Tim Burke to Toronto Argonauts?

[url=http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/sports/football/bombers/rumour-mill-has-burke-creehan-heading-to-to-233421371.html]http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/sports ... 21371.html[/url]

http://media.winnipegfreepress.com/images/240*360/5453114.jpg

IT wasn't long after the Saskatchewan Roughriders were slurping champagne from the Grey Cup when the Canadian Football League's annual off-season coaching rumour mill began gobbling up and spitting out names.

And that includes those who last wore their coaching headsets here in Winnipeg with the Blue Bombers, most notably former head coach Tim Burke.

Sources have told the Free Press Burke and Bomber defensive co-ordinator Casey Creehan could surface in Toronto with the Argonauts once the dominoes start tumbling. It was reported during Grey Cup week that current Argos defensive boss Chris Jones, who was also the club's assistant head coach and general manager, will soon be named as the new head coach of the Edmonton Eskimos.
That will leave a big hole on Scott Milanovich's staff in Toronto and there are whispers Burke and Creehan will step in to take over for Jones, who was also rumoured to be on the Bombers' head-coaching radar screen.

The departure of the popular and respected Burke would also end the push by Bomber brass, most notably CEO Wade Miller, to have the new Bombers head coach consider keeping the old boss on staff as part of the rebuild.

And the changes here, not at all unexpected given the disastrous 2013 campaign, likely won't stop there as Bombers special-teams co-ordinator Craig Dickenson -- a longtime pal of Jones -- is now said to be possibly heading to Edmonton to join the new staff there.

The Bombers will make official some time this week, possibly as soon as today, that Kyle Walters will have the "acting" title removed from his gig and be named the team's general manager.

( already happened :Walters named GM of Bombers – Winnipeg Free Press )

Walters, who replaced Joe Mack on an interim basis in August, and Miller have already begun working through their list of coaching candidates with interviews. Included on the list of candidates are Argos special teams co-ordinator Mike O'Shea, Saskatchewan quarterbacks coach and Bomber Hall of Famer Khari Jones, B.C. offensive co-ordinator Jacques Chapdelaine and CFL director of officiating and former Edmonton/Calgary head coach Tom Higgins.

Word around the CFL is O'Shea is now considered the leading candidate, that Higgins has pulled his name from consideration and Jones might be of more interest to the Bombers as an offensive co-ordinator than head coach.

The Bombers also asked for permission to speak to Calgary Stampeders offensive co-ordinator Dave Dickenson and defensive co-ordinator Rick Campbell -- who also drew interest from the Eskimos -- but were told both men would prefer to remain in Cowtown.

if i'm RedBlacks GM, Desjardins, i'm looking at George Cortez and his offensive genius as my head coach with Tim Burke and his defensive genius as defensive coach.

Cortez had the most potent offense in 2012, but his defence was the absolute worst i can ever remember. had his team had a defence even a little better, the tabbies would have been much better in 2012.
Cortez followed up 2012 by leading the offence for the 2013 Grey Cup Champion, Roughriders. the guy knows his stuff.

yes, he made plenty of ROOKIE mistakes as hamilton's head coach in 2012, but you have to think he learned from the experience of the last 2 seasons and would be a solid choice in his second attempt. especially with Tim Burke's stellar defence on his side.

I hope this is not true. As a Argo fan I don't want to see anybody from that joke of an organization coming to toronto be it player,coach,managers etc.. The only players I would have picked from them were Muamba and hall when they had him playing for them earlier in the season. I just remember Burke looking like a idiot on the sidelines all season with his passive play calling,stupid decisions and all the players not working as a team.

As a HC Burke wouldn’t cut it…but Burke & Creehan would be a huge upgrade over Ego Jones on defence. Bomber defence got them to a Grey Cup with ZERO offence.

You’re raving about Al Hall but take a minute to compare what Hall did with Burke & Creehan and then what he did in Saskatchewan.

Great move for the Argos if they can land these two guys.

Not all coordinators are cut out to be head coaches. There’s been plenty in recent years that have failed and been fired. Richie Hall, George Cortez, Greg Marshall, Kavis Reed (although he wasn’t a good coordinator in my mind either), and Tim Burke all come to mind.

George Cortez only had 1 year.
he made rookie mistakes.
if you’re not willing to go though the growing pains, then don’t hire a rookie HC.

George Cortez had his rookie season. he shouldn’t make those mistakes again. i’d give him a 2 year contract.

He didn’t look comfortable in the role as head coach at any point in his time with Hamilton. Some guys make better head coaches than coordinators, and some make better coordinators.

it was his first year back in the CFL after being in the NFL for a few years. it was his first time as HC.

just repeating;

doesn’t convince me that he wouldn’t be an excellent HC if given another shot at it.

Kent Austin coached the Ticats to 4 more wins this year with a heckuva lot more injuries and adversity than Cortez faced, and he also lost their best player in Chris Williams. He also just came back to the CFL. I like Mr. Cortez, I just don’t think he’s a good head coach.

Austin had a Defence.
Cortez did not.

I think you have to give the head coach a little bit of the credit/blame for that. We’ll have to disagree on this one.

Everyone want to say how great a job Burke and Creehan did with Winnipeg's defence because of the high sack total.

In truth though, the Bombers were 7th in the league in Yard given per game, 8th is passing yards given per game and 7th in rushing yards given per game. That's just plain awful, and given Creehan's poor performance in Hamilton, part of me honestly hopes these guys are heading to Toronto.

Winnipeg also had nothing resembling an offense for large swaths of the year. No defense can hold every other team in the league to low numbers forever. It’s impossible.

If you take the exact same Bomber defense and instead pair it up with an offense that can control the ball? The defense is going to look better just by having to stop fewer drives and being less fatigued over the course of a game.

As an Ottawa fan, I give Burke a serious look as DC for the RedBlacks if the Argos don’t take him.

The defence is always what gives a team it’s identity. Swaggerville didn’t come about because of Buck Pieces and the offence. Burke & Creehan ran the ideal pressure system. DBs played tight man to take away the short passes and give the DLine an extra second to get home.

Perfect example of coaches trusting their players to make plays. You’ve got to have confidence in your secondary’s ability to cover and at the same time confidence in the ability of your pass rush to get at the QB.

All depends on how you prefer a defence to play. If you feel more comfortable with a soft zone that takes away the deep ball but gives opposing receivers a 10yd cushion and allows the QB to just play pitch and catch up and down the field with ZERO opportunity for the DLine to rush because the ball is out so quickly, then you won’t like Burke & Creehan.

Personally, I’ll take my chances at getting beat deep if it means the QB is consistently getting knocked down - - or at the very least getting happy feet in the pocket and rushing throws.

Creehan failed in Hamilton because he didn’t have the personnel to run his scheme. The TiCat DLine was terrible while he was there - - not that it’s really much better now - - and his DBs couldn’t play man coverage. If he and Burke do end up in Toronto hopefully Barker’s smart enough to realize he needs to get them some horses.

Burke didn't run the D this year in Winnipeg. Creehan did. That's a big difference. Creehan has bombed in his only two seasons as DC. Burke has two Grey Cup rings as a DC (Montreal) and it was his defense that took Winnipeg to the Cup final in 2011.

People need to remember that it would be Burke as Toronto's DC, not Creehan, who'd likely be the linebackers coach.

Not even going to get into the debate on defensive schemes because the amount of horse-doodoo being spewed by a certain poster isn't worth dignifying with a response.

Thanks for the breaking news that Creehan was the Bombers DC this year - - wow, that’s some fantastic input. What a scoop!

Do you have any clue as to how historically terrible Winnipeg’s offence was this year? Casual fans don’t often comprehend the correlation between offensive output and defensive performance, so I’ll try to make this as simple as I can for you - - when your offence has ZERO first downs in the 1stH and you still manage to win the game thanks to 8 sacks and 3 turnovers, the defence is balling.

Creehan’s defence was the only reason Winnipeg avoided a winless season. In their three wins the Bomber defence allowed an average of 1 TD, 161yds passing, 91yds rushing with 5 sacks and 3 turnovers.

Now do you want to try and tell everyone how the Bomber’s had a playoff calibre offensive attack this year and it was the defence that let the team down? Don’t bother - - just mumble something about how you’re “not going to get into the debate” and scurry back under your rock.

Toronto can have them both with my blessing. :smiley:

This could actually work now that both have had short stints as HC and are both long long time great football coaching minds.
Tabbing one as HC and the other as asst HC with each doing their thing on their side of the ball.
I don’t think there would be any offensive player who would not love to play for Cortez.
Burke has is Protege DC in Creehan Cortez would need a protege of his own would be best.
Problem is that Cortez may just be very happy where he is and the Riders are pretty loaded and can afford to pay him a nice salary to stay on as OC with job security. Burke still under Contract will be getting paid and a season off may be needed to rejuvinate him.

A bit off the wall here but hiring of a young Special Teams coach could also bode well for the future. I look to MACs Stef P. He was the HC and in charge of special teams for MAC in the past. A nice pay raise as well as also being a top candidate for nay CIS/OUA coaching job that opens up if the CFL does not work out. Similar to Greg Marshal in this respect. Both stints as CFL players and extensive CIS coaching. Stef has been in the CIS about a decade now mostly as a HC

Ever think Cortez was the reason for that? People blame Creehan, but he was handcuffed in Hamilton. Cortez told him what to do and which players to suit up.

Also, Cortez is not a people person. Never has been, never will be. Simply did not know how to communicate to or treat his players.

Burke officially named Argos new DC. Good hire by Toronto. Will be even better if they bring Creehan in along with him.