@HerbZurkowsky1: #Breaking. Have learned Tom Higgins will be returning as #Alouettes head coach in 2015. Story to come shortly at http://t.co/WGuLnlIjkv

Might be the first offseason (ever???) no head coaches are fired.

Good news for the Alouettes and the league. Higgins is and always has been a good guy and a good coach who never got snarly even when things were difficult. I still happen to think that he would have been a good fit here as well. Better than O'Shea--maybe.

No need for the Als to do this exhaustive review of the past season like we seem to be doing here searching for answers to what happened. Like Walters & MOS don't already know but won't say. I watched Walters presser today for about 10 minutes as I was working. I have never heard anyone say so little over such a long a time span in front of the media. Why was there even a presser to begin with? Do the review & then talk to the media.

Kyle didn't want to talk straight about anything. The funniest part I saw was Walters explaining that everyone will need to be be evaluated & decisions will come from that if anyone goes. Someone asked Walters to grade his performance & he mumbled something about how difficult is to grade himself & how he doesn't like the process. he wouldn't comment on how he thought he did.

Don't get me wrong. I am for Kyle coming back next year but he really seemed like he had no answers other than everything is under review. He still looks & acts at times like a rookie GM. He also said something that surprised me. Something along the lines that there wasn't a lot of planning going into the 2014 season just how the OL was going to be rebuilt & that was the reason for 3 Internationals starting & how that has to change next season. Maybe I got that wrong but it just seemed like a strange analysis when he was keeping everything else close to the vest. if I am wrong please someone explain what he was saying but that is how I interpreted it. 

How could they not plan when they knew the o line situation was critical?

Derailed by post #4. New record?

Derailed by post #4. New record?

Not only welcomed back, but a strong candidate for coach of the year

Guess they wanted to give him a vote of confidence heading into the playoffs.

Chris Jones is obviously coach of the year, Higgins started off way to slowly to be considered coach of the year, Als were awful for a very long part of the season. Coach of the year is Jones to lose.

 

Smart move by the ALS tho, Can't keep firing coaches every year. 

Threads get derailed constantly. Whooda thunk it, sweep the leg?? My post started out with we're doing this in depth life is hanging  in the balance organizational  review when they know the answers already to all of the questions while the Als announce Higgins is coming back & their season isn't over yet. with no reviews. A tale of 2 teams & how they conduct business. That's how it began & got a little sidetracked.  

gbill2004, on 05 Nov 2014 - 7:34 PM, said:

@HerbZurkowsky1: #Breaking. Have learned Tom Higgins will be returning as #Alouettes head coach in 2015. Story to come shortly at http://t.co/WGuLnlIjkv

 

 

No surprise, he proved my midseason thread wrong when he turned things around.  Yeah I know he had help from Garcia, Schonert, and Thorpe, but he is still the head coach and in charge of everything.  Kudos to him, he earned it.

Not only welcomed back, but a strong candidate for coach of the year

No Jon Cornish for half the year, Bo Levi misses a handful of games, Mo Price missed significant time, team still wins 14 games...John Hufnagel says hello.

Hey, I got a prediction right this year!

 

From June 18: "Montreal 8-10 -- transition year, chaos at OC will set them back but I think that Tom Higgins will get them gelled by the end of the season.  He's turned around teams before."

 

(Sure I got the record slightly wrong but the rest of it is there)

 

Not only welcomed back, but a strong candidate for coach of the year

No Jon Cornish for half the year, Bo Levi misses a handful of games, Mo Price missed significant time, team still wins 14 games...John Hufnagel says hello.

 

 

How about GM of the Year for Hufnagel? 

 

It was Hufnagel the GM who supplied the depth that allowed them to overcome those injuries. The Stamps are miles deep at every position. They even have a useful Canadian backup for Cornish.

Coach of the year will come down to Chris Jones or Tom Higgins.

If Trestman becomes available, I wonder if Marcel Desjardins will make a pitch to bring him back to the CFL. This GM spends like there's a fountain of cash inside the RedBlack's basement.

 

Not only welcomed back, but a strong candidate for coach of the year

No Jon Cornish for half the year, Bo Levi misses a handful of games, Mo Price missed significant time, team still wins 14 games...John Hufnagel says hello.

 

 

Years of continued excellence doesn't capture attention the way turning a team around does, but it should.  Being among the best year after year isn't easy, but people write it off like all that happens is a team gets good and they can put the cruise control on.  For close to a decade.

 

 

Not only welcomed back, but a strong candidate for coach of the year

No Jon Cornish for half the year, Bo Levi misses a handful of games, Mo Price missed significant time, team still wins 14 games...John Hufnagel says hello.

 

 

Years of continued excellence doesn't capture attention the way turning a team around does, but it should.  Being among the best year after year isn't easy, but people write it off like all that happens is a team gets good and they can put the cruise control on.  For close to a decade.

 

Higgins would be third on my list behind Jones & Huff.

 

TBH, his coaching staff should get an award for what they've done in spite of him. He did some horrifically stupid things at the start of the year and should disqualify him from winning any awards.

There's still a lot of ball left to be played before the coach of the year gets decided.  Unlike other awards, coach of the year is based on the entire year (not just regular season) and only once in the last 5 years has a coach won without winning the Grey Cup.

Kind of surprising considering Higgins was reportedly at odds with Popp when he first arrived. I guess when you consider the way the Als. have turned things around it was noticed by management. Winning certainly gives coaces a comfort zone alright, something that hasn't happened here for quite awhile. Higgins inherited a solid D AND one of the best o lines in the country. Good foundation for success. I also believe that Crompton was a small reason for their turnaround. Don't know what was wrong with Troy Smith but a fence post with hair could be successful behind that o line and Crompton is proving that. Take note Walters..success starts with a solid o line (something we don't have) and makes life a lot easier for your head coach.

Coach of the year will come down to Chris Jones or Tom Higgins.

It would be a travesty if Higgins finished higher than Huff in the voting. His team has been ripped apart by injury and they're still beating everybody.

 

Higgins' team needed a big rally to finish atop the East b/c his own incompetence put them in a hole initially.

Kind of surprising considering Higgins was reportedly at odds with Popp when he first arrived. I guess when you consider the way the Als. have turned things around it was noticed by management. Winning certainly gives coaces a comfort zone alright, something that hasn't happened here for quite awhile. Higgins inherited a solid D AND one of the best o lines in the country. Good foundation for success. I also believe that Crompton was a small reason for their turnaround. Don't know what was wrong with Troy Smith but a fence post with hair could be successful behind that o line and Crompton is proving that. Take note Walters..success starts with a solid o line (something we don't have) and makes life a lot easier for your head coach.

 

I think Walters is well aware of this based on his comments on H&L yesterday.  He basically said a successful long term strategy is to draft 2 OLineman each draft.  One early that can compete with the team this year and one later that can develop and come back the following year.

 

Unfortunately you can't magically fix an O-Line over night.

I'm inclined to believe that Higgins 2nd half success is really Crompton faring better than their first QB, and the fact that the East is all around terrible this year. 

 

Kind of surprising considering Higgins was reportedly at odds with Popp when he first arrived. I guess when you consider the way the Als. have turned things around it was noticed by management. Winning certainly gives coaces a comfort zone alright, something that hasn't happened here for quite awhile. Higgins inherited a solid D AND one of the best o lines in the country. Good foundation for success. I also believe that Crompton was a small reason for their turnaround. Don't know what was wrong with Troy Smith but a fence post with hair could be successful behind that o line and Crompton is proving that. Take note Walters..success starts with a solid o line (something we don't have) and makes life a lot easier for your head coach.

 

I think Walters is well aware of this based on his comments on H&L yesterday.  He basically said a successful long term strategy is to draft 2 OLineman each draft.  One early that can compete with the team this year and one later that can develop and come back the following year.

 

Unfortunately you can't magically fix an O-Line over night.

 

Amazing how fast Drowsy Joe Mack took it apart two years ago. That was like, two days. Lost Labatte & Picard. Now it takes years to rebuild.