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

The Alouettes Next Move With Anwar Stewart

In the second installment of who will be back with the Alouettes, today I will focus on the future of defensive-end Anwar Stewart. No question he is one of the most respected leaders in the locker room.

During the season, I posed the question on Twitter, is Anwar Stewart a hall of famer? Within minutes, it was answered by Calgary Stampeders receiving great Nik Lewis (@nikel18), who said “without question he is!”

Given that he is the senior member of the defense; could Jim Popp consider taking a different path with Stewart on his potential future with the club?

Rewind to last winter, whispers were abound that the Alouettes may have asked
Stewart to take a pay cut to stay on the team. Entering training camp, it seemed that his role was being reduced in order to give more repetitions to the younger players on the roster. This may have been a strategic move by Marc Trestman and Tim Tibesar to keep him fresh for the start of the season.

Then during the season, amidst the Alouettes tough stretch of games towards the end of August into September, after a loss to the Tiger-Cats, he vented to the media his displeasure of not receiving sufficient playing time. Shortly thereafter, it became water under the bridge, as Stewart and Trestman privately aired out their thoughts knowing they needed each other for the last half of the season.

Looking at his on-field success, did Stewart’s play drop off during the 2011 season? I don’t think so, and in-fact, he might have been the best player heading down the stretch where he was the cause of a couple momentum changing plays for the team in road victories over the Edmonton Eskimos and Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

In day after their playoff loss to the Tiger-Cats, the question was posed to him on his future with the team. With his trademark smile, it seemed like he was content to coming back for a chance at winning a fifth Grey Cup in his career.

However, with his potential desire to come back with the team, where does this leave pending free agent Jermaine McElveen? He too voiced his disappointment on receiving limited playing time towards the end of the season. As of right now, he is exploring all options in trying to garner NFL tryouts before deciding on his CFL future.

If he does re-sign with the team, could he potentially take away snaps from Stewart? Furthermore, the team is very high on Wayne State product, Daunte Akra, who they think could be the future replacement for Stewart, and may seize away his playing time if he does well at training camp.

In the last three years, Stewart has been very consistent, averaging seven sacks. What makes this statistic even better, his cohort John Bowman has the bulk of the team sacks. In today’s football, it is awfully hard to have two rush ends on the field at the same time and having statistical success.

Stewart has been a class act on and off the field spending countless hours being apart of the Alouettes community programs. In sports it is difficult to replace a strong voice such as him, if he is jettisoned by the team.

When used properly, Stewart is an effective pass rusher. The question remains, could he still be in the Alouettes plans at the salary he is making? For now, both Stewart, and management are entering murky waters of who will make the next move.

You can follow me on Twitter @MoeKhan19

Photo courtesy of CFL.ca