Reed returning looks bad for Alouettes
Success will be expected of Als’ beleaguered general manager and head coach in 2019
There was no bloodletting Thursday. Heads didn’t roll. Kavis Reed will return as the Alouettes’ general manager next season, while Mike Sherman remains the head coach. There undoubtedly is something to be said about consistency. Or perhaps owners Robert and Andrew Wetenhall simply are getting tired of paying guys to sit at home and do nothing? The trolls on social media reacted quickly, not hiding their contempt over the decision. Reed shouldn’t be and isn’t proud of eight victories in 36 games over two seasons. He most certainly understands the 2019 campaign ultimately will dictate whether he remains a CFL general manager. At least he offered no excuses, taking full responsibility for squandering yet another opportunity — that’s four successive seasons and counting for this franchise — in the weak East Division to qualify for the playoffs. “If you get three years, you can’t get to the end of it saying the same thing. You can’t have the excuse you’re still building something in the third year,” Reed said at management’s post-mortem at a downtown Montreal hotel and not Olympic Stadium, which led some to speculate a major restructuring was about to transpire. “There can’t be any excuses in Year 3.” Reed, a former CFL head coach who was the Als’ special teams co-ordinator before replacing the departed Jim Popp in December 2016, has never worried about his tenure. And if he’s not aware just how unpopular he is among many who still follow the team, he need only look to Marc Bergevin for comfort. The Canadiens’ general manager, assailed a year ago, suddenly has become a genius; the sports world and its fans are fickle. “When you sit around and worry about your job, you’re not doing your job. Leadership’s not about being popular,” Reed said. “Do you feel confident in your plan? People below you aren’t going to see what you see. They don’t have the information. They’re going to make assessments. “When you’re not successful by record, you’re going to be criticized. You should be. We didn’t expect to be 5-13. We failed in the expectations. We didn’t accomplish that and I have to shoulder that as GM.” Sherman, of course, gets a mulligan as a rookie CFL head coach. But he has had a year to learn the Canadian game. People complained he looked lost at times on the sideline and maybe this peculiar game truly was foreign to him. There were some decisions that left many shaking their heads, potential points left on the board. But a coach also is only as good as the players with which he has to work — as supplied by the general manager. Reed credited Sherman with establishing an environment in which the players expected to win by season’s end. So now they must. There’s a base from which to build for Reed and Sherman. The quarterback position, led by Johnny Manziel but not exclusively limited to him, is the deepest — although not necessarily the strongest — it has been in years. The offensive line, while displaying numerous cracks, has some pieces, including Trey Rutherford, Tyler Johnstone, Sean Jamieson and Kristian Matte. Left tackle Tony Washington’s a potential free agent, although Reed said he’s confident a new deal can be negotiated. Reed admitted the Als must get more explosive at receiver, require more depth on the defensive line and more competition in the secondary. When a team scores a league-low 345 points, it’s no secret the offence could be in store for an overhaul. That includes the wildly inconsistent Boris Bede, the kicker who only seemed to perform after competition for his job periodically was brought to practice. He simply left too many points off the scoreboard. Sherman refused to declare Manziel the starter heading into training camp next May, although it appears the job is his to lose. Instead, he said the off-season preparation by Manziel, along with the others, will dictate and define who will be under centre. One would expect there will be changes, as well, on the coaching staff and in the scouting department. The latter, in particular, has long been considered one of the organization’s weaknesses in terms of discovering talent. But here’s the thing about Reed returning: the optics don’t look good. And this is an organization hardly dealing from a position of strength. The Als exist during the summer, when the Canadiens are on sabbatical, and are engaged in a battle against soccer’s Impact for a share of the sporting pie. Once the Canadiens report for training camp, the Als are virtually forgotten unless they win. Als president Patrick Boivin must work hard to sell the return of Sherman and, especially, Reed. He said the organization is selling the perspective of what they’re building toward. Time will tell whether that’s enough. “You want to add degrees to being under the gun?” Boivin said. “They know. Kavis knows because he’s two years into this. Mike knows. We’re all up against a wall. This isn’t to add pressure ... to put the proverbial guns against temples or heads. That’s just the reality.”
If you get three years, you can’t get to the end of it saying the same thing ... (that) you’re still building something in the third year.