Higgins

Myself. I don't think there is anything off about Popp and Higgins relationship. Popp is his boss and he expects results... They played their best game of the season last weekend so Higgins deserves as much credit as anyone else for that outing. Hoping it means better days understanding that there will be ups and downs with any rookie QB.

You know the funny thing was on one of our Bomber forums there was a thread speculating that he was going to get fired midway through the season, presumably after the week 9 loss to us. I have to say though, I think he finally found his man in Jonathan Crompton, he's played well and since his debut, the team seems to be playing much more coherently. It's disappointing that Troy Smith just didn't pan out, but I think overall with the team tied for first in the east and now having won 3 of the last 4, Higgins seems to have started coaching like the Higgins we all know. Crazy how things can change in this league.

C’est effectivement un peu inattendu, mais ce qu’il faut réaliser, c’est que ce redressement conincide avec 3 événements précis : l’embauche de Matthews/Schonert/Garcia, le renvoi d’Erik Campbell et l’instauration de Crompton comme partant. On ne sait pas ce que Smith aurait pu faire ou ne pas faire s’il avait travaillé dans ces mêmes conditions et on ne le saura pas tant que Crompton va jouer d’une façon telle qu’il mérite son prochain départ.

Smith ne peut que se retrousser les manches, travailler fort à l’entraînement et espérer que Crompton s’effondre assez pour qu’on fasse de nouveau appel à lui. Je serais curieux de voir Smith sur le terrain avec ceux qui l’entourent présentement, mais je ne me fais pas d’illusions. Smith est imprécis. Ce n’est pas bienvenu dans la LCF, qui est avant tout une ligue de passeurs.

Cette fin saison pourrait racheter des choses pour Higgins et je me dis qu’à la fin, c’est beaucoup plus Popp, Weightman et le clan Wetenhall qui vont pouvoir faire l’évaluation de son travail à la fin de la saison. Ce n’est pas seulement ce qu’il fait ou ne fait pas sur lors des parties qui entrera en ligne de compte. C’est l’ensemble de son travail. Comment il planifie son travail, comment il dirige les entraînements, comment il prépare l’équipe, comment il fait que les joueurs s’améliorent, comment il contribue aux stratégies, est-ce qu’il pourra préparer l’équipe pour qu’elle ait une chance réaliste de gagner ses parties semaine après semaine. C’est tout ça qui va entrer dans la balance.

Mais jusqu’à maintenant, je ne crois pas qu’il va revenir en 2015.

Does not have to be because Crompton crumbles either. Could be an injury too. At some point there will be an opportunity and the only way they will trust him his by his play and actions in his preparation. That's how Ray took the job from Maas...

It hasn’t been this easy to win the starter’s job in Montreal since before the franchise returned to the league in 1996! There is no incumbent, no HOF QB with years of success on his side whom the coaches are obviously going to keep on a much longer leash than a rookie. Crompton is nobody in particular, he wasn’t even on our roster at the start of the season. He’s starting right now because he’s the best of the bunch, but if he struggles and Smith has an opportunity, the coaches will play him if he makes the most of that opportunity. His fate is in his hands.

I said much earlier in the season that I didn’t think Smith would last, and I stand by that assessment, but he can still prove me wrong. Garcia has wiped the slate clean and it’s now down to whether Troy is willing to put in the film work and show his leadership, not mouth platitudes about it. So far, he’s been all talk and players notice that as much as coaches.

He has all the talent and skills to be a star in this league but he hasn't shown the toughness mental or physical that we are sure of. While we don't know for sure but he hints at it, that he didn't do some of the things he had to do, I read into that he didn't invest himself in his preparation as he should have.

A guy who won’t put in the work isn’t a guy I want around. Either he rights that ship quickly or he’s cut. Coasting on your natural talent isn’t going to cut it at the pro level.

Maybe they should play him Al Pacino’s monologue LOL!

“Your the GD Quarterback ! Your the guy everybody looks to to lead them”

You look at a guy like AC who didn’t necessarily have the physical gifts but who damn well compensated by working his tail off studying the game, first in the film room, training and eating right. That’s the gold standard we’ve established in Montreal. No one expects our next starter to be AC but it’s not unfair to expect that person to have a good work ethic. Especially in today’s CFL. Defenses have evolved and become sophisticated to the point where just playing sandlot football isn’t going to cut it. LaPo has done a lot of work in his TSN clips demonstrating exactly how defences are starting to expand on the basic match concept and mix up the combo and zone coverage with DBs switching off and reacting on the fly based on certain keys. If you aren’t putting in the work in the film room, you will have no clue how to read defences pre-snap, which is when the bulk of a good QB’s reading should be done.

Peut-être que Smith croyait que le football de la LCF était d'un niveau inférieur à celui de la NFL et qu'il s'est réveillé sur un autre coin de rue lorsque Schonert et Garcia se sont amenés.

Maintenant, il a perdu sa virginité en réalisant que c'est surtout une bête différente. Je ne gobe jamais les propos de ceux qui disent quelque chose dans le genre "C'est du football, et le footbal, c'est le football." Ce n'est pas vrai. Ce n'est pas le même football, et rendu au niveau professionnel, cette différence paraît. Beaucoup de gros boeufs des lignes défensives de la NFL ne feraient pas 2 parties dans la LCF. Pourtant, c'est probablement les positions où les deux styles se ressemblent le plus. Mais à 65 verges de large, 5 joueurs à la ligne offensive, du mouvement illimité avant la remise et 20 secondes entre les essais, le gars de 350 livres n'a aucune chance à moins de mesurer 6' 12".

Or, la position où cela pose le plus de différence, c'est celle du quart.

Smith a les outils et le talent, sauf deux : la précision et la lecture des défensives. À 30 ans passés, peut-il encore acquérir la précision qu'il faut, peut-il apprendre à décoder ce qui se prépare devant lui, et veut-il faire les efforts pour le faire?

C'est à lui de le montrer, car plus personne ne se fiera à son discours pour le croire.

I don't disagree that Smith's time at the beginning of the season was stuck with a rookie offensive coordinator who was too young and inexperienced, and taking on too much more than he should've been. I also admit while I thought the decision to bring in all those consultants was just throwing a bunch of unhelpful dead wood on the field, it I'll stand corrected by saying it has helped and certainly has made some difference in offensive consistency. If Smith was starting now, would the results be different? Maybe, but I'm not altogether sure of that.

You have to remember, Smith throughout his career has been wildly inconsistent. When he was in the NFL, it was not all bad. He came up with some pretty good wins or even good relief play in fact, but to be a success in pro football, it's all about consistency and Smith has been unable to stay consistent. The problems plaguing your O certainly were not all riding on him, but I'm just not feeling he can play at a high level consistent enough to be a full time starter. Pretty good backup IMO, but not really a starter.

[i]Does anybody (the guy who started this thread) still think Higgins is getting a bad rap? :roll:

The former director of officiating challenges a play that can't be challenged; and gets a penalty for it!!! :oops:

Too many players taking selfish and stupid penalties. That is on the head coach!

When Dinwiddie the Pooh goes away from the run, and goes pass crazy, why doesn't Higgins step in and give him orders?

FIRE TOM HIGGINS as soon as the season is done!!!!!! Any and all success the Alouettes will have this year will be DESPITE Higgins! [/i]

Also got to wonder what happened to his comments after the Edmonton loss where he said that Sutton had to be included and would be included. :roll:

He’s all talk, that’s the problem. Ineffectual old man pretending to be in charge when really he has no clue.

He inherited a mess.
The team is playing hard
He has kept them together
The team has won 4 of last 5. No team has a better record over this span.
Now he should be ridiculed because he blew a challenge? Please.

Some of you keep moving the goal posts measuring improvement.

Don't worry . You will get your wish. And Montreal will be on their third staff in 3 years. Good luck in selling that attraction.

Look, director of officiating for six years, and he does not know a rule that’s been in place for six years ! He did that all on his own… :wink:

He’s a nice man who’s shown patience and calm in a very difficult circumstance. I still think if he can finish strong he will be back next year but he controls his own destiny. I hope he does well, he’s a genuine nice guy but after the Worman and Rychelski screw up that’s costing this team a LOT of money (around a million this year and probably half that next year) he needs to get the owner a playoff game at minimum ! That will recoup at least the money he threw away.

The team has won in spite of Higgins, not because of him. The challenge flag was only the LATEST example of his incompetence, which goes all the way back to the start of the season. Not initially wearing a headset, taking over ST only to make it worse, no ability to consistently supervise his coordinators (where was the running game and Sutton, AGAIN?), no contacts in the league, and you can argue that the team's turnaround is more due to POPP hiring Schonert and Garcia than anything Higgins has done. He can't manage the clock, can't challenge properly, doesn't know when to challenge DPI, and can't keep his team from taking penalty after penalty. His QB management has been really questionable since game one and he has managed to cast aspersions on everyone from Troy Smith to Alex Brink to his own GM, all the while deflecting blame from himself. He's a fraud who is terrified that someone will figure out that he has no idea what he's doing in today's CFL.

It's easy to cherry-pick a moment in the season -- we've won 4/5 -- and say, hey, we're winning, what more do you want? Well, we are 5-8. Yeah five wins, but EIGHT losses, at least a few of which are directly due to his boneheadedness as a coach. Let's see how we finish the season before you start using wins and losses as a measuring stick.

The only reason I'm giving him a pass on PERFORMANCE is that this team is the weakest in the league at the QB position and it would be unfair to brush this under the carpet.

That’s true. But it still doesn’t change the fact that we neglected Sutton and the running game AGAIN last night after Higgins promised to clean that aspect up. You don’t need a HoF QB to run the damn ball.

We don’t have the whole picture. I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt that he demanded adjustments from RD at half time… :?