17to85

The reason we had Etch last year as d-coordinator is because Stubler said **** no to coming to a coaching graveyard and went to Calgary instead where things are so stable there's never any need to fire coaches. People don't like to hear it, but we have to be patient with this group because this team needs stability more than anything.

Yea. I can't imagine that Taman is too happy about the leak to Penton at this point and time. Sent in his lapdog Pederson for damage control. If anything, imo, this validates what Penton was saying. He sure struck a nerve at Riders HQ with his article. Methinks Pederson, and therefore the RIders, dost protest too much. Absolutely, people don't fly off the handle like that when there is no truth behind it.

Architects are just people who wanted to be engineers but flunked the math.

When I drive between Calgary & Winnipeg stopping at Moosomin is never an option. I divide the trip into 4 segments... Calgary to Medicine Hat, stop for gas as it's the cheapest before Saskatchewan. Medicine Hat to Swift Current, stop for a quick bite along the highway.... McDonalds or A & W. Swift Current to Regina, stop at the Husky Station for gas before heading out of town... Regina to Brandon. Stop for a quick fill along the highway... then Brandon to Winnipeg. Vice versa the other way. Dividing up the drive like that is a helluva lot better than thinking 14 hours OMFG it's going to be Hell... Each segment is 2 1/2 to 3 hours... I'm more or less the same, but we cut out Swifty....usually the Hat to Regina in a single shot. I'm a big "Get Where I'm Going As Fast As I Can" kinda guy....no unnecessary stops..... plus why spend any more time in Saskatchewan then you have to?

Cornish

Pencer was crapped on immediately. I'm just pointing out the bit of hypocrisy that exists. You don't see any other differences in their situations? What's different? Both high draft picks that were a reach taken as high as they were and neither one was able to solidify a roster spot, except one had a lot of injury excuses at least. Oh, so that's where he went with it.How about: Goossen - taken #2, ranked #4 in o-linemen (#2 for those GMs thought wouldn't bolt to the NFL) and #9 overall, was 3 year conference all-star and captain of his college team heading into draft, no injury history from college or attitude issues to worry about that we know of, played in 15 games and started 3 in his first year, missed 3 games to injury last year before this year's injury woes at the start of camp in just his 2nd season. Pencer - Taken #3, ranked #6 among o-lineman and not even ranked overall on some draft projections, had serious injury concerns from his college days (both shoulders messed up and caused him to miss significant playing time in university football), walked away from one football program midstream for "personal" reasons, got hurt in practice pretty much right away, one start and 6 or so games on roster before being cut, picked up by Edmonton in may and cut by June this year having seen no action in his 4th season. And since your gripe is more about Mack not getting cut the same slack, Pencer wasn't his one-off in draft errors. His draft history of off-the-board Etienne, out-of-position Aprile, and never-going-to-see-the-CFL-anyway Mulumba gave him a lot less leeway to make a mistake when he got outplayed for Westerman and then begged people to believe that Pencer was his plan all along in trading up so he wouldn't have to admit he got schooled. If you want to (still repeatedly) defend Joe Mack, there are better ways to do it than by touting his draft record. Actually, there may not be a better way to defend Mack job-performance-wise, but I doubt there are many worse ways to do it. actually this is less about defending Mack and more about arguing the idea that Kyle Walters is some kind of draft guru. Chung looks like a good pick but other than that which draft picks of his have really made an impact? It seems that being not Joe Mack is enough for people to think Walters is the greatest thing ever.

Thing is the players really never did the bragging about it. The media got wind of it and ran with it. Matt Dunigan was the #1 hype man for it and was pretty much single handedly responsible for it gaining any kind of national notice. That defence was fantastic. Playmakers who won a pile of games for the team while the offense was busy crapping it's pants game in and game out.

It was the dbs that started it, it was Matt Dunigan that even started to credit it to Willis. That was all the defensive backs doing and they started it when Mike Kelly was still the coach.

Pencer was crapped on immediately. I'm just pointing out the bit of hypocrisy that exists. You don't see any other differences in their situations? What's different? Both high draft picks that were a reach taken as high as they were and neither one was able to solidify a roster spot, except one had a lot of injury excuses at least.

recovering from being run over by a bus.

It's his high profile job on TSN that makes people think he's a good HC, when he really isn't. And it was his clueless GM and lack of a back-up QB that makes people think he's an awful HC, when he really isn't. Good players make good coaches. In his first year with the team Lapo had Pierce and Jyles as his #1 and #2 qbs. Both experienced CFL players and well suited to their respective roles. The backup qb issue was more when Tim Burke was in charge and perhaps if he hadn't taken an irrational dislike to Joey Elliott the problems wouldn't have been so bad.

This sounds like another case of accepting mediocrity as progress... the old saying is "you're either first or you're last"... getting the big show is nice, but once you're there, winning is all that matters... If you were worse than mediocre then mediocrity is progress.... Is this a difficult concept to grasp? Sometimes it just takes time to make drastic improvements and patience is required and yes that means accepting mediocrity as progress.

Pencer was crapped on immediately. I'm just pointing out the bit of hypocrisy that exists. Walters gets so many free passes by some people and the previous GM got raked over the coals for any little thing

Lapo was also the biggest ***** of a coach I've ever seen. The man played not to lose rather than playing to win. Lots of close games sure but they never really took the chances needed to win.

Has a 9-9 team ever missed the playoffs? If we go 9-9 I expect we'd make the playoffs, but no playoffs = no O'Shea to me. Usually not, but given BC only made the crossover by one game last year at 9-9, it's not a give me by any stretch. 9 wins will always get you into the playoffs in the CFL. Hell most times 8 is enough, last year being a bit of an oddball in that it wasn't enough. Just the simple numbers. Some teams always have to lose games and some teams will always win more than half of their games. Only way I don't see a .500 record making the playoffs in the CFL is if parity is such that the top teams only pick up like 10 wins and everyone is sitting there with .500 records.

Yes Don Wittman was from Winnipeg. He's the one who convinced Walby to be a color guy.http://itvideo.me/watch/?v=NJNW-1TVcSY http://youtu.be/3W7SbgP2_20 RIP Don. Yep he was a pro through and through. They don't make sports broadcasters like that any more.

In the OP it said Picard was sick today. Yes I know. Your point? It's not surprising that with Picard sick they would need another guy snapping the ball and that Neufeld would be that guy. What's with your snarky comments lately Jacquie? I was just stating a fact, that Neufeld was playing centre in practice. It's a notable development, even if Picard was sick. yep, Jacquie is the one being "snarky" I, for one, think it's notable considering how Goosen is waiting in the wings .. The clock is ticking for Goossen. He appears to be bypassed for a starting role, and I am beginning to wonder what is missing from his game. I don't know...he's still young, and this week we are going up against a very good Defence. Might just be an experience thing. I know...you can't get experience unless you get experience....but this might not be the dline to do it against. Can't help but wonder if it had been Joe Mack that drafted Goosen if people would be so forgiving of his utter lack of progress.

Not my intention at all. I'm just trying to understand what the CFL is trying to accomplish with the new rule changes in the long run. Any theories? Yeah a bunch of busy bodies trying to solve problems that don't exist. They take one year trends and try and fix them with a rule change which is just dumb. I don't think there is a long term strategy, I think the CFL just has too many people who don't think big picture.

I think this is missing the real point of why the Bombers don't hire experience.... it's a general managers and coaches grave yard. Experienced people don't want to come here because the track record in Winnipeg is a couple years and you're fired with your reputation in tatters. Justified or not that's what's happened for the last 15 years and it does impact whether guys want to come here and subject themselves to that. Walters and O'Shea might not be perfect but you have to give them a long enough period you can't just keep firing people all the time, that ensures you're not able to hire the best candidates. Yes, our record the past few years has been a problem so I acknowledge what you said Thing is, I know that Jim Barker applied for the GM job but the Bombers hired Mack & I believe that Tom Higgins was interested in the HC job as well at the end of the 2013 season after he left the CFL. I don't think it's been all inexperienced people applying for Bomber management & coaching positions. You gotta get off the Higgins train man, he ain't done much of note in Montreal and the Als lost a game very similarly to how the Bombers lost to the Stamps. The problems here are deep rooted long term ones that aren't remedied easily. Barker and Higgins? Why waste time on them?

That's kind of odd considering the Riders sold around 25k season tickets that year that so many bomber fans were there isn't it? You guys can laugh at how bad we are all you want but even this year there are 26700 season tickets sold so the myth that any team will ever outnumber our fans in our stadium is simply that, Obviously you would have sold a lot of season tix this year as you came off the GC win in 2013 a good year last year and were expected to be good this year. Even at 0-18 this year you won't see a significant drop as the new stadium will keep ppl buying. If you go years without success 3-4 that's when you will see a significant drop. Where as the Bombers have gone forever with success and still sell above 22k in season tix. Putting our team rivalries aside for a minute. The Bomber fans have done a good job supporting the team through a drought that has lasted too long. You are right our season ticket numbers will go down if we continue to struggle but I contend that 22k or better is a number that will hold as we too have a solid fan base and we too know what suffering is. I've been there for years and have enjoyed the good times, but have seen more bad times I'm afraid. I think what's happening now to certain extent is the fans are not going to just watch things go down the crapper without saying something. Gone are the years where we are just happy to have a team. Yes some are panicking, but that happens everywhere. the crazy fans don't speak for the majority as it is in every cfl city. No one doubts the die hards, hell no one really is bothered by the diehards either, it's the bandwagon jumpers who crow the loudest about RIDER PRIDE!!11!!!! and how awesome everything Rider is that annoy people and we know damned well that they won't still be there when the fortunes have turned. What we want is a nice long streak of the Riders sucking so that these folks will finally STFU and go away.

Hey you brought up the OIlers dynasty. The only thing that changed the way hockey was played was Gretzky making a mockery of the league by being the best ever to play it. So if you want a similar thing to happen in the CFL then all you need is that all time greatest player to show up.

Except they change something every offseason so we get half a season of adjustments every year. Why can't they just leave well enough alone rather than fixing problems that don't exist? Except they change something every offseason so we get half a season of adjustments every year. Why can't they just leave well enough alone rather than fixing problems that don't exist? I wonder if the CFL has a long-term plan in mind with all of these rule changes to elevate the excitement of the game for a younger crowd. If I can equate it to hockey during the Oilers reign it wasn't unusual for scoring to average over 10 goals per game. Most fans loved it even if purists didn't. Maybe the CFL brain-trust (oxymoron?) is attempting to create the same free-scoring environment were shootouts end up with scores in the vicinity of 52-48.....Doubt it. So all they need to do is find the greatest football player in history who is so much better than every other football player ever to change the game drastically? Well that shouldn't be too hard...

I hear ticketmaster is trying to move a few....

I think this is missing the real point of why the Bombers don't hire experience.... it's a general managers and coaches grave yard. Experienced people don't want to come here because the track record in Winnipeg is a couple years and you're fired with your reputation in tatters. Justified or not that's what's happened for the last 15 years and it does impact whether guys want to come here and subject themselves to that. Walters and O'Shea might not be perfect but you have to give them a long enough period you can't just keep firing people all the time, that ensures you're not able to hire the best candidates.

20 years ago maybe but Cole is an old man now and can't keep up with the play, he spends most of the games now hoping that he is sitting in the pie.