O/L Coach McKnight to Houston XFL, Reinbold offered also

I think we have a bit of an all-star coaching staff.

This is a pretty good summary of Reinebold’s year:

Reinebold, 62, returned to the Tiger-Cats coaching staff in 2019 and led a special teams unit that ranked top-three in the CFL in numerous categories, including first in kick return touchdowns (5), big play returns (19) and opponent kick return touchdowns (0), second in kickoff return average (23.4 yards), opponent punt return average (9.1 yards) and opponent kick return average (20.1 yards), and third in net punting average (36.2 yards).

Mahalo! Coach Reinbold

Awesome! Rad! Sick! Far out!
Dude, glad you’re not bailing, and right when we’re cresting!
Well, I’m stoked and amped for 2020 and beyond! … [surfer lingo]::slight_smile:

It has been a week since Farhan Lalji’s tweet announcing Dennis McKnight’s imminent departure.
And yet, Coach McKnight is still not listed as a member of the Houston Roughneck’s coaching staff - even as the list is updated to add other coaches.

JJalready has an O-Line coach on his staff.
Perhaps McKnight’s departure is not a done deal.

PS: I was wrong about Rick Campbell to Edmonton . . .followed Ed Hervey to Vancouver instead.

An interesting opinion piece on the movement of CFL coaches from an Edmonton CFL observer:

Thanks for posting ottawacat ^^^^

This is something I didn’t know.
It certainly seems the philosophy has completely changed this year under Coach Orlondo

In February of 2018, former Hamilton Tiger-Cats head coach June Jones hired Jerry Glanville to be his defensive co-ordinator instead of Phillip Lolley, who had served as interim DC during the Ticats 6-4 turnaround following an ugly 0-8 start in 2017.
But even when he was passed over for Glanville, Lolley was still under contract as a Ticats assistant. According to an Eskimos source, when the Green and Gold inquired about hiring the Alabama native as linebackers coach, Hamilton boss Scott Mitchell cited league rules and blocked the Eskimos from hiring Lolley, which ultimately happened a year later. But only after he sat out a full season.

Which prompts the question how is the president the ultimate decision maker in these matters ( Lolley) but , it appears, the HC can be too (Burke etc) ?
Seems when there’s a vacuum in rules and rules enforcement teams can decide on a case by case basis.

I’m not seeing the problem here with Campbell going to BC. He quit, which I would see as meaning he is no longer an employee of the RedBlacks. If he is no longer an employee, he is free to seek employment anywhere he chooses. Likewise, Maas was fired, so no employment relationship exists with the Eskies. No ‘fiduciary’ relationship exists for either man.

With Lolley, he was under contract, an employment relationship existed. The Cats chose not to sever that relationship by firing him, Lolley chose not to by sever it by quitting. A fiduciary duty existed, which Lolley chose to fulfill by sitting a year.

In addition, I understand coaches and assistant coaches working conditions are governed by individual contracts, and league rules, one provision being the individual must have permission from his employer to seek or accept a job with a competing club. Apparently, voiding the contract also allows some employment options.

The Lolley situation sounds weird, but at least he got paid for his year off, I assume.

I also assume “quitting” means you don’t get paid, at least not in full. If someone wants to take the risk of quitting in the hope that they land another job, it would seem like that’s their choice to make.

The only challenge is that it opens the league up to more tampering, with interviews happening on the sly, followed by a secret job offer, followed by “quitting”, with a formal announcement made a week or two later. It would benefit unscrupulous organizations like SSK, at the expense of the rest.

Since there is a SMS for coaches now, unless one team really, really wants another team’s coach this is not a likely scenario.

A couple things were reported with regards to Campbell

They settled on his contract and he was free to go to another club

Hervey still “requested permission” and was granted the right to talk to Campbell.

There has to be rules that even if you “quit” you can’t go to another team unless permission is granted.

What I recall seeing reported on Campbell’s departure from Ottawa was that, for some unexplained reason, the RedBlacks were going to continue to pay him through 2020 and, even so, he’d be free to accept a coaching job with another team. That seemed crazy, to me, considering that he quit. We don’t know, but would have to expect that if BC is paying him an equal amount. or more than he would have earned in 2020, from Ottawa, that the RedBlacks will, now, no longer be paying him. If the BC deal, with him, was for less money, Ottawa might be on the hook, through their “separation agreement,” with him, for the difference in 2020.

Perhaps if OTT is still paying him they could control who he could sign with.
If he wanted to sign with MTL or TOR in the East, they could deny it.
If he wanted to sign with EDM or BC in the West, no probs.

I took a look at June's Roughnecks roster and note more than 10% of his players have Tiger-Cat history. I see, at least, 8 -- Bolden, Castillo, Faciane, Jordan, Palmer, Reed, Suanders, Rhaney

https://www.xfl.com/en-US/articles/houston-roughnecks-roster

And a quick look at the other XFL teams shows a few others -- Josh Crockett & Tobenna Okeke in Dallas, Ryan Mueller in New York, Will Hill, Ray Lawry, Avery Young & Nic Grigsby (as a LB) in St. Louis, and Nikita Whitlock & Robby Richardson in Tampa Bay. I may have missed some, but there are certainly enough names, formerly associated with our team, to attract our interest and help pass the dirty months of February and March.

Well, at least they are picking players whose time with the Ticats has run its course naturally. If they were to start competing with us for free agent re-signings, that would be a bigger concern.

I hope Jalen Saunders comes back strong!

Coach McKnight’s image has finally been removed from the Ticats.ca website . . . he has been replaced by Mike Gibson as documented elsewhere . . . I guess this confirms that it is not realistic to expect to coach in the XFL & the CFL at the same time, even though there is absolutely no overlap in schedules.

We wish Coach McKnight the best of luck. Hope he has a Plan B when the XFL goes belly up prior to the start of Season 2 . . . a little puzzling to me, because I cannot imagine that an XFL coaching position would pay better than a CFL coaching position. Oh well . . . perhaps he lands a spot at a high profile NCAA school next year . . .