TSN: McCarthy and Smith out of Cats front office

As others have noted here, Bob O’Billovich has been hired as GM, the formal announcement is expected today.

Of note this morning is this bit from TSN:

"It apparently didn’t take O’Billovich long to decide what to do with Mike McCarthy, the Ticats’ senior advisor, football operations, and player-personnel director Craig Smith. A third league source said both had been given their walking papers by the CFL club.’

http://www.tsn.ca/headlines/news_story/?ID=224382

It will be interesting to see who will replace McCarthy and Smith if the reports are correct. I’m sure Obie has people in mind.

Oski Wee Wee,

Maybe Obie feels that the Ticats are overstocked
with player personnel people.

He has Dan Rambo to head up that department up now.

Maybe he will hire one of his own guys
and replace just one of the released guys.

Yeah, I could see why O.B. got rid of them. What is the number one reason why the Ticats struggled for the last few seasons? A lack of talent. Who's job is it to evaluate talent? Craig Smith's and Mike McCarthy's.

  • paul

No, I am surprised he got rid of McCarthy. Zeke Mereno, Nick Seta, a few others that were probably traded, etc.
Maybe its a Personality clash. Anyways, I am sure Mike will surface somewhere else.He is too good a man to be on the poggie....
The Eagle :cowboy: :cowboy: :cowboy:

I know Setta was Marcel's guy for sure.

The Cats still have Tracy Ham as US-based scout don't forget..

Their dismissal shows that Obie's been following the goings-on in Hamilton and had already sized things up and decided to go in a different direction. It looks like he'll hit the ground running and it bodes well for the future.

An Argo-Cat fan

He played at Notre Dame, it didn’t take a rocket scientist to find him. Same thing with Zeke, he started for San Deigo it’s not like they found him in some college out in the middle of nowhere.

Well, Obie was the talent scout for BC so probably has his own network and contacts,so McCarthy might not have fitted in.

I wonder if McCarthy and Smith were the two men interviewed for the G.M. job but never named? Might be part of their departure.

So then every play that went to an NFL camp or played in the NFL is a no brainer. Just like Ricky Williams, Talman Gardner and countless others.

A no brainer would be the fact that you have no idea what youre talking about. I guess we should just scout from ND seeing how if you played there you are a no brainer for the CFL.

If a guy has started 16 games for an NFL team at middle line backer then yes it is a no brainer. Where it shows talent as a gm is finding great players who didn't start in the NFL or were cut after the preseason or even finding players who are in this league who aren't starting but have the talent to be great.

With the exception of maybe 10 guys, the Ticats are very poorly stocked with talent, and have very little depth at some key positions. This failure is due to poor work by Smith and McCarthy. Bye bye.

I like that Obie is putting his stamp on the team early. Next, heads will roll as far as players are concerned.

Let the rebuilding begin (again).

No excuses this time.

There is a solid core of young players, strong Can-content, outstanding QB and kicker, supportive ownership, loyal fan base. Upgrading the secondary and coaching staff should be top priority.

Here's to '08.

Finding guys that nobody else has heard of is only a small part of it. How many of those guys are on most rosters? And that's the scouts, presumably, not the GM, beating the bushes and databases for talent.

You've also got to go sign guys that everybody knows about and several teams want. And convince American kids and their handlers that the CFL is worth the trip. And draft wisely - there are few surprises at the top of the draft. And trade known entities for known entities and come out ahead. And then make it all work, financially.

The idea that all of a GM's moves that turned out bad are his fault alone, but all of the ones that turned out good could have been made by anyone is kind of foolish. But I guess it comes with the job.

8) Not according to Mike McCarthy !!! He told me personally that he was responsible for Setta coming to Hamilton !!!!!

I think that McCarthy and Smith are gone for two reasons.
1.) McCarthy interviewed for the job and maybe Smith did too (I doubt it though) and these guys probably don’t want to be around for the regime change seeing as they tried to and weren’t picked to be the top dog.
2.) OB could see these guys as possible threats to his power - OB will want his own guys.

Just my opinion.

theLawFirm
...saw who/what was posting and thought the thread was going to be closed for legal reasons.... or maybe word of a juicy lawsuit.

Like Setta right? Didn't start in the NFL, was cut several times by several teams, an American kicker who typically doesnt fit the ratio of a CFL team. You mean a player like that?

Maybe you can show me where in my post I mentioned anything about Moreno?

I'd rather look at it as the rebuild CONTINUES with a better footbal mind..the core is there and Obie should be able to evaluate the necessary talent to fill the gaps, it's not like we had a team that would need a rebuild.. we had half a team.. looking forward to this off season now!

I believe he said Setta came from Notre Dame which would make him a no brainer. He starred for a big american school it makes it a pretty easy to bring him in for a look. The talk is about a gm who can find diamonds in the rough the guys who dont play in the nfl or a big school typically known for football