Eskimos coach introduces assistants.
New Eskimos head coach puts emphasis on familiarity factor
C h ris O’ Lea ry
The picture, not quite yet complete, has mostly come together for the Edmonton Eskimos’ 2014 coaching staff.
Chris Jones will double up in his rookie season as a Canadian Football League head coach, taking on the defensive co-ordinator duties he’s assumed for 11 of his 12 years in the league.
In the seven hires the club revealed on Tuesday, most of them have criss-crossed career paths with Jones, who proudly introduced his assistants at a news conference at Commonwealth Stadium.
Steve McAdoo will be the team’s offensive co-ordinator, with former CFL quarterback Jarious Jackson coming in as the team’s quarterbacks coach, passing game co-ordinator and player development coach. Former Eskimos receiver Kez McCorvey (2000 and 2001) is the new receivers coach.
Under Jones’ guidance on defence, Ed Philion will coach the defensive line and Jason Shivers will oversee the defensive backs.
The Eskimos made two hires on special teams, bringing in 15-year coaching veteran Craig Dickenson as the co-ordinator, with Craig Davoren joining as an offensive assistant.
The notable absence from this list is the name of an offensive line coach. Jones and general manager Ed Hervey said that role is being finalized and they expect it to be announced shortly.
“It’s an exciting day for our organization and collectively our group of coaches,” Jones said at the beginning of his news conference.“Tha tNo.1, (they’re a group) I can trust and No. 2, they’re outstanding football coaches. They bring a lot of energy and there’s a whole lot of rings sitting right over here.”
McAdoo’s history with Jones runs deep. The two worked together at Tennessee Tech University in the late 1990s, then were together under coach Don Matthews with the Montreal Alouettes (2003-06) and met again in 2012 with the Toronto Argonauts.
“That’s a relationship you can’t measure at all,” McAdoo said. “I’m excited about the opportunity here with the Edmonton organization and I’m ready to come here and get it started.”
Having acted as co-offensive co-ordinator with the Als in 2006 and an offensive line coach for the bulk of his 14-year career, this season will mark the first time that McAdoo has an offence of his own to run.
Having met with very few players in his first official day on the job, McAdoo didn’t want to go into the specifics of what he thought this year’s Eskimos offence could look like.
“I see a lot of different pieces,” he said. “Right now it’s a little too early to comment on every player, but I think they have a nucleus here that’s pretty good. We just want to come in and put our system into place and get the guys playing … to what our system calls for and we’ll go from there.”
Coming in as the quarterbacks coach, Jackson already has a good familiarity with starting quarterback Mike Reilly. The two were together as players through Reilly’s two- plusse as on stay with the B.C. Lions, before he joined the Eskimos a year ago.
“I tried to help him along as much as I could and I think I helped him to a point maybe (where he was) too good because I ended up cutting my own throat and I ended up being out,” Jackson joked.
“But I got a Grey Cup out of it in Toronto (where he finished the 2012 season and worked with Jones). At the same time, he’s a great guy, he’s willing to learn and he always wants to get better as a football player and that’s what I’m here to do. I’m here to help him as well as the rest of the guys reach their full potential as far as becoming pro quarterbacks.”
The word of the day at Commonwealth Stadium for Chris Jones? Trust.
The T-word came up six times as he introduced his coaching staff.
“I think not just in your first year being a head coach, you’ve got to have people you know and trust to do the job, No. 1, and people that are going to have your back in a tough time,” he said. “So that’s what we placed an emphasis on, was people that were knowledgeable of the game that could help bring something to the table and would also have my back.”
Not surprisingly, that trust comes from having worked together previously.
In addition to McAdoo and Jackson crossing professional paths with Jones, so too did most of the hires announced. Craig Dickenson worked with Jones in Montreal in 2003 (running backs coach) and in Calgary (special teams co-ordinator) in 2008 and 2009. Shivers was with Jones in Toronto last season as an interning defensive assistant.
Philion played for Jones in Montreal as a defensive lineman for six seasons (2002 to 2007). McCorvey was with Jones in Toronto as a receivers coach in 2012. Davoren’s time in Toronto as a defensive assistant and a quality control assistant overlapped with Jones’ tenure with the Argos (2012, 2013).
“It’s been a lot of fun and I don’t think we’ve played bad hockey since I got here,” said Hendricks.
“I feel like the Minnesota game (a 4-1 loss on Jan. 16) got away from us but for the most part we’ve been right in there in every game.”
Hendricks said it was easy for him to walk into new room and assume a leadership role, given that the coaches and captain Andrew Ference encouraged it.
“The guys have been great with me, very vocal with me as well so it’s made it easier for me, more comfortable for me,” he said.
“It’s definitely a niche that has helped me to get to this level and helped me to stay at this level.
“They talk about a skill set for me being faceoffs or shot blocking or being a penalty kill guy so if I can add another role in terms of leadership, by being vocal in the locker-room, if I can just try and relay coaches’ messages, then I will.
“I was fortunate to play a lot of games in the minor leagues so I was looked at as a leader at that age but when I got an opportunity to play my first full season in the NHL with Colorado, I played with Adam Foote, who was our captain. To be able to listen to him speak every day, I learned a lot.
“I just leached off him, by the way that he was as a player and the way he led as a leader.”
When he was in Edmonton last week, Predators head coach Barry Trotz said Hendricks, who is under contract until 2016-17, is missed in Nashville’s lineup.
The Predators brought in Hendricks to add an element of truculence and to inject more professionalism into the room.
Trotz called players like Hendricks in valuable because of intangibles that will benefit a team like the Oilers.
“We’re really a young team on the back end and in goal and we wanted to bring what I call ‘hockey players’ into the room,” Trotz said.
“You’re not going to see big numbers (from Hendricks) but you’re going to see an all-in guy all the time.
“Prepares well, plays the game hard every night, and is committed every night.
“He pulls you into the fight. A lot of guys will just stand there and watch, he pulls you in.”