Trestman Still The Alouettes Head Coach For Now, Who Will be the Next Defensive Coordinator?

At the present moment, we can put to rest the Marc Trestman rumours leaving for the NFL, or NCAA. With the Indianapolis Colts ending any immediate angst from the Alouettes that they would consider hiring Trestman. Instead they opted for Baltimore Ravens defensive coordinator, Chuck Pagano.

By the way, did anyone win the pair of Super Bowl tickets from Colts owner, Jim Irsay on correctly guessing Pagano?

What happens now with Trestman and the Alouettes? As reported two weeks ago by Herb Zurkowsky of The Montreal Gazette, that the Alouettes opened contract negotiations with Trestman. Could this process be expedited that an agreement is in the horizon?

Since the end December, Trestman’s name has been mentioned with every available coaching job. Many were left to feel that he would have accepted an offer provided the situation was correct.

Now, if the team and Trestman come to terms on a new deal, would he ask for a window of opportunity to explore other options during the offseason? If you’re the Alouettes, could they even grant Trestman this wish?

For now the Trestman storm has passed without severely affecting the Alouettes organization. But moving ahead, it would be imperative for the team to get him to sign a long term contract and put to rest any future rumblings of him leaving the CFL club. Otherwise, everyone involved will be going through the same cycle at this time next year.

The Next Defensive Coordinator Will Be?

With the Trestman issue in the backburner, the Alouettes will turn the attention on hiring their next defensive coordinator. We have heard names ranging from Greg Marshall, Michael Sinclair, and even Jeff Reinebold.

I still believe Sinclair deserves an opportunity to lead this defense since he knows the entire personnel. He will still employ the same successful defensive concepts used by previous Alouettes coordinators in Tim Tibesar, and Tim Burke.

Furthermore, in the coming years Sinclair’s name will be high on a lot of team’s lists. His ability to teach, and get the best out of his players will make him an appealing choice for any potential suitors.

As for Greg Marshall, he is still bitter on how it ended with the Saskatchewan Roughriders. There is no question that he can coach defense. However, given what he has gone through in the last 12 months, could he opt to stay off the sidelines and continue to collect his pay from the Roughriders?

Eventually, once the CFL comes back to Ottawa, he could apply for that position since he was apart of the Renegades coaching staff in 2005. Marshall will have options but he could sit back and wait for the right opportunity to accept an offer.

Reinebold would be a surprising hire. Right now he has a comfortable job being the right hand man of head coach, June Jones at Southern Methodist University. Last month, had Jones been hired by Arizona State, Reinebold would have joined his Sun Devils staff.

With SMU eventually moving to the Big East, his job with the Mustangs would become even more important recruiting in the U.S. northeast, and down in the sun-belt region. Moreover, the stability at SMU should be appealing to him given he has a bigger range of coaching flexibility than he would have with the Alouettes.

Looking at his coaching history, from 2006-2007 at the University of Hawaii he oversaw the defensive line, aside from that he has coached primarily on the offense. So could he really fit in well as defensive coordinator?

No one can forget his two year stint as the head coach of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers where he produced a record of 7-29, and his Bombers defense gave up an average of 31.5 points per game. But his claim to fame was during a 1997 postgame handshake with then B.C. Lions head coach Adam Rita that resulted in near boxing match between the two counterparts.

With CFL free agency less than four weeks away, very soon the Alouettes will be pressing the issue to have a coach in-place so they can sell potential free agents on joining the club. But for now, who could it be?

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You can hear me on The Midnight Snack every Friday morning from midnight-2am, on Gamepoints every Tuesday night, and various other shows on TSN 990.

Photo credit: www.canada.com

Are The Alouettes Worried That Marc Trestman Could Take The Colts Job?

The Marc Trestman saga continues on into its second week of whether or not he will be hired by the Indianapolis Colts.

As mentioned by TSN’s CFL Insider, Dave Naylor through his Twitter account (@TSNDaveNaylor), that John Clayton reported last weekend Marc Trestman was the first to be interviewed by the Colts for their open head coaching position.

One has to contemplate how serious is this overture from the Colts? Yesterday afternoon from Mobile, Alabama site of the Senior Bowl, Naylor tweeted; “Had a nice chat with Marc Trestman today at Senior Bowl. “I don’t comment on rumours or reports” (Trestman’s reply to Naylor’s question about the Colts situation).

Haven’t we heard this standard of practice by head coaches that don’t respond to rumours! I do recall the infamous story of then Miami Dolphins head coach Nick Saban telling the local media there was no truth of him leaving for the University of Alabama. Well, I guess everyone was wrong to believe what Saban said in that press conference.

Without question the Colts will have to decide on a new head coach before Super Bowl week begins. The NFL frowns on their teams if they make a major announcement during the most important event on the football calendar.

Ironically, given that the Colts are the host city for this year’s edition of the Super Bowl, many insiders expect a new head coach in-place by Friday going into the weekend. Why not unveil the next leader to the media gallery that will be descending on Indianapolis.

As one local colleague mentioned, for now Trestman is just a candidate. Unless he receives a second interview from the Colts, then no one should be worried whether or not he will bolt from the Alouettes.

In the meantime, if Jim Popp, and team owner, Robert Wetenhall are bracing for the inevitable that Trestman does opt to leave the team with one year left on his contract. What compensation could they receive from the Colts? I certainly don’t believe the Alouettes will be asking for Peyton Manning. We’ve heard in the past that Wetenhall fully expects Trestman to honour his end of the deal.

Moving forward, it is business as usual for the Alouettes as they continue to scout the players at The Senior Bowl. The only concern is given how both parties are in Mobile, could the Colts request for an immediate interview before Friday?

If so, then the red flag must be raised on whether or not Trestman will leave the organization. Finally as one source who in the past has worked with Trestman mentioned, “what is left for him (Trestman) to do?”

Right now the ocean is calm, but these next 48 hours could prove to be a rough ride if Colts team owner, Jim Irsay will ask for a second interview and does hire Trestman to become the next head coach.

You can follow me on Twitter @MoeKhan19

You can listen to me on The Midnight Snack every Friday morning from midnight-2am, on Gamepoints every Tuesday night, and various other shows on TSN 990.

Photo credit www.cfl.ca

Where Does Jim Popp go From Here?

The Indianapolis Colts have finally ended all speculation in their general manager search as they hired Philadelphia Eagles director of player personnel Ryan Grigson.

With this completed, that has put an end to the discussion of Jim Popp to the Colts organization. However, moving forward what could be Popp’s long-term intentions with the Alouettes?

For him to have an interview with the Colts at this point of the CFL offseason has to ring off some alarm bells that he might be considering other future options. Maybe being the big fish in a small has pond has waned on him, and he might be looking for a new challenge.

With Popp back in the fold, where does team president Ray Lalonde stand with him? Even though Popp signed a new contract in the summer of 2010, could Lalonde offer another lucrative extension for him to potentially calm his NFL desire?

Furthermore, could this be the last overture from an NFL team for now? A lot of questions with no answers as of yet.

But could Popp now be focusing on trying to lock up Marc Trestman to stay beyond 2012? As stated many times, it is very uncharacteristic to allow a coach of Trestman’s ilk to be walking into the last year of his deal without an extension in-hand. Usually in this scenario, it signals that maybe Popp knows that this could very well be the last dance with one of the best coaches this league has ever had.

With free agency period just five weeks away, Popp has a lot of in-house issues to clear up before he can proceed. For starters, who is the first priority on the Alouettes free agent list? Could he dare try to sign another big name player and potentially have it backfire as the Dwight Anderson 2011 experiment did?

Already, the Alouettes coaching staff will have many new faces, which may take time to assimilate themselves with their fellow cohorts. Remember, there is no off season organized team activities. As stated by Trestman in the last press conference of the year, he wasn’t too sure if the CFL would approve of him having another gathering in early May of coaches, and players as he had in Florida last year.

Slowly, we’re starting to see the changing of the guard as this could be the last year of key figures in the Alouettes organization. So is Popp mentally preparing that this may be a sinking ship, and is looking to brush up his resume to send out to potential NFL suitors?

Entering these next few weeks could really determine the direction of where this team is going because of what has transpired in the last six weeks.

But where there’s smoke, there’s fire, and this could be a developing yearlong blaze for this organization if they can’t put out any of the overbearing questions that will reign for the duration of the season.

You can follow me on Twitter @MoeKhan19

Photo credit: The Canadian Press

Could Jim Popp be Saddling Up With The Colts?

According to NBC’s ProFootballTalk website, the Indianapolis Colts are considering Montreal Alouettes director of player personnel, Jim Popp for their vacant general manager position.

What makes this an eyebrow raising situation is that for those who follow current Colts owner, Jim Irsay on Twitter (@JimIrsay) he wrote “Here's a dark horse candidate for u fantasy GMers..Jim _____(Who)?? Out in Canada..who do I speak of? For $200 n Real NFL football!”

Normally in the NFL, names are always mentioned as possible candidates for open positions. But the verbiage in his tweet is that he is not discounting Popp as a candidate. However, let’s not forget the very open minded Irsay isn’t afraid to write anything on Twitter (see his tweets about Manning, Peyton).

What could make Popp appealing to the Colts family? As mentioned in the ProFootballTalk article, since 1996, he has fielded a winner throughout his time in Montreal, where he has had two non-winning seasons in 2001 and 2007. His team has gone to eight Grey Cups in the last 11 years winning three times.

For those who remember, when the team moved from Baltimore to Montreal, Popp had to do major renovations to the roster because he had no Canadian players. As a result, he was able to cultivate the team with impact non-imports such as Jock Climie and Michael Soles.

What can also be an intriguing factor is the Baltimore connection. For those who recall, the Irsay family and the NFL sued the old Baltimore CFL franchise for using the Colts nickname. As a result, the franchise went on a nameless odyssey until finally settling on the Stallions.

Popp was apart of the Baltimore franchise as an assistant general manager where they had the best two-year run amongst the CFL American expansion teams, in reaching two consecutive Grey Cups and being the only U.S. team ever to win the title.

Maybe Popp has been in the back of Irsay’s mind for a quite a while, seeing how successful he was in making the former CFL franchise a popular love affair with the city of Baltimore. Then moving onto Montreal where they’ve been a perennial contender for the Grey Cup.

According to a source of mine, Popp moved his family back to his North Carolina home. That could be a potential determining factor to be closer to them. Considering the sudden passing of his mother after the playoff loss to the Tiger-Cats, maybe in his heart he is looking to be closer to his loved ones. As a colleague of mine pointed out, Popp is rarely in the city of Montreal because he is always on the road scouting.

If Popp does jump on-board with the Colts, what could happen to the Alouettes? For starters, Marc Trestman is entering the last year of this deal and could potentially join him. This could entail the Colts will be using the first overall selection (if they keep it) in the NFL Draft on Stanford quarterback, Andrew Luck.

Trestman’s forte is developing quarterbacks, and essentially he would be getting a Ferrari engine in Luck. It’s a matter of molding the shape of the car to lead the Colts back to their winning ways.

Furthermore, given that Popp has an eye at finding talent, the one constant knock on the Colts is their inability of identifying impact depth players. If Popp could go about and find these players at the minimum salary, it would pay dividends for this team who historically during the salary cap era has had their money tied up to a few players.

Right now, it is mere speculation on him leaving. Already the Colts in-total have interviewed seven candidates. So the odds are somewhat stacked that Popp could be considered. Don’t forget, this isn’t the first time he is testing the NFL waters.
There was the apparent wooing by the Washington Redskins to have him join their personnel staff a few years ago. But he opted to stay with the Alouettes.

But if Popp leaves, would this signal the beginning of the end for this franchise if he brings Marc Trestman, and some key support staff members?

As another colleague told me the other day, “Jim Popp is a big fish in a small pond.” Now is he willing to jump into the ocean with the sharks?

As for the Colts, the clock is ticking towards the NFL Draft, and with the Peyton Manning situation, since he is due very soon a nice signing bonus. They will need someone in place to handle this situation. Now, could it be Jim Popp?

You can follow me on Twitter @MoeKhan19

Photo courtesy of Remi Lemee, La Presse, cyberpresse.ca