The Replacements

Smiles no more: both George Cortez (left) and Bob O'Billovich (left) were relieved of their duties yesterday.

Now that George Cortez and Bob O'Billovich have been relieved of their duties, it's time to look at some people that might be the next head coach and/or general manager of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.

For coaches, we have the usual suspects/leftovers from last year's coaching search in Kent Austin and Greg Marshall, and new candidates such as Toronto defensive coordinator Chris Jones and deposed Blue Bomber head coach Paul LaPolice.

As for general manager, Austin could become the GM/head coach and, of course, Eric Tillman. Duane Forde's name has been thrown out there as well.

I'm going eschew making a prediction as to who I think it will be. I am never right about these things (Last year, I called Cortez a "dark-horse candidate"), so I only set myself up to look foolish. That said, I think the team would bring in Kent Austin if he is willing to leave Big Red (Cornell University) to come back to the CFL.

If Austin passes, I'd stay in-house and name Joe Womack the new general manager. Womack is being courted by Ottawa to run their football operations and I think he would be a tremendous choice for the Ti-Cats. I would also give serious consideration to bringing Duane Forde in. That guy is going to run a team someday and the team that gets him will be getting a guy as knowledgeable about the CFL, especially when it comes to Canadian players, as anyone. Even if he is not offered the GM role, I would recommend highly that the team find a way to bring Forde in for some job.

So if Austin decides he doesn't want the dual role or says he doesn't want to solely be the head coach, I'd make Marshall my head coach and bring in LaPolice as the offensive coordinator. I'd then hire Orlondo Steinauer away from the Argos to be the defensive coordinator, while retaining Jim Daley as special teams coordinator (no need to make a change there). Marshall was given a raw deal in Saskatchewan and LaPolice could do some pretty good things with the offensive talent this team has. I have mentioned Steinauer as a possible defensive coordinator before and I still think he's as good a candidate as anyone else out there.

Remember, these aren't predictions, this is just what I would do. I think the team will go hard after Austin, so if there is any prediction anywhere, that is the one. But if Austin were to pass, my decision would be to go with the Womack-Marshall tandem.

Mitchell and Obie to Step Aside By 2014

There are sure to be a lot of happy Tiger-Cat fans with word that team president Scott Mitchell and vice-president of football operations Bob O'Billovich will no longer be in their respective roles when the team moves into their new stadium in 2014.

Mitchell has been a controversial figure, especially since he was the public face of the very nasty stadium debate between the team and the city. Mitchell's interests were the team's, not the city's, and he took a lot of flak, especially from west harbour advocates and people still haven't forgiven him for some of the things he said. But I had no problem with what Mitchell said or did during the whole fiasco, but I feel like I'm in the minority on that one.

But the more interesting tidbit, at least for football fans, is the revelation that Bob O'Billovich will move into a consultative role by 2014. We all knew that Obie's days as general manger were coming to an end, but we now have a somewhat firm date by which we can expect a new guy to be calling the shots in the front office. Obie has taken his fair share of criticism, especially from me, for some of the things he's done was general manager, but he did help bring the team out of its so called "dark period" and become a team that people take seriously. Things don't look all that great at the moment, but Obie did a pretty good job of turning around the league's laughingstock.

Now let the speculation begin on who will replace each man.

In Obie I Question

When hired by Hamilton to be their General Manager (now Vice President of Football Operations) a popular statement made by fans regarding Bob O'Billovich was "In Obie We Trust."

At the beginning of his tenure, it was easy to see why fans had such faith in the decisions being made. Obie got rid of the underachieving Casey Printers, fired the ineffective Charlie Taaffe and replaced him with Marcel Bellefeuille, acquired Kevin Glenn, signed a slew of free agents (Otis Floyd, Jamall Johnson, etc.) and robbed the Argos blind for Arland Bruce. He oversaw a complete roster overhaul, which at the time was needed. There was no foundation, and the team needed to be rebuilt from the ground up. His changes transformed the Cats from perennial fourth-place finisher to perennial playoff contender. Things were not perfect, but they were much better than they were before he arrived.

During the 2011 season, Obie started to make, in my opinion, some highly questionable decisions. Arland Bruce was traded to BC for essentially nothing and Obie openly said that Quinton Porter should play more. The season ended, and the decisions were made to move on from Bellefeuille and Glenn and replace them with George Cortez and Henry Burris, respectively. Say what you want about Bellefeuille and Glenn, but their replacements did not come to the team without their own question marks. How will Cortez adjust to being a Head Coach for the first time? Is the Henry Burris done as an effective starter?

Even with those questions, the decisions to move on from Bellefeuille and Glenn had merit. They did not bring a championship to Hamilton and the front office didn't think they ever would. I might not agree with that belief, but I can at least understand and accept it.

What I cannot understand, and am having a very hard time accepting, is what occurred this week. As I have already pointed out, I don't agree with the team replacing Avon Cobourne with Martell Mallett. Nothing against Mallett, but a change at Running Back was not something the team needed. If one wants to find a person to lay the blame on for the failures of last year, Avon Cobourne would be one of the last names someone would mention.

I know that Mallett is younger and came a little cheaper, but is that a reason to get rid of the league's fourth-leading rusher? Cobourne's all-that-matters-is-winning attitude was exactly what the team needed. He doesn't care about stats, he cares about rings. He didn't get one last year and he would have been extremely motivated to make sure that didn't happen again this year. Releasing Cobourne could blow up in the team's face worse than trading Arland Bruce (which, for the record, I think is one of the worst decisions in franchise history). Even if Mallett duplicates Cobourne's on-field success, he will not be able to match his locker room presence.

And that is what I find most disconcerting about what has transpired over the last six months.

The team has purged itself of a plethora of veteran leaders, which are not easily replaceable. You need players like Cobourne to kick people in the butt when times are tough. You win championships with leaders like that, but who are the leaders in Hamilton now that Bruce, Glenn and Cobourne are elsewhere? Dave Stala can fill a void, and so can Stevie Baggs. (Sidebar: Am I the only one who thinks Baggs could be next on the chopping block? With the way the team has operated since the season has ended, it is very easy to envision No. 55 wearing a different uniform come Training Camp.) Henry Burris can take Glenn's spot, obviously, but Cobourne was clearly the alpha male in the locker room last year (taking the role from Otis Floyd) and there is not a player on the roster that looks ready to take on that responsibility. Every team needs a player like Cobourne if they want to win a championship. And make no mistake, a championship is clearly what the Tiger-Cats are after in 2012.

While it has gone unsaid, it is rather clear that last season's East Division Final appearance was not good enough. If it was, Glenn, Bellefeuille and Cobourne would still be around. That means nothing short of a Grey Cup will be acceptable for the Tiger-Cats in 2012. That's why the moves, especially the ones made at Running Back, don't make a whole lot of sense. You don't get rid of player like Cobourne for ones with one year of CFL experience, especially if your goal is to win now.

I will happily eat a whole bucket of crow should the team win the Grey Cup. My hope is that I am 100 per cent wrong and the Ti-Cats end the second-longest championship drought in the CFL. But based on what I have seen, I don't think that will happen, and I put that on the moves that O'Billovich has made. I am no longer in the "In Obie We Trust" camp. For me, it's now, "In Obie I Question."

Did Obie Ever Truly Want Kevin Glenn?

Kevin Glenn's tenure with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats has come to an end, but there is one question I have been asking myself the last couple of days:

Did Bob O'Billovich ever really want Kevin Glenn?

I know this might sound silly at first, because it was O'Billovich who signed Glenn after he was released by the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. Clearly, Obie had no problem bringing Glenn to Hamilton. If he did, he never would have picked him up in the first place.

However, I don't believe Obie ever wanted, or envisioned, Glenn as the starter, and I think O'Billovich did a poor job of hiding that fact over Glenn's three seasons with the Tiger-Cats. I'm not saying that Obie explicitly undermined Glenn while he was in Hamilton, but Obie acted in a way that might suggest he was never fully behind Glenn as the starter.

For starters, Glenn, who had success as a starter in Winnipeg and was only 29 when he was signed, was brought in as a backup. Glenn, much like the role he is likely to play in Calgary, was signed to be a veteran presence behind a young starter (in Hamilton, it was Quinton Porter; in Calgary, it will be Drew Tate). It was not the intention of the team to have Glenn become the starter, and the expectation was that Porter would replicate his success at the tail end of the 2008 campaign and become the Tiger-Cats starter for a decade. It might even be possible to think that when Glenn was signed, O'Billovich didn't imagine he'd be here for as long as he was, and only stayed as long as he did because of how well he played in 2010.

Despite that magnificent season, Obie was still willing to part with Glenn immediately following the 2010 season. In the aftermath of the Ricky Ray trade to Toronto, it was reported that Hamilton nearly acquired Ray the previous off-season. It has never been divulged just who or what would have gone to Edmonton in exchange for Ray, but it seems reasonable to guess that Glenn would have been part of the deal, especially in light of the fact that Glenn was part of the package that landed Henry Burris. Ray's 2010 season was disappointing to say the least, while Glenn had one of the best seasons a Hamilton QB ever had, yet Obie was an agent's plea away from dealing his record-setting Qaurterback.

When the 2011 season started off less than ideally for the Cats, O'Billovich went public with the fact that he thought backup Quinton Porter needed to see some more playing time. Again, Glenn was coming off arguably his best season; yet just two games into the new season, and the General Manager was saying the backup needed to see game action.

As the 2011 season progressed Glenn had what could best be described as a mediocre season. As the season wound down the team decided to use both Porter and Glenn in game situations. Call it a two-quarterback system, call it a platoon, call it whatever you like, the point is that both Glenn and Porter played in team's final four games. What does this have to do with Obie, you ask? I have no proof to back this up, and this is strictly my opinion, but I believe that the idea to play both guys came from the GM. Marcel Bellefeuille said that he "generally subscribed to today's thinking that you've got a starter and you develop somebody behind them to take over someday," so it would seem that the idea to play both did not come from Bellefeuille. Obie also has a history of using more than Quarterback, doing so successfully when he was the Head Coach of the Toronto Argonauts. The move to use two Quarterbacks always felt like an Obie decision.

Glenn's time with the Tiger-Cats finally came to an end Tuesday when he was officially traded to the Calgary Stampeders, along with Mark Dewit and a conditional draft pick, for Henry Burris. Remember when Obie declined to trade for Glenn because he knew that the Bombers were going to release him? All the scuttlebutt was that the Stamps were going to ditch Burris, yet Obie still opted to trade for him. Obie wanted Burris, so he went and got him; Obie settled for Glenn, so he was willing to wait.

In the aftermath of the trade, O'Billovich said a few things that could reveal his true feelings on Glenn, the most damning being that he said some candidates for the vacant Head Coaching position told him that the team would be better with Burris than with Glenn. While that may or may not be true – we won't know how good the team will be until they take the field in the summer – the fact that he made the comment is pretty telling. Obie also stated that he believed Burris to be a better athlete and more capable of bringing a Grey Cup to Hamilton than Glenn was. I understand a General Manager trying to talk up a recent acquisition, but the compliments he gave to Burris also speaks to his feelings on Glenn.

None of us will ever know how Obie truly felt about Glenn, and perhaps all of Obie's comments and actions say more about what he thinks about Quinton Porter and Henry Burris than it does about how he feels about Kevin Glenn.

Whatever the case may be, it certainly looks like Bob O'Billovich never really got behind Kevin Glenn.

Preaching Patience Pays Off

If you will permit me, I'd like for all of us to hop in my DeLorean and head back in time.

The date is July 10, 2011.

The day before, the Tiger-Cats had just lost to the Edmonton Eskimos in a listless effort that no one – fan, player or coach – was happy with. The Cats had started the season with much promise, yet they were behind the eight ball – again. The Cats were 0-2, and things were looking bad.

To a man, everyone on the team preached patience; they said that the wins would come. That didn't stop many fans from reacting with anger and hostility towards another slow start. Doom predictions were everywhere, and while there were rational fans calling for the same patience the team was preaching, they were shouted down by the outraged majority.

In case it has been forgotten, back on July 10, 2011 the following was "true" according to many fans:

• Kevin Glenn was a bum and should be replaced by Quinton Porter
• Marcel Bellefeuille was "Marcel Bellefool" and should be fired
• Khari Jones was over his head as Offensive Coordinator and should be fired
• Bob O'Billovich was over the hill and didn't care because he was thinking about his retirement

Remember those days?

Well, fast forward three weeks and this is what we have:

• Glenn, who is streaky, is back in top form
• Bellefeuille is showing why he is a good Head Coach
• Jones has gotten the Offense back on track
• Obie is being given major kudos for some shrewd moves he's made, especially the move that landed Receiver Chris Williams

So while those early-season struggles were frustrating, the proof is in the proverbial pudding: being patient pays off.

There will no doubt be a stretch in the future, maybe even again this season, when the team struggles. When that happens, remember the lessons learned in July 2011. Patience is a virtue, and I think we all learned why over the first five weeks of the 2011 CFL season.

Little Bit of This, Little Bit of That

The Cats seem to have found their man to replace Bob O'Billovich when he decides to step down (probably after the 2011 season) in Joe Womack.

Womack has been hired to serve as assistant General Manager, and he will be the successor to Obie when he decides to ride off into the sunset.

I will freely admit to knowing next to nothing about Joe Womack. We'll see how he works out in a year or two.

In other news, the Argos are signing some of their potential free agents, but one seems to be hitting the market – one that would look phenomenal in Black & Gold. That one is Lin-J Shell.

I am a big fan of Shell. The Cats need help in the Secondary; Shell is a Defensive Back.

Yes, last year the Cats "raided" the Argos for two DBs, and that turned out terribly. But neither Jason Shivers nor Will Poole is as talented as Shell. I hope to see Shell at a news conference holding up his new Hamilton Tiger-Cat jersey sometime in mid-February.

Bellefeuille Won't Be Fired

Drew Edwards is reporting that Head Coach Marcel Bellefeuille will not be fired following yesterday's disappointing East Division Semi-Final loss to the Toronto Argonauts.

Edwards quotes an unnamed source in saying, "The reality is this: Obie and Marcel aren't going anywhere."

Good. Neither should lose their job over yesterday's outcome. Since both assumed full-time control two years ago, the Tiger-Cats have posted back-to-back 9-9 seasons and hosted a playoff game in each of them.

Yes, yesterday's loss is a tough pill to swallow. Despite the loss, I echo Stevie Baggs's sentiments when he says that the Tiger-Cats are a better team than the Argonauts. I believe that they are, but that the Argos were the better team on Sunday. That's sports, and the better team doesn't always win. If that were the case, there would be no point in playing the games.

There are a lot of things to address this off-season, but I'm glad that the status of the Head Coach and General Manager will not be one of them. Continuity is key, and while the Cats could be more consistent, I do think that the Obie-Marcel team can get this squad over the hump. I am glad that neither will be going anywhere.

In Obie We Trust

Better news could not have been delivered today. Tiger-Cats' General Manager Bob O'Billovich is staying a little longer in Steeltown after signing a contract extension that will keep him here until 2012.

The title of this post basically sums up my feelings for the man we call Obie. Every move he has made since joining the Tiger-Cats has been the right one. He has brought in:

• DeAndra' Cobb
• Dave Stala
• Alexandra Gauthier
• Quinton Porter
• Kevin Glenn
• Marquay McDaniel
• Otis Floyd
• Markeith Knowlton
• Jamall Johnson

That's to name a few. So far Obie has come up aces every time. It has gotten to the point where people don't even question his moves. Like the title says, In Obie We Trust.

When O'Billovich came to Hamilton in December of 2007 he had very little to work with, and in just two short seasons he has taken a team that couldn't beat anyone and turned them into a bona fide Grey Cup contender.

His track record is almost unmatched, but the work he has done in Hamilton earns him extra kudos because this team was in complete disarray. After surprisingly making the playoffs in 2004, the team went into a tailspin that ended only last season. The team's record from 2005-2008 was an atrocious 15-57. Yikes! In 2009 the team went 9-9 and made the playoffs.

Big things are expected in 2010. Excitement is in the air in Steeltown, and a lot of that excitement is because of the moves that Bob O'Billovich has made to improve this once moribund franchise.

Once again, like the title says, In Obie We Trust

Poole, Shivers, Obie React

New Tiger-Cats Jason Shivers and Will Poole as well as GM Bob O'Billovich have commented on Shivers and Poole signing with the Tiger-Cats. Both Poole and Shivers seem happy to be playing for the Black & Gold, and O'Billovich seems excited as well.

Initially, I wasn't too excited about Shivers and Poole coming to town. I think both are decent players, but my hope was that a superstar DB like Byron Parker would sign with the Tabbies. Looking at both players' 2009 stats they had somewhat productive seasons for DBs. Shivers had 64 tackles and 1 interception, while Poole had 54 tackles, 1 sack and 1 interception. Not terrible, but not great either. Adding both Shivers and Poole in with guys like Geoff Tisdale, Dylan Barker and Jykine Bradley could make the Cats' secondary pretty formidable. I guess only time will tell.

Notice in the videos that the GM says that more movies are to come in the next couple of days or so. Can it please, please, please be about a certain Niagara Falls native who plays Placekicker? Man, I hope so.