B.C. Lions.
(The following article was contributed by Marty Hastings, sports editor of Kamloops This Week)
With B.C. Lions training camp underway at Hillside Stadium, we caught up with Leos’ general manager Wally Buono to talk about the upcoming season.
Topics covered included the arrival of head coach Jeff Tedford, how off-season rule changes will affect the game and the Lions’ running-back situation.
Tedford era begins
Heads rolled after the Leos sputtered to a 9-9 finish last season and were embarrassed in the first round of the playoffs, losing 50-17 to the hometown Montreal Alouettes.
Jeff Tedford replaces Mike Benevides and the 25th head coach in club history is bringing with him an entirely different philosophy than his predecessor.
“Jeff is, was and will always be an offensive-minded coach, so even that thought process is totally different than maybe the last 12 years, where the head coach has been more defensive-minded,” said Buono, who will arrive in Kamloops on Sunday with the veterans for Day 1 of main camp.
“I don’t want to promise the stars and deliver nothing, but there is going to be a drastic change in approach and a drastic change in philosophy, which, hopefully, will manifest itself into a more wide-open, more explosive team,” he said.
Tedford played six seasons, from 1983 to 1988, as a quarterback in the CFL with Hamilton, Calgary, Saskatchewan and Winnipeg. He served as an assistant coach under Buono with the Stampeders from 1989 to 1991.
The Lions’ new bench boss established himself as a successful head coach with the California Golden Bears.
After 11 seasons, he left the NCAA Division One school as its all-time leader in bowl wins (five), wins (75) and games coached (139).
Buono spends a great deal of time on the sidelines during camp watching his team and Sunday will give him a chance to see how Tedford runs his ship.
“I wouldn’t say I’m excited to see it, but I’m not an excitable person. I can get angry and I can get belligerent,” Buono said.
“For me, I’m going to be keenly interested to see the change.
“I think he’s going to do a great job of implementing change, from practice tempo to practice organization to everything. Anybody who’s going to come by and watch practice should be able to see that fairly quickly.”
On Sunday, the Lions practise from 8:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. and again from 3:45 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Benevides compiled a 33-21 record in three seasons and led the Lions to the post-season each year, with their best finish coming in 2012, when they lost in the West final.
“The players, some of them are going to bitch about the change and some of them are going to like it,” Buono said. “It’s inevitable. You just hope that more like it and the ones that you want to like it, really like it.”
The focus shifts now to what lies ahead.
“9-9 is not the worst record, but it’s not acceptable when you’ve always had a much, much higher standard,” Buono said.
“It’s not even so much about getting back to winning ways. It’s about getting to where the club is more dominant — it’s more dominant at home, it’s got more discipline and offensive explosiveness.
“It’s more about improving a lot of things and winning will be the by-product.”
Rule refinement
The CFL made a host of rule changes in the off-season, nearly all of them aimed at improving the tempo of the game and creating more offence.
“There was an outcry from everybody — fans, sponsors and the TV audience,” Buono said.
“The game is too slow.”
Of all the changes, none will have more impact than the one adopted to keep defensive backs from impeding receivers after they advance five yards past the line of scrimmage, according to Buono.
“I can’t imagine, as much as that changed the NFL game, how much it’s going to affect our game,” he said. “I think it’s drastically going to change how defences play. They’re trying to open our game up, trying to make it more offensive-oriented, to take more pressure off the quarterback.”
Former CFLer and current TSN analyst Glenn Suitor agrees with Buono.
“It is easy to see how this proposal will increase the speed and tempo of the game when you consider that receivers should have more room on a field that is 65 yards wide and in a game that allows for unlimited motion towards the line of scrimmage,” Suitor wrote on tsn.ca.
The Lions’ GM said it will take time for defensive backs to adjust to the change, which will likely lead to a rash of pass-interference penalties.
Buono is not convinced kicking extra points from the 32-yard line, instead of the 12-yard line, will have much of an influence on the game.
Another change that might specifically impact the Lions is a rule that allows the offence to indicate to officials it does not want to substitute and instead use a tempo offence.
The rule is meant to encourage teams to attempt two-point conversions, which will be scrimmaged from the three-yard line instead of the five-yard line.
Play will begin immediately upon the ball and yardsticks being set for play, allowing the offence to dictate the pace of play.
With Tedford expected to implement an up-tempo offence, such as the one he used during his time at Cal, the Leos might benefit from the change.
“The strategy is to put more pressure on the defence,” Buono said. “If the offence signals they’re going up-tempo and they’re not going to substitute, it’s more difficult for the defence to substitute, which puts more pressure on the defence to stay within that personnel grouping,” Buono said.
“Does coach Tedford maybe have a little bit of a heads-up because he’s more familiar with that strategy? Maybe, but that’s only a short-lived thing.”
Running low?
The Lions decided this week to part ways with five-foot-eight running back and kick returner Tim Brown, leaving many to question the team’s depth in the backfield.
“I’m good with what we have,” Buono said. “Timmy’s strength was never really as a back.”
Brown, 30, is B.C.’s all-time leader in kick return yards with 6,391 since 2011, but he struggled to find a place in the lineup and was released on Monday.
“We’ve got Andrew Harris and we’ve got Shaquille Murray-Lawrence, so we’ve got two non-import, very good, I believe, backs,” Buono said.
Harris, 28, a Winnipeg product, is entering the final year of his contract with the Lions as the club’s No. 1 back. He dislocated his ankle and missed six games last season.
Murray-Lawrence, a Scarborough, Ont., product who played at the University of Nevada, was picked 23rd overall by the Lions at the 2015 CFL Draft. He ran the 40-yard dash in 4.41 at the combine in March.
In July, B.C. signed running back Brendan Bigelow, 22, who had success returning kicks in college with California-Berkley, where Tedford coached.
The battle for playing time will begin at camp on Sunday.
“The import backs have to have different strengths and one of them is they have to be a receiver, not just a running back that can catch the football,” Buono said.
“When you look at the depth of our running game, I think we’ll be better off than we were last year.”
MARTY HASTINGS
Special to the Times
