskimo organization, and the Ricky Ray trade was just the most obvious part of that.
“We’re no longer going to be perceived as a sideshow,” Hervey said.
On the other hand, he praised head coach Kavis Reed, the other internal finalist for the GM job, saying the two constitute a “dynamic duo, of sorts.”
“I believe in Kavis Reed,” Hervey said. “Kavis doesn’t work for me, we will work together. I’m going to give him the space to coach his football team and we’re going to do things as a team.”
He plans to extend Reed’s contract, which has one year remaining on a three-year deal. Hervey himself signed a three-year deal as GM.
While Hervey did not deliver many specifics for how to turn around the 7-11 club, it’s clear he has some ideas for change.
“I’d like to expand the regions of our scouting department,” Hervey said, responding to a question about whether the club’s recruitment had become slanted to the U.S. southeast, the home turf of longtime director of player personnel, Paul Jones.
Hervey said he will add some staff to the football operations group. He started as the club’s West Coast scout, so that might be a vacancy he will look to fill.
He stressed the Eskimos will use the scouting software the club purchased some years back to update and maintain a recruitment inventory.
“Gone are the days of guys who keep their information in spiral notebooks and book bags,” Hervey said.
He addressed the quarterback issue before anyone had a chance to ask about the Ray trade that haunted the club all last season, including the Grey Cup, where Ray led the Argonauts to victory.
“We will do everything in our power to find that guy, to make that guy the next guy,” Hervey said. “The last guy is no longer here.
“Let’s no longer hold onto those memories, wishing he was here. He’s not coming back. It’s time to move on and we will do that.”
The Eskimo depth chart currently consists of Matt Nichols, who is recovering from a dislocated ankle, veterans Kerry Joseph and Steven Jyles and development QB Jeremiah Masoli.
Would Hervey be afraid of opening next season with a trio of young quarterbacks, rather than one youngster and veteran like Joseph, say?
“Not me – if they can play,” Hervey said. “This is a league of opportunity.
“If you scout the right guys and they come in, get good coaching and get the job done, you can feel proud of them.”
Hervey said he, Jones and Reed already had been working to sign many of the 12 or so potential free agents the Eskimos have, including middle linebacker J.C. Sherritt.
Reed, meanwhile, was his usual classy self in wishing Hervey well in the new job.
“I believe the process was done fairly and accurately,” Reed said. “I believe that the decision they came to was the right one for the Edmonton Eskimo football program.”
“It’s not fair to serve two masters only two years into being a head coach,” Reed said, by way of accepting that being GM and head coach was too much. “That was not going to be the strongest thing for the organization, I am not ready for that.”
Not only does Hervey believe he is, he has felt that way for the last two years. He chafed under Tillman, who regarded himself as the club’s recruitment expert and wanted all to know that. Hervey’s vented his frustration Monday, as Evan Daum has reported elsewhere.
“I think the last two years for me was truly the ultimate test, feeling that I was the guy for this job,” Hervey said. “I had all the other (qualifications) for this job (scouting, salary-cap expertise).
“I was more so showing that (I) could work with anybody. I believe that I’ve proven that the last couple of seasons.”
Why didn’t he move on, if things were so unpleasant?
“I love it here,” Hervey said. “I truly care about this organization, I care about the people here.
“I felt that if I left I’d be abandoning ship. I’m not a quitter.”
To judge from the way his colleagues responded to Hervey’s performance on Monday, they’re mighty glad he stuck around.
jmackinnon@edmontonjournal.com
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