USABomberfan

While I know the talk here is that Younger may be the replacement for Hall, I've not heard that said directly by MOS or at least not yet. I obviously hope that's the game plan, but I'm not so sure that's actually what's happening. And even if he is in training, I'm betting Hall is still wearing the headset this year. Whether he's fired or retires, good riddance to that old stinker.

I certainly think most agree that it would've been foolish to even consider firing our coach and GM after getting us the best record we've had in more than 15 years. Also, if our current trend holds true, Calgary will be unseated from the throne by us this season. I mean, just saying we've gone from fifth, to fourth, to third and then second each year of MOS's tenure here. Now, on the other hand, one cannot deny MOS has made some unfortunate miscalculations in his time here. He certainly knows special teams, but he's taken some bad gambles with them by going for a low percentage 61 yard FG in one playoff game and then calling a fake punt at a bad time in the other. Yeah I know it could've worked and we'd be singing his praises, but I still disagree with what he did both times and feel you just need to be a little smarter in playing your cards as a coach. The other problem is not holding our defensive coordinator accountable when I think many other coaches would've fired him. Mike O'Shea does understand the problem in what happened with our pass defense last year from the moves that were made, but I don't think it's going to be completely fixed until the scheme is done away with. We got our QB and got most of the talent we need on offense to get this done, but we gotta get a stingy defense out there, and unfortunately I don't think that's going to happen until we get a new DC. Give O'Shea rope, but let's hope he didn't miss the window of opportunity already.

I certainly take O'Shea at his word when he said in the presser that he was not "scapegoating" anyone for what happened on D last year. Plus I know that term scapegoating gets thrown around loosely here and whenever someone is fired who is not the top man on the pyramid, it's always a scapegoating going on. However it does seem as though Mike O'Shea might be just a little too hung up on wanting the turnovers part of Hall's defense that his hopes of fixing it by only changing the defensive line and secondary coaches are likely to be fruitless. This is almost like the 2011 saga when we were told that firing Jamie Barresi and replacing him with Crowton was going to fix the offense and it didn't.

Ummm, only if that madman Andrew Wetenhall realizes you can't fire coaches every single year and expect decent ones to come there. That franchise is unstable because they have no patience.

One thing the Argos could do is potentially give him a succession backup QB title if Ray decided to stick around one more year, and if Ray did go down I think they'd have a better option in him than they do currently in Fajardo or Matthews, and Trestman wouldn't have to go through the pains of developing a raw QB. I disagree with the notion that Collaros is so damaged he can't play anymore. To me, his struggles this last year were a byproduct both of Kent Austin losing the team and ruining the chemistry he had with Collaros, and of course the TiCats OL being awful especially early on. Him going back to Toronto would give him a chance to reboot in the system he was reared up in to begin with, and a good coach in Trestman to work with. And I agree that I don't believe he's a completely broken record like Willy. I'd say if the Argos didn't land Franklin, I'd rank Collaros 2nd on their shopping list.

Yeah and ummm ... the way he handled that Rick Worman situation said it all.

Well one thing about Mike O'Shea is the players would go through a wall for him. Is he the best in-game management coach? No, I won't dispute some of his calls in big games I highly disagree with. But he's definitely a players coach, and I think it's refreshing to have that kind of coach in here. His only weakness thus far is that he seems to have formed a bromance with Hall, and if he doesn't cut the chain there, he might very well prevent Andrew Harris and Matt Nichols from bringing home a cup for us before their careers expire. I can only hope the WFP starts speaking up about this.

I don't think that's the point. The point is every great player still has to think about life outside of football because father time comes knocking whether we want him to or not. At this point, I don't know how many ceilings Ray really has to bust through. He's going to be going to the CFL Hall of Fame at this point anyway, he's not going to break Calvillo's passing record, and considering how taxing even the rigors of training camp can be, I'd be thinking if I was him that now is my time to say "mission accomplished, thank you CFL for a great career."

Added. I guess with the rumors on Franklin going there (outbidding SSK), it was my guess that Ray might retire and Toronto would be JF's highest bidder. Ray will be 39 by the end of next season. Burris suffered almost no injuries even at his old age, yet even he saw the writing that said when it was time to go, it was time to go. Ray on the other hand got relatively fortunate this last season that he missed little time and was able to stay in there for TO. Given what happened over the last few years though, I wouldn't be betting that him playing an entire season is just going to happen again. Now just seems like the right time for Ricky to say football is done, time to spend time with family and other things.

You know it's a thing, that over the years you come to appreciate the great QBs that make this league go, and I personally was happy to see Ricky Ray come back from some bad injuries through 2014-2016 and bring home the cup. Certainly you'd hate to lose a guy like that. But, with him bringing the goods home, I'm one to think now might be a good time for him to step down and retire. I say so because given those injuries he's had, it could very well be he'd be forced to retire from suffering another one and just given his age and the recovery difficulty it would be. As of right now, he's about 19,000 yards behind Calvillo's passing yard record. I don't see him breaking that before his career is up. Now he could possibly tie or break Calvillo's Grey Cup wins (not being the MOP), but that's still a long shot in my books. The guy loves football, no doubt. But I'd probably consider stepping down now while having the goods in my hands and giving the next guy the opportunity to lead the Argos. Now of course if Trestman is reluctant to roll with a new QB, perhaps he tries to talk Ray into staying one or 2 more years. But, I'm just looking at the opportunity to step down while the optics still look good versus risking being retired by an injury.

I understand the sort of wet blanket that Toronto's scant crowds kind of put on this, but I'd have no problem with Ricky Ray winning one more Cup just because he might choose to retire at the end of this one .... Well maybe not, I know some QBs who haven't yet reached 40 sometimes decide to keep going when they win cups (AKA Calvillo who didn't quit until he was forced to). But if I was Ray, I'd probably be thinking ok, I just won the cup, I got a chance to end my career on a high note, I think I'll do it. Just my take, and I like seeing QBs call it quits without having an injury do that for them.

So ... I take it you're sitting out this Grey Cup then.

Thank God, at least the Grey Cup is one I can watch now. I think I hope Toronto wins it, esp if it's them vs Edmonton. It'd be a good welcome home for Trestman and Ricky Ray getting one more cup for his career which given his injuries may not be lasting much longer.

I would say yes they probably have been, but I remember some radio show on some TSN station (I think it was) in the early part of 2016 had these guys saying Mike O'Shea was going to get fired if he started 0-3, or got in a hole by the first bye week or something. Obviously, neither situation happened and there very well was probably no truth to it, but it did start a lot of talk about it around town. I would say, Nichols is one piece of the puzzle to what jumpstarted O'Shea's recent success, combined with the OL improvements and Lapolice's system. Yes, I'm going to give Lapolice his due as integral to this offense's success and make heads explode.

True, just happened to notice. Overall though I'm very pleased with these signings and that Walters seems to be immediately prioritizing the OL because they are key to keeping our offensive output going.

Bingo, we let our OL fall in disarray once before in the Joe Mack era and it caused a bevy of problems that mostly didn't get fixed until 2016. We got a QB now who we gotta keep protected at all costs, and it seems Walters knows this quite well.

No news on Travis Bond though yet which means he may be testing the NFL combine this spring

The coaches too though. Kent Austin had worn thin on his players evidenced by a strained relationship to Collaros, and a barrage of former TiCats players I hear that were taking cheapshots at him on Twitter on the way out, and Bob Young was on there doing damage control. In our case, I've heard nothing but good from our players at MOS and Lapo as far as I know (don't know what they've said about Richie Hall). But as has been said, a big mess like Hamilton's pretty much meant one or more coaches was going to lose their jobs.

Well, Hurl is a FA, and I'd say Walters would be insane to re-sign him when there are upgrades just about everywhere. I mean, if our scouts can't go out and find upgrades for Hurl ... YIKES!!! I took a listen to MOS's press conference to hear exactly what he said, and he seemed completely indecisive about Hall's fate. Which ... on the one hand I'd say is good news that he wasn't jumping up in down in excitement saying he was going to bring him back, but at the same time he obviously was in no eagerness to cut him loose. I gathered his dilemma is ... he likes all those turnovers and wants them to keep up, but at the same time he hates the giving up yards part and in that sense does want a stingier unit. I'm taking that as he's wanting this defense to get away from all that zone at the very least. Knowing him, he's going to take that little bit of time he talked about and deliberate before announcing that Hall is gone or back.

My take: I'd re-sign the entire OL (if Bond indeed stays), especially considering what happened when Joe Mack didn't. The rest of the list: My keepers are Dressler and Flanders on offense, and Randle, Leggett, Westerman, Heath and possibly Wild though I guess that's debatable, and ST Medlock The Must Go's are LeFevour on offense and .... well I think we all very well know who on defense with the initials SH, and I'd probably let Kyle Knox walk as well. I do like JFG and Denmark on offense, but they are by no stretch irreplaceable. On defense, I like Fogg, Nevis, and Jones, but I'd not call them irreplaceable either.

True, but I saw little out of him to suggest he's going to hack it as an OC, and there is absolutely no reason for the Blue to even consider bringing him here. I call it good that the news points to Lapolice staying, but I also stand by my point that if/when he wants to go another round at head coaching, Buck Pierce will be a better OC than Dinwiddie will ever hope to be.

He already had a go of it calling plays in MTL and looked pretty awful doing so, no thanks. I'd let Buck Pierce call plays before I ever let Dinwiddie near the headset.

Just saw Bauming's tweet Good news ... I say at least. Anyone else is free to say what they will about Lapolice's extension.

Well, maybe some of us just feel the repeated phrase of "I'm not a fan of Richie Hall" is just too damn nice to him, and those who are serious about wanting him gone are going to call for him to be barbecued. I only hope people have been calling into Bob Irving's show roasting him, and I hope the WFP also bbqs him on the front page of the sports section.

Well, the name is "consolidated bitchfest thread" so ... maybe it should stay open so no new threads pop up.