All the rabid Kelly haters must be waiting with baited breath to hear the words "Kelly is fired as Bombers Head Coach", but half of them were waiting for those words when the Bombers had the "audacity" to pass on Greg Marshall....a guy who very well may never be a HC in the CFL, and for good reason...but I digress.
The reason Kelly won't leave has nothing to do with Bauer and Kelly's relationship, it has more to do with Doug Berry and Lyle Bauer. Remember that contract Bauer gave Berry right after the Grey Cup....and then Berry led us to a 2-8 record (and nobody was screaming for Berry's head then....and he had a worse record...granted not by much). Anyway, that contract is the problem. The Bombers STILL have to pay Berry the money on that contract. Now if Mike Kelly were fired they'd have to pay out the rest of HIS contract as well. AND Berry's contract payout runs into next season as well, so that means IF all the Kelly haters got their wish the Blue Bombers in 2010 would be paying three Head Coaches for one season. And then there could be Greg Marshall's contract as well, not sure how all that worked out.
I think most people want Kelly fired for the wrong reason. As a Head Coach, he's done a lot of things right, honestly. He's brought a solid work ethic back to the TC and practices, there was a new found respect engrained to the players about this franchise, and I honestly mean this.....personnel wise he has been probably a lot better than Taman was. Yeah the Lefors project was a bust, and you can slam him for Bishop, but as is the case every time people complain about QB's....WHO would you have them bring in? Names like Peirce or Jackson get thrown around, but that's really a case of the grass being greener on the other side....when they'd get here...it'd be the same story as with Bishop.
Mike Kelly doesn't need to be fired, at least not yet. Mike Kelly NEEDS to hire an Offensive Coordinator. I think Mike Kelly has shown he CAN run a football rather well, and even with the Barrin Simpson issue I'm not sure it's that outrageous of a situation. Maybe it was handled wrong but let's be honest, Barrin's not getting any younger and Lobendahn is the guy of the future and eventually you gotta get him in there. And is it really that crazy of an idea to trade Barrin now when he's 2nd in the league? You see this in hockey all the time. If there is a team out there who needs a LB to make them a better playoff contender, than Barrin Simpson is a very tempting offer right now cause of what he can do for you in November. BUT, once the season ends, his stock will drop again cause he'll be a year older, there will be younger guys coming in, younger cheaper FA's available with bigger upside, so his stock plummets. So given the situation I can see why Mike Kelly might be tempted to see what he can get for Barrin, especially if he was planning on moving ahead of JoeLo anyway.
I think Mike Kelly the HC needs to fire Mike Kelly the OC, and just stick to running the team, I mean he hired a phenomenal guy to run our defense.....now just go find somebody to do it with our offense.