Blasetti loves rushing to his coaching job
Lions’ running back mentor began football career as offensive lineman
Adam Blasetti was a bit of an anomaly when he was first introduced to the B.C. Lions as their running backs coach. Actually, he was more than that.
Not only was he a Rara avis — a Canadian coach, an under-represented species even in the Canadian Football League — but he coached at the prep school level last season in Calgary.
What’s more, at 37, Blasetti was a first-timer in the pros and, frankly, he had never been a running back before. In his undergraduate years at the University of Calgary, he was a centre and long snapper for the Dinos.
“In all my years in college, and the pros, I’ve always had a coach who had been a running back in that league,” says Anthony Allen, who will get the call Saturday as the Lions feature back against the Ottawa Redblacks. “It’s kind of new and different having a coach who’s never played the position. He doesn’t really know the kind of things a running back goes through. But it’s cool having an O-lineman — because he knows what’s needed, to set up a run. Having that extra knowledge takes the learning curve from Running Back 101 to Running Back 102.”
“It was hard at first, because running back coaches and offensive line coaches look at film differently,” adds returner-running back Chris Rainey. “We’re trying to do our job as best we can because he’s a first-year guy. We don’t want to get him stressed out. We’ve got talent across the board, so we’re doing everything we can to make him look good.”
As the coach who rolls out the tackling rings and supervises their training, Blasetti is definitely the
ringleader of the running group, though he is the one who came into the season with the steepest learning curve.
“I will never be able to make them better athletes than they already are,” Blasetti says. “What I told them early is, I would be able to make them better players through understanding what’s going on in front of them, maybe a little bit more than they’ve been exposed to before. They were going to teach me as much as I teach them. It’s a partnership, and we’re all in it together.”
Despite rushing for just 69 net yards last Friday in Edmonton, the Lions still lead the CFL in rushing by a wide margin. At an average 106.9 yards per game, B.C. is the only team running the football better than 100 yards every time out. Edmonton, at No. 2, is averaging 91.4 yards.
If that form holds until the end of the regular season, it will be the first time in league history only one team has managed a 100-plus rushing-yards average in a single campaign.
Between them, Allen and Jeremiah Johnson — who alternate as the Lions feature back — have 148 carries for 835 yards. Neither is likely to catch league rushing leader Jerome Messam of the Calgary Stampeders, an every-game back who has 810 yards on 155 carries.
“I’m just lucky to be in the position I’m in,” Blasetti says. “We’ve got a great (locker) room. Those guys look out for each other, they do everything the right way. I’ll admit, I was nervous (when he got the job). But they’re a great group of professionals. Great men. It’s the nature of that position (running back) to want the ball. But they understand our cycling, and that each guy gets his turn.”
Though new to the Lions, Blasetti has been chasing the opportunity to coach — and play — in the CFL for years.
After graduating from university, he twice went to training camp with the Stampeders but failed to make the team as an offensive lineman or long snapper.
On five other occasions, three times with the Stampeders, and single instances with Montreal and Saskatchewan, he was at CFL camps as a guest coach, but the possibilities for full-time employment never materialized. Politics, the old boys’ network, and his own experience got in the way.
After working and networking in Canadian university, junior football (Calgary Colts) and NCAA Division II football (Simon Fraser University, 2014) over a span of 11 years, between regular salaried employment in the oil industry, he finally realized his genuine passion to work in football full time when the Lions hired him.
“It is a leap of faith,” admits offensive co-ordinator Khari Jones, who recommended Blasetti. “But everybody needs that opportunity, that chance to show what they can do. Adam’s taken that opportunity and run with it. He has such a good rapport with the running backs, and a lot of that comes with his Oline background.”
If Blasetti’s background has served the Lions well, he has good material to work with — a classic, big front five and backs who love to pound the ball. The passing game is driving the CFL more and more — 69 per cent of plays are aerial forays, leaguewide — but it can get perilously close to predictable if a team is too one-dimensional.
“We have a very physical O-line, and Jeremiah and I are very physical running backs,” Allen says.
“We’re not shy at all. We love contact.”
Testing the willpower of defences to stop the run, Blasetti and his backs are having a blast.