LaPolice new Bombers OC

[Brandon]

 

On one hand, the man has failed here twice before which makes me less than excited. On the other hand the lack of experienced, capable offensive playcallers speaks for itself currently. We got the second best (I don't buy Cortez is retiring) person out there that has experience, but he's still a B level coordinator at my best in my opinion.

Apparently while doing his TSN gig he's attended 10 NFL camps held to improve and come up with new offensive Offensive plays. A guy who is willing to do that on his own dime and time is serious about improving his OC abilities. Time to forget about the old days guys. Give him a break.

 

 

 

Once again... MB did the exact same thing and look how that turned out

[Shanks]

 

I have come around to Lapolice excited to see the changes he brings to offence.

We know what the changes will be. Build leads, decent rush stats, good play action calls, and ultra conservative in the fourth quarter with leads which is bound to cost us a couple games a season.

 

Ok. We're 12 and 6 instead of 14 and 4

[Blueandgold]

Awful hire, but I don't care. This entire regime will be gone by Labour Day.

 

I just hope that Lapo won't be our next HC.

[M.O.A.B.]

The reality is the CFL coaching pool is very thin. Not so much options out there.

Cortez retired, Maas is available for HC only, McAdoo and J.Jackson will follow C.Jones in Sask.

K.Jones might end up as BC's OC.

Chapdelaine might end up in Ottawa.

Stamps is interested to get Dinwiddie.

Brady and Condell will stay put.

[TrueBlue4ever]

I think my biggest issue with this hire is that the upside is essentially nil. A guy his age doesn't change drastically enough to suddenly become a playcalling wizard.

The thing that makes me even sadder is there is all this young coaching talent around the league, (Steinhauer, Maas, Jackson, Brady, Dickenson etc) and I honestly can't remember the last time the Bombers had an innovative young coach that other teams wanted to poach. Was it Creehan? Yuck.

"Innovative young coach" is exactly the description of Mike O'Shea when we brought him here, and back then there was a whole lot of "tired of bringing in rookies with no experience in top positions" whining. Honestly, there is legitimate stuff to be unhappy about with this franchise, but the negativity about this hire is complaining for the sake of complaining. I don't know how coaches and players can stand some Bomber fans (and when a world class yahoo like Mike Kelly calls it right, that's pretty embarrassing). Give him a chance.  

[Mr. Perfect]

 

 

I have come around to Lapolice excited to see the changes he brings to offence.

We know what the changes will be. Build leads, decent rush stats, good play action calls, and ultra conservative in the fourth quarter with leads which is bound to cost us a couple games a season.

 

Ok. We're 12 and 6 instead of 14 and 4

 

I highly recommend you do some fact checking before offering rebuttals. Rick Warman was the team's offensive coordinator in 2001 when the team went 14-4. The Bombers went 12-6 the next season, and 11-7 the year after under LaPolice. Steady regression as has been the theme throughout most of his coaching career with the exception of a few outliers. There's a reason why we fired him...Twice.

[Mr. Perfect]

 

On one hand, the man has failed here twice before which makes me less than excited. On the other hand the lack of experienced, capable offensive playcallers speaks for itself currently. We got the second best (I don't buy Cortez is retiring) person out there that has experience, but he's still a B level coordinator at my best in my opinion.

Apparently while doing his TSN gig he's attended 10 NFL camps held to improve and come up with new offensive Offensive plays. A guy who is willing to do that on his own dime and time is serious about improving his OC abilities. Time to forget about the old days guys. Give him a break.

 

The old days (02-03), the not so old days (10-12) - Neither of which produced the ultimate goal, nevermind the fact that he has 13 years of coaching experience in the CFL and no championships. Pretty weak in an 8/9 team league.

 

Sorry but I have a hard time trusting someone who had faith that Gary Crowton would be able to run a capable CFL offence.

[Mr Dee]

So, they said they had a list of potential candidates. Who else did they speak with?

Jackson was offered the #Stamps OC job and had discussions with #BCLions & #Bombers about their OC job. #CFL

— Farhan Lalji (@FarhanLaljiTSN)

December 8, 2015

[Captain Blue]

The Bombers are fighting optics here, fair or unfair.

 

They very well could have done a thorough background search involving several potential hires and decided LaPolice was the best one. That O'Shea knows he's got one last shot and went with a guy who has prior OC success rather than unproven rookie coordinators. This regime has no ties to LaPolice's prior coaching stops here, either (though I guess Wade was a former player if you're desperately connecting dots).

 

Or they could have picked the guy that's stayed in Winnipeg and was formerly employed with the franchise and thought that it was a safe option.

 

For all we know the Bombers' brass strongly believes that the first situation played out. Because of the Bombers' history though, many fans (self included), are at least skeptical how it played out. Its not entirely fair to the team, but that's what the perspective they'll have to fight.

 

I like LaPo and I think he's an underrated offensive mind from the way he's viewed here. I do however think the Bombers took the safe route.

[Blueballz]

Our offense will be better (how could it get worse) and there will be people eating their words and people will still find something else to b**** about.

[IC Khari]

Our offense will be better (how could it get worse) and there will be people eating their words and people will still find something else to b**** about.

If their words include the phrases "explosive offence" and "Grey Cup Champion" I guess you may be right

[Goalie]

I'm pretty convinced that regardless of who the bombers hired.... people would be bitching.

[do or die]

Of course our O will be better.   Hell, a snowball mounted on a stick is an upgrade over Marcel.   Perhaps the third time is the charm for Lapo.  Giving him the clean slate on this one....

 

According to this young, innovative poster....

[M.O.A.B.]

im not sure if an 'exhaustive' search can be done in the CFL because of it's coaching talent pool. by the time the 'exhaustive' search is done the candidates are already signed by the other teams and the team doing the 'exhaustive' search are left with scraps.

[Mark F]

 

I have come around to Lapolice excited to see the changes he brings to offence.

We know what the changes will be. Build leads, decent rush stats, good play action calls, and ultra conservative in the fourth quarter with leads which is bound to cost us a couple games a season.

 

 

 

You (perfect) are assuming Paul LaPolice didn't learn anything from his previous experiences. He seems very smart to me, I expect he'll do some things differently.

[Mark F]

most shocking thing about this hire is that

 

it evoked a negative remark from Noeller!

 

[DR. CFL]

No question LaPo's after the fact analysis, description and dissection of plays on a TSN demonstrated his thorough knowledge of the game. The issue now becomes his ability to apply that into making 10 second processing in play calling during a game.

[GCn20]

Lapolice the HC did not turn out great, but the last time he was a coordinator he led his team to back to back Grey Cup appearances. He is an extremely solid pick for OC. Only in Winnipeg, we tend to dump on guys instead of looking at the facts. He will do a great job.

 

I am so relieved we didn't go with Jackie Chaps or Cortex.

[Dascow]

I don’t think it’s fair to just hand wave away the people who have concerns about the hire as people who would be complaining no matter what.

There are legitimate reasons why some people are concerned with this hire.

 

We have had a chance to see LaPolice and what he brings to the table.  Twice.

There’s a reason the Bombers fired him…twice. So to act like people are just complaining for the sake of complaining is not really fair.

 

I am hoping for the best.  I am hoping that with Willy at the helm, LaPolice can get the offence into the top half of the league. If the offence is good enough to be in the top half of the league in most of the statistical categories, then that will increase the Bombers odds of making the play-offs significantly.

 

Coach O’Shea has one more year to prove himself. This will be his 3^rd year as HC and if the Bombers don’t make the play-offs, he will more than likely be fired.  So Coach O’Shea is betting heavily on LaPolice.   At the same time though, LaPolice is tethered to O’Shea, because if O’Shea gets fired, the new HC is going to want to choose his own staff. Which is why signing LoPolice to a 2 year deal is a somewhat curious.

 

[Rich]

It is not that curious. No way leaves TSN for a 1 year contract. If he was the guy they wanted, he needed some security.

[Dascow]

It is not that curious. No way leaves TSN for a 1 year contract. If he was the guy they wanted, he needed some security.

 

That’s fair.  If I were in his shoes I would demand the same.

[Mike]

He's been fired as an offensive coordinator once, just for the record. I'm not going to run him down for the job he did for us as a head coach because frankly, it has very little to do with being an offensive coordinator.

 

The thing about coordinators is that unlike a head coaching position, you can make serious strides in re-inventing yourself. What we need is X's and O's and what can be brought to the table on that level can evolve. LaPolice has always been an offensive genius as far as building a playbook, he's got a great mind for how to build little wrinkles into a successful offense to make it unique and give defenses different looks. His problem has always been game management and the ability to call plays. Unlike being a head coach, where it's almost a matter of "if you've got it, you've got it and if you don't, you can't learn it", play calling can be improved upon substantially. Even the best offensive coordinators in the NFL have been fired for being terrible. Look at Josh McDaniels - he was magic with the Patriots, then did an awful job as the head guy in Denver and wasn't asked to return in St. Louis. Look at Norv Turner. Minnesota is the 6th team he has been OC for, despite never lasting more than 3 years anywhere.

 

I'm not sold on LaPolice either, but I look around the CFL and see a real lack of options. My guy was Marcus Brady, but he doesn't seem to have been available and even he was a question mark. All I can hope for is that LaPolice evolved from his previous mindset. He has better personnel to work with this time around, that's for sure. And I'm sure not going to write off the efforts that he has made to improve himself just because Bellefeuille did the same thing and turned out to be a dud.

 

Go Lapo. (For now)

[IC Khari]

[GCn20]

I feel you have to isolate Lapo the OC from Lapo the HC. Lapo the HC was not calling plays, had to trust others to share his vision of the offence and to execute that vision. Lapo the OC, has nothing else on his plate and direct control over the offence and play calling. An offence getting Lapo's undivided attention will be a good offence if he has the horses to carry out his system/gameplan.

 

His players will believe in him, and they will play for him. I like this hire....at least better than the alternatives we had.

 

I, also, believe he will fit like a glove with O'Shea. Both are players coaches, and highly professional about keeping things in the locker room. There will be no coaching in the media.

[Dascow]

If I recall, LaPolice was still running the offence when he was head coach.  The OC was that in name only until some point where LaPolice was forced to give up some of his control. Am I remembering that right?

 

I agree with you Mike about coaches continually learning and then being able to reinvent themselves. But when it comes to play calling, isn’t that a skill that you either “have” or “don’t have”?  I am not sure…maybe that can be learnt too.

 

I am on the Willy bandwagon and that’s where my hope for LaPolice lay. I think that Willy can be an elite QB in this league, (Top 3), and so all LaPolice has to do is harness his skills and keep him protected.  Heck, if Willy can work with Marcel Bellefeuille’s offence he can surely excel in LaPolice’s. That’s my hope anyways.