On the CHCH TV sportscast this evening, Ken Welch started the speculation on candidates for the Ticat GM position by mentioning the following two people:
Bob O'Billovich, who is currently the Director of Player Personnel for the B.C. Lions;
Of course, the Ticat organization will not be able to comment on any possible candidates until they obtain permission to interview them, which would probably be sometime after the Grey Cup Game.
ken peters on the fan 590 this afternoon said possible jim barker from calgary might be available as calgary might be cleaning house at the end of their season
Re: Mike McCarthy....from Scott Mitchell's comments yesterday on the type of candidate he wanted, Mike does not fit the bill.
Mitchell mentioned that he wanted someone (not necessarily a nice guy) who had experience turning around clubs with bad records.
That would rule out McCarthy.
Sounds more like Greg Mohns to me (4-14 Argo's at the time).
I read that Rambo does not want to move from Ottawa.
Mitchell also said that he was not seriously considering him for the position.
He would not be a bad choice, but I am guessing he will be the GM in Ottawa when they get their team back.
IIRC, when he was involved with player personnel here and made the move to one of the U.S.-based teams, he lifted a number of players from the TiCat list and took them with him to add to his new teams roster.
Adrion Smith is the only one that comes to mind but it was quite the sleazy, contemptible move IMO.
I also recall the Cats complained and were given minor compensation as payback (I don't remember in what form but the League did acknowledge an "irregularity" had occurred).
RAMBO and Mcarthy are both part of team already....why would they not have announced it if it was to be one of them.....
OB is an interesting pick....but wonder if time has passed him by.....
The other real possibility is Mohns as both him and OB are not holding GM roles at this time and will be easier for Cats to talk to.....the others are already GM's for respective teams
Lumsden ain't gonna join the cats anytime soon. The only way we'll get Wally is to throw tonnes of $$$ at him. Besides - he'll want to start an injured veteran over Printers...
I tend to agree with those who prefer Bob O'Billovich as a top choice for the Ticat GM position. Although he is 67 years of age, he has vast CFL experience in management, player personnel and coaching and he is still making sound player personnel decisions for the B.C. Lions. He would also be able to step in and quickly evaluate whether the team should carry on with Charlie Taaffe's system. The other thing he may able to do is provide confidence and stability to the Ticats organization for two or three years- he has seen everything that can go right and wrong in the CFL and it never seemed to phase him, at least not publicly.
While Jim Barker also has a strong football background, some of his player personnel decisions with the Stampeders have fallen a bit short this year.
A case in point is the backup quarterback situation in Calgary. When Henry Burris was injured part way through the season, the Stamps received poor performances from Akili Smith and Barrick Nealy. They ultimately relied on Ben Sankey to fill the gap until Burris returned. And where did the Stamps find Sankey? Buono and O'Billovich had brought him up from the Arena 2 Football League when the B.C. Lions' quarterbacks were injured and they released him when Buck Pierce and Dave Dickenson returned to the roster.
One downside to O'Billovich as opposed to Barker is that O'Billovich may not have as much experience as Barker at managing the new Salary Management System. In fact, only eight CFL GMs have actual experience at managing the SMS and the Ticats just fired one of them.