The team we’ve been fielding the past couple weeks needs to improve to beat Montreal, or a crossover in the EF and of course someone from the competitive west in the GC.
Lots of time to prepare for those things but we can’t get complacent based on only our record.
Defense and STs especially need improvement
I don’t disagree about the need for improvement. Changing out the ST coordinator at this time of year would certainly disrupt the psyche of this team. And who could you find that’s out of work that would be better?
We’ve had a couple of good ST & Defensive games this year…we’re just inconsistent….
I don’t think he actually wants to fire him mid season, I think it was a tongue in cheek thread title given the history of this message board.
Example: I started at least 2 Fire June Jones threads for his clock management, I didn’t actually want to fire him mid season.
All kidding aside I don’t think firing a coach at this juncture is the move, but we need significant improvement on basically everything other than K/P. It seems to be regressing
Reinebold is currently coaching the D-Line in Hawaii. The Head Coach there is former Ti-Cat QB Timmy Chang.
Seems like a pretty good gig for Jeff.
Doubt he would want to drop that to come back to the Hammer. 
I like Jeff and as much as I think he would make our special teams better, at some point your organization has to go out and find new coaches. Eight other teams operate without Jeff Reinebold, and some have fantastic cover and return games. A couple hired very young ex- players to be ST co-ordinators - thinking specifically of Archambault in Mtl and Mike Miller in Wpg.
McKnight stepped into an awkward situation last year and improved the ST units so you have to give him some credit for this. We have some issues this year but also two other assistants with some responsibility there, maybe they will be ready to take over in 2026 if McKnight isn’t the guy. My take is that he’s always been more of an oline coach but helped us out in a rough spot and is generally well liked and pretty vocal/enthusiastic which is part of the deal with coaching ST. As far as this season goes I’m sure they’re well aware that they need to improve.
Fire Dennis McKnight.
Things aren’t fine.
They are as bad as they look.
They aren’t going to sort themselves out.
If HAM doesn’t have the worst STs in the league Id love to hear who.
If punting a fg kicking are ST, Hamilton does not have the worst.
Fire Monson as well
Pretty embarrassing season for both Monson and McKnight. No fire in their play-calling. Too conservative. If they stay with the team hopefully they learn from this year.
You know exactly what parts of STs are being referred to.
Those aspect are fine but the issues are the coverage schemes when defending against a return.
We are giving up way too much field position.
For those who need to see the statistics, here is every team’s coverage unit ranked based on the percentage of big plays given up on returns;
If its a stat I’d like to see where opposing offenses begin drives. Seems like HAM allows teams to start on the 40-45 constantly.
Here are the kickoff specialists ranked by Opponent Starting Field Position;
Liegghio’s opponents start on the 38.6-yard line, on average, after his kickoffs. League average is the 36.2 yard line.
I don’t have as nice a table for the Opponent SFP for Punters, and I’m not totally sure it’s as important because the LOS is always different, but here it is;
Constantinou actually leads the league with 37% of his punts (28/76) remaining inside the 20-yard line, which is way higher the league average of 27%.
Also worth noting that kicks returned for a touchdown are not included in this SFP data. I had no good way of including them without it skewing the data.
Looking through my notes, Hamilton’s coverage unit only has 1 KOR Touchdown against them, which was scored by Vaval this past weekend. They also had a 105 Yard PR TD against them in week 6 but that was negated due to a penalty.
Amazing information, thanks.
Looks like exactly league average punt coverage, and 7th KO coverage.
I will fall on my sword that our kickoff hang time is close to the worst in the league leading to worse coverage numbers.
Thanks for this info. Very informative.
The Cat’s opponents start on average on the 38.6 yard line but the 3 best teams in the league only allow their opponents to start at around the 32. That’s about a 6 yard difference, which makes it that much more difficult for opposing offences to get into scoring range.
So for the Ti-Cats, there is clearly room for improvement.
You see how the “other league” is coming up with creative kickoffs. ticats either hit a low scud missile right at the deep returner, or a high floater that lands around the 35 yard line.
I do not love either.
Hasn’t Hamilton Field/Tim Hortons Stadium been known as a
“Wind Tunnel”
The “Hamilton Stadium wind tunnel” refers to a slang term for Tim Hortons Field, the home stadium of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, which is known for its notoriously strong winds, especially those coming off the escarpment. While not a literal engineering wind tunnel, the stadium’s unique architecture and location create a “wind tunnel” effect, making it a challenging environment for visiting teams
What does that have to do with a very poor excuse for special teams?
It’s more a credit to our Kickers
Constantinou
and Leggs
