Could Marc Trestman's message be wearing off?

Professional sports coaches will always have a shelf life. Some will last for a single season while others could coach for a very long time with the one organization.

In the case of Montreal Alouettes head coach Marc Trestman, he is entering uncharted territory as the longest tenured coach of the franchise since their return to the CFL in 1996.

No argument Trestman has had the greatest start to a CFL coaching career taking the Alouettes to three consecutive Grey Cup appearances and winning twice. Many pundits wondered if there would be a bronze statue at a downtown Montreal park honouring his coaching achievements.

In Trestman's first three years the Alouettes had accumulated a 38-16 regular season record. However, in the last two years they have mustered a 21-15 mark and have not qualified for the Grey Cup. Most CFL teams would be envious of this five year stretch by the Alouettes.  

Now, the fans are starting to question the future of this franchise if they will still be competitive once quarterback Anthony Calvillo retires. At that point, could Tretsman weigh his NCAA and NFL options?

Trestman has been on NFL teams coaching short list. Even though he signed an extension that will have him on the Montreal sidelines for four more years. Is there is any contract language that would enable him to explore his NFL opportunities?

After the recent departures of Marcus Brady and Michael Sinclair, and according to media reports  of potential dissension among the coaching ranks that there could be more defections in the horizon.

Could the message that Trestman has conveyed to his staff and players be wearing off? Professional sports is the one avenue where there is a short attention span and after the last couple of years of coming up short, could the luster be eroding?

As Montreal Gazette's own Herb Zurkowsky mentioned in his article that JamelRichardson could be fed up with Trestman's coaching philosophy and wants out. Could there be more players who are disenchanted with their leader?

Could the unsettling scenario of hearing Trestman's name being linked to the NFL have made it frustrating for the players who have seen an overhaul of the coaching staff one too many times that may have derailed their chances of making the last two finals.

These are unknown times for the Montreal organization. As one source said, "as long as (Jim) Popp is running the show, the team will be fine".  But the question that will come to surface, what about Trestman, is the coaching staff unified, will the players continue buying into his philosophy, and will he still be the Alouettes head coach by the end of his contract with the team?

One thing is for certain, the Montreal Alouettes have set the standard of being a marquee franchise with how they have reloaded with talent.   

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Listen to me on Gamepoints, every Friday morning on The Midnight Snack, and various shows on TSN 690.  

 

The Montreal Alouettes are back in a familiar off season position

With the CFL off season not even two weeks old, the Montreal Alouettes are in a familiar situation  to last year's musical coaching chairs.

Last week, the organization replaced former defensive coordinator Jeff Reinebold with Noel Thorpe.

Now, comes news of offensive coordinator Marcus Brady opting to take the same position with the newly minted Grey Cup champions Toronto Argonauts. As of this morning according to head coach Marc Trestman,  Michael Sinclair has left the program.

Sinclair was apart of Trestman's original coaching staff when they first entered the CFL in 2008. Sinclair had the respect of his players, as described by team leader John Bowman through his Twitter feed, "Damn. The 1 consistant in my fball career just resigned. Wanna thank him 4 helping tap into my potential. #S**tJustGotReal".

What now? In conversing with local media, speculation has grown this may not be the last defection as other position coaches could pursue opportunities elsewhere.

For Sinclair, could the last straw have been being passed over for vacant defensive coordinator's job that ended up going to Thorpe?

Sinclair has theoretically been passed over three times for the Alouettes coordinator position. There is no doubt that he will land on his coaching feet considering his ties to the NFL (from his playing days), and CFL.

As the Alouettes enter the unknown off season, it seems the initial general reaction among those who have been associated and follow this team has assumed a mentality, of we shall see how this unfolds.

For now, it is has gotten off to a peculiar start.

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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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Photo credit: www.canada.com

Tibesar Bolts The Alouettes for Purdue Job, What is Next for the Team?

If you’re the Montreal Alouettes, the news just keeps on getting worse. RDS CFL insider, Didier Ormejuste broke the story on Tuesday evening through his Twitter account, (@44DidierRDS) that defensive coordinator; Tim Tibesar has accepted the same position with Purdue University.

This has come as a surprise to those associated with the club. On Tuesday night I corresponded with a source close to the team who was in complete shock. In fact, moving forward, the source was curious to know how the Alouettes will replace the many openings on their coaching staff.

As for Tibesar leaving the Alouettes, it does not come as surprise considering that a college job has more stability than working at the professional level. Moreover, his coaching style was in sync with the NCAA game given his excellent work he did at Kansas State University.

Last offseason, when Tibesar was promoted after former defensive coordinator Tim Burke went to Winnipeg, that there was a lot of pressure on him to duplicate the same performance by the defense. Now, I am not implying that he could not handle the workload. But from first week of the season onwards, the injuries mounted and it did not help his cause in their quest for a third consecutive Grey Cup title.

Simply put, with the exception of their goal line stance in a road victory against the Blue Bombers that kept their first place hopes alive in the division. Tibesar couldn’t find the right chemistry that they had in the previous years under Burke.

In the last four losses of the season, the team defense gave up an astounding 38.2 points per game, 293 passing yards and had three total sacks. For those keeping precise score at home in the last three losses during this abyss, they had zero sacks. Thus it put a lot of pressure on the offense to carry the load.

In-fact, during the East semi-final loss to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats the Alouettes could not rely on their defense to make a stop against the opposition that were having their own internal issues on offense. At the game, the sentiment among the media members, why couldn’t Tibesar cater to the strengths of his players than playing an aggressive man to man look?

With Tibesar moving on, who could be next in-line for the defensive coordinator’s job? Automatically, the first name that will arise is defensive line coach Michael Sinclair, who has the most experience and knows the defensive schemes.

Furthermore, even though training camp is still five months away, does Marc Trestman (if he stays) want to bring in an outsider who might have different concepts than his predecessors?

As a colleague of mine pointed out, the names of Mike O’Shea, who has already been wooed by the Alouettes for the special team’s job, and former Saskatchewan Roughriders head coach, Greg Marshall might be candidates.

But for now, without question there are dark smoke clouds hovering over the Alouettes on the future of Marc Trestman if he bolts for the NFL. As I wrote in my previous article about who could be the next coach to go, well it was Tibesar’s turn. Now, who could be the next member of the staff to leave this organization?

It continues to get bizarre with the Alouettes and the direction of the coaching ranks. I just hope that they have staff in place by the time the month of June arrives for training camp.

You can follow me on Twitter @MoeKhan19

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

Photo credit to versusfootball.com

Jones Leaves Alouettes Coaching Staff, Who's Next?

Are we seeing the beginning of the end of the Alouettes coaching staff? According to RDS football insider, Didier Ormejuste, on his Twitter account (@44DidierRDS) he wrote that secondary coach Daronte’ Jones has now accepted the same position with the University of Hawaii.

Marc Trestman will have to go through his phone book to replace another member of his supporting staff. With the exception of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats this year. Usually CFL coaching staffs are pretty much completed at this juncture of the offseason. We have yet to hear who will be the new offensive line coach, and now the secondary coach.

Don’t forget the pending situation on whether or not Jim Popp will be considered as a serious candidate as the next general manager of the Indianapolis Colts. This organization could be entering an unexpected abyss of trying to search and replace these openings.

As written before, if Popp does get the job, could he bring Trestman, or even former NFL player and defensive line coach Michael Sinclair?

As for Jones, you cannot blame him for taking a more secure situation by joining the staff of newly named head coach Norm Chow. In-fact, Chow and Jones did coach together at UCLA in 2010. By joining the Warriors, who will soon be entering the Mountain West Conference, Jones is in a more comfortable environment knowing that there is stability of working under Chow the next few years.

Whereas with Trestman, and I am sure this is running through the minds of the other assistants, what if he doesn’t come back to the Alouettes. Their jobs are not guaranteed with whoever will be the next head coach. Therefore, some have taken on another challenge elsewhere.

With CFL free agency five weeks away, if the Alouettes are to dip into the market, they will need to have their position coaches named well before that. Otherwise, perspective players may be hesitant to sign on-regardless of the success this organization has had in the last 15 years.

Since the end of the season back in late November, three coaching assistants have departed from the team; who will be the next to go; Popp, Trestman, Sinclair or someone else?

I sure hope for the Alouettes sake that team owner Bob Wetenhall and team president Ray Lalonde have a succession plan in place. It seems they might have to put it in play a bit earlier than expected if they hope to avert any disaster of the aforementioned key figures potentially leaving the organization for the NFL or NCAA.

You can follow me on Twitter @MoeKhan19

Photo courtesy of www.montrealalouettes.com