Kavis Reed 'Riders new special team coach?

From Rod Pedersen's blog http://rodpedersen.blogspot.com/

[i]"From what I'm hearing this morning, it sounds like the Riders have hired Kavis Reed as their new special teams coach. Reed coached special teams in Ottawa during the Renegades first season in the nation's capital. In 2003, he became the clubs secondary coach. During the subsequent five seasons, he has served as defensive coordinator in Hamilton and Toronto."

"Reed, who's expected to be officially announced in the next few days, played in the Edmonton Eskimos secondary for five seasons before retiring due to a neck injury. In 1996 he led the CFL with seven interceptions. Before coming to the CFL, Reed had a stellar career at Furman University in South Carolina, where he received his degree in biology."

"What does this mean for longtime - and highly respected - assistant coach Alex Smith?
Smith will now focus exclusively on coaching the team's linebackers, according to what I'm hearing."[/i]

If this is true, I think it is a very good thing. He will also make a fine "unofficial" assistant defensive co-ordinator.

I think that would be good news, would be an upgrade. We've got lots of talents to succeed in the special teams area's, just need someone to utilize it.

Hallelujah Alex Smith is no longer the Special Teams Coach. Our Returns have been absolutely horrible for a long time now, and I think a lot of that has to do with Mr. Smith. Not everything of course, but definetly some.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwEMxYggoKQ

Adding Kavis is a much more positive story than most of the other stuff these days. Very nice addition to the staff. And I think it is terrific to see he hasn't been stereotyped as a defensive coach.

Imagine what Corey woulda done with amazing special teams coaching.

Wasn’t there a rumour that Richie Hall wanted Smith to move to Edmonton? I just went on the Esks site, and last years ST coordinator was re-hired, so maybe Smith will be doing something else?.

How does a former defensive back and defence coach get a job as a RBs coach?

Smith is still with the Riders. He will be in charge of linebackers this year, but not special teams. Though I am sure he will remain influential in that regard. Our cover teams were always good. Just not the return side. And Alex is the key guy in deciding our draft selections.

Because a good young, smart coach can understand more than one aspect of coaching.

And once they good enough at it, they are called Head Coach.

As far as I know Alex is still on staff. In 08’ he coached the linebackers, ST’s, and supervised the canadian draft.

Imagine what Lloyd and McKenzie would have been worth without his quality instruction… what a jerk eh people? Coaching them up to that level and screwing the Riders, sheesh(said with whole mouth in cheek)! To assume Corey Holmes second tour of duty wasn’t maximized due to Alex Smith is preposterous people, get over it. How about the scenario, unrelated to Alex, responsible for taking D. Dorsey out of his scheme? That was brilliant, NOT.

Alex is a high quality MAN, forget about his coaching creds. for a minute and realize you are praising God over an honorable mans demotion. Kinda gross really. Move to Edmonton? HA! If the Riders part ways with Alex that will be his last job in pro because there is only one pro team that wears Green. He’s someone who’s clearly always been on our side in Sask. For the inchorageable crowd, rest easy knowing that effective special teams play has always been based on several factors not just one.

Good young smart coach? Perhaps…but he was defensive coordinator in Hamilton and they had a lousy defence when he was there, and he was defensive coordinator in Toronto last season, and their defence really nosedived from what it had been under Stubler. Now sure, a lot of that likely has to do with personnel (Hamilton) and aging personnel with a lot of turnover (Toronto), but still…doesn’t make his resume particularly attractive.

Then again, in the words of Winnipeg’s new defensive coordinator, “I coach good players a lot better than I coach bad players.”

  1. Smith has done a really good job with the linebackers. My thought is: imagine what he'll be able to do with the linebackers now that his time is not split with special teams. Very good move by the Riders with young linebackers in the system and with the need to bring new guys in. They should be up to speed on things more quickly and the new guys should be able to step in much sooner.

  2. Reed may or may not have been RB coach but it would be wise to wait and see what he brings. Hopefully he will be able to focus mostly on special teams and get some explosiveness there.

To be fair, Dorsey wasn’t anything special on returns with us, or Winnipeg either. He was talented but how can 2 teams cut him and he’s magically the best in the league after that? I would say our lack of special team returns definitely played a role in there somewhere.

Winnipeg released him because they had Charles Roberts and Fred Reid, both very decent to excellent backs, who they had more familiarity with and therefore were not likely to take that chance on Dorsey–either Dorsey outright won a job in camp, or cutting him was not a surprise.
Meanwhile, back at Taylor Field, we had Shamar Bracey. and…well actually that was the only back we had. Then we signed Fred Russel–an unknown quantity. We signed Childs–an unknown quantity (which we had to trade valuable prospects to get–because we didn’t have a RB) and then finally as none of those guys were working out, we had to again trade to get Cates–easily the most promising of the group, but still largely unproven. Our situation was dramatically different than the one in Winnipeg, and it is baffling to this day why, when you have no proven backs, you don’t bring a guy like Dorsey to camp and let him compete.
And Dorsey had been very good on ST his first year, but he dropped off 2nd year. put the potential was clearly there.

You can’t always second guess every decision, Sometimes a guy is just a better fit elsewhere. But when we did not even have a RB, releasing the only one you do have seems a bit impulsive…

Cause you you, we were just totally bashing him as a human being :roll:

Still…why is he a RB coach?