Etcheverry sacked because innovative defence was ineffective

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 17/12/2014 (3411 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It came and looked exactly as advertised: As unique and unorthodox in a league with a 100-year history of coaches who have valiantly tried — and in most cases, crashed and burned in their effort — to be different.

And, ultimately, it fell apart exactly for the same reason: for being too unique and too unorthodox.

So when Winnipeg Blue Bombers head coach Mike O’Shea pulled the trigger on the decision to fire defensive co-ordinator Gary Etcheverry on Wednesday, there were likely more than a few nods and told-you-so’s from across the CFL neighbourhood.

After all, the Bombers ranked last in points allowed per game (26.7) and yards rushing per game (135.9) and second last in yards surrendered per game (338.6) — all trademarks of Etcheverry’s scheme in the past. Granted, they were solid against the pass — another trademark — in ranking second in yards allowed through the air per game (224.9). But in focusing on making opposition QBs impotent, the Bomber defence was vulnerable to the basic smash-mouth football, giving up an appalling 5.9 yards per carry.

Even with all that, O’Shea tried vainly to find a way to shore up the run-defence component in Etcheverry’s scheme. But when it became clear that was going to be a square-peg-in-a-round-hole approach, the Bomber boss had to pink slip a man he played for in the past.

“It was a long process of evaluation and lots of time spent with Etch trying to come up with a good solution going forward,” said O’Shea. “And in the end, the number of changes I was going to ask Etch to make, I just felt he wasn’t going to be able to truly believe in the solutions I wanted and the changes I wanted him to make.”

The Bombers defence played a critical role early in the 2014 season when the club raced to a 5-1 start. But as the season progressed, the flaws were more regularly exposed — as was the Bombers’ under-sized front seven. So what was considered quirky at the beginning — things such as Etcheverry not providing playbooks to his players — became part of the flaw at the end.

“He was willing to try and come up with a change, a solution, to his system that would be viable,” said O’Shea. “Anybody that has spent that long trying to perfect their idea of how defensive football should be played puts a lot of time into their thought process into what they think works. It is difficult to change. But he was not unwilling.”

Part of the decision may also revolve around this: With Richie Hall being demoted as defensive co-ordinator with the Saskatchewan Roughriders and former B.C. Lions head coach Mike Benevides, who cut his teeth on defence, also now available, the list of potential candidates is particularly juicy. Riders defensive backs coach Barron Miles, Calgary Stampeders defensive line coach DeVone Claybrooks and Stamps secondary coach Tony Missick have all also had their name linked to the open gig here in Winnipeg.

Winnipeg Free Press | Newsletter

Business Weekly

Monday mornings

The latest local business news and a lookahead to the coming week.

Sign up for Business Weekly

Sign Up

I agree to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies, and CASL agreement.

O’Shea said he won’t get locked into any timeline on hiring a replacement but, “for the players’ sake, the sooner the better. But I don’t feel like we’re in any rush. We do have time.”

Meanwhile, O’Shea did confirm that offensive co-ordinator Marcel Bellefeuille will return for 2015. The Bombers finished sixth in scoring (22.1) and last in offensive yards per game (291.7), but the head coach was preaching continuity.

“We started something with Drew Willy,” said O’Shea. “To be fair with Drew, if we keep on changing co-ordinators on a young quarterback you can really set him back. We’ve found a good quarterback, we’ve got a good young stable of quarterbacks, all four of them (Willy, Brian Brohm, Robert Marve and Josh Portis) so it’s my preference to keep going.”

The Bombers did make one personnel move on Wednesday, re-signing Canadian cornerback Matt Bucknor, who was scheduled to become a free agent in February. Bucknor started all 18 games, finishing with 62 tackles, fourth on the club, while adding five knock-downs.

ed.tait@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @WFPEdTait