Bring back coach Hawkins!

Alouettes de Montréal
#1

Rather than have a 2 QB system, I suggest a 2 coach approach. The advantages are obvious:

  1. The Alz are paying coach Hawkins anyways, so why not make him work?
  2. The coaches could blame each other for the team s*cking, rather than taking it out on the players.
  3. Coach Hawkins could teach the Alz players the fundamentals of football, finally.
  4. Coach Hawkins could smooth talk reporters into believing that the Alz are finally turning the corner.
  5. Too many cooks spoil the broth, they say. Could 'they' be wrong?
  6. Coach Hawkins could coach from home, via internet. In fact, it might be best for Higgins to coach remotely as well, since he's used to the TO command centre.
  7. Splitting the coaching job means Higgins and Hawkins can finally take the time to learn to say 'Bondjoor' properly.

And if this doesn't work, well then we could bring back Jim Popp, as sole HC, or perhaps as a triumvirate the likes of which the CFL has never seen before.

#2

Lol. Dude this made my day. thanks :lol:

So i hear Jerrod Johnson might be on his way here from the Seahawks as well as another QB that Popp and Higgins confirmed to Herb is not Tim Tebow. Whew.

#3

Int. QB Jerrod Johnson,6.5,251 and 26 years old was released by the Chicago Bears on June 19,2014. He was on the Bears practice roster in 2013.

Other QBs recently released and possibly on the Als negotiation list are Dominique Davis-released by Atlanta- and Jimmy Clausen-released by the Bears, I think-.

The Als don't need Alex Brink with his QB rating of 27.5. PITOYABLE!

Richard

#4

Int. QB Jimmy Clausen was recently signed by the Bears.- June 5,2014- Not long after Johnson was released. He was a 2nd round choice of Carolina, in 2010. Marc Trestman did coach/guide him before he was drafted. No wonder the Bears signed him,after he was released by Carolina.

Int. QB Dominique Davis is 6,3 ,210 and 25 years old. Signed by Atlanta,as an undrafted free agent, in 2012; he was on Atlanta roster in 2012 and 2013. He was released in June,after Atlanta signed T.J. Yates released by Houston. Yates was on the Als negotiating list,when he was drafted in round 5, by Houston, in 2011. On Houston roster in 2011,2012 and 2013. I don't know if he still is on Als negotiating list. He will most probably remain with Atlanta.

Richard

#5

Bring in all the QBs you can, Jim. This is for next year anyway, so why not?

I'd say that as soon as a fourth QB is on the roster, you release Brink and spend the year evaluating Smith, Marsh, Crompton, and the best of the airlifted QBs.

#6

I don't know if Jerrod Johnson will be signed by the Als, but I do hope.At Texas A&M he had outstanding stats. Finished with a QB rating of 145.58. 58.6% completions or 650,67 TDs and 27 Int. on 1109 attempts; threw for 8,011 yards in 35 games; ran for 877 yards and scored 16 TDs. His junior season,in 2009, was his best. Threw for 3,579 yards and 30 TDs and 8 Int. in 497 attempts and 296 completions or 59.6%. Ran for 506 yards and scored 8 TDs. 12 games played.

Richard

#7

Surprised he couldn't get traction in the NFL. Great stats, and the kind of frame (6'5" 250 lbs.) that makes NFL scouts drool.

I hope he comes here, for sure.

#8

The one concern is, who is going to coach them? Higgins, Dinwiddie?
Look at what has happened so far this season with Smith and Marsh compared to last under Berry.

#9

Well, you get them here under contract and have Schonert and Dinwiddie work with them. When AC is back from vacation, who knows? Maybe he can help the team out unofficially until the end of the year and then we can clean house in the offseason.

#10

With AC, you have a good point. I would not waste the young QB's time or talent with Dinwiddie right now. He has enough on his hands trying to get Smith/Marsh/Brink and the rest of the O to at least make it past the opposition's 50 yard line.

#11

LOLsob. I know. Every week, I think my expectations have hit rock bottom ... and then I find out I'm wrong, once again.

#12

No offense but I`m amazed anyone still thinks this is a QB problem.

#13

The number 1 problem/issue is the QB. Presently, Troy Smith has a QB rating of 65.3, Alex Brink 27.5 and Tanner Marsh 34.2.

Give the Als Mike Reilly and Troy Smith to the Eskimos and I would say the Als will win next friday.

I don't care who the Head Coach is, unless you have a top QB, you will have more losses than wins.The number 1 reason why Winnipeg is 5-1 is because of their QB; I doubt that they would be 5-1 with Troy Smith or Alex Brink as their QB.

Richard

#14

Richard, I fully endorse your comment. It took the team a decade to find a suitable QB after Etcheverry left. After Sonny Wade departed the team folded. An effective QB is the essential part of a successful CFL team. We don’t have one now !!

#15

How do you explain The Esks record so far this season? Different HC same QB.

How do you explain the regression of Smith from last season to this season so far?

Dinwiddie as was quality control coach last season. Now he is an OC.
Higgins out of coaching for six years.

I have yet to see plays called where Smith uses his strength, his ability to move. Is this him or the play calling of Dinwiddie?
Did they come up with a playbook to suit his strengths? From what I have seen so far, no.

I am not saying Smith does not have to be better. But I am not pointing the finger solely at him.

This is on Wettenhal for the mess this team is in. Giving the position to Higgins well after the rest of the teams had their staff in place. Higgins hiring Woman then firing him half in to TC and giving the OC position to Dinwiddie.

#16

People are very binary here. Either the QB must be at fault, or the coach, but not both. :wink: To me, there is plenty of blame to spread around. I don't think Smith or Brink is the answer at QB, but they have looked twice as bad because of the coaching. All our QBs looked much better last year under Berry, Miller, and Popp.

#17

You could put Ricky Ray on this team and they MIGHT have one more win. Was at the game Friday and in Ottawa Saturday. The difference between a proper offense like Saskatchewan and Montréal was obvious in pre snap motion complexity of patterns crispness of execution. Considering Saskatchewan is struggling a bit. It says a lot Imo.

#18

Absolutely agree.

#19

We have the same problems this year as we had last year before we canned Hawkins and demoted Miller. No offensive complexity, no meaningful pre-snap motion, no crossing to create picks/rubs, and no option routes. As a result, the players are dogging it. They're all pros. They know when something stinks and you can't fix it. Smith needs to be much better but nobody could be effective in this offence. Nobody.

#20

People want to scapegoat Jim Popp, because that's an easy card to play, and I don't disagree that he bears some responsibility. But this mess, to me, is primarily on the Wetenhalls for the disastrous way they ran the offseason. They tried to play chicken with their GM on a contract, but he called their bluff and they didn't have a backup plan. So out of spite or idiocy, they waited until far too late into the hiring season to bypass Popp and hire a guy (Higgins) who'd been out of coaching for six years, without Popp's consent, without doing due diligence; Higgins, moreover, was not from an offensive background, which was the unit that needed the most help going into the season. Furthermore, Higgins was so out of touch that he was forced to reach back to hire Rick Worman, who himself had been doing scouting work for Ottawa not coaching; then he tied the can to Worman a week into camp and had no plan to replace him. So Dinwiddie, in his first year as a position coach (!), got saddled with OC responsibilities that he couldn't handle. And here we are, with a hot mess of a playbook that seems to be half Worman (all vertical, all the time), half Dinwiddie (sideline dink and dunk), and all suck.

Jim Popp didn't hire Tom Higgins. He didn't fire Rick Worman. You can blame him for the QB depth situation, but both Smith and Marsh looked a helluva lot better last season and he's brought in Crompton since then, besides hopefully a few others. This is not on Jim.