They’re coming, it’s just not official, yet
Jeff Reinebold back, Mark Washington to run defence
The Hamilton Tiger-Cats are still not making official two major signings which everyone in Canadian football knows are imminent.
To wit: Mark Washington Opiniontaking the defensive co-ordinator position; and former Ticats special teams and defensive co-ordinator Jeff Reinebold returning to Hamilton as special teams co-ordinator.
“We’re really not in a hurry, but we should have our coaches in place by the end of January,” head coach Orlondo Steinauer said from the CFL meetings in Mont-Tremblant, Que.
Steinauer would not confirm that Washington and Reinebold are his new co-ordinators, but did say, “Jeff looks like he’ll be on board with us this year. We’re going to fill out the rest of our staff by the end of the month.”
Reinebold, who’s very active on social media, tweeted out Sunday that he’s “heading to a Steeltown noted for its toughness.” Washington is clearly headed here, too.
Washington and Reinebold held the same respective positions last year in B.C. and even before new Lions head coach DeVone Claybrooks was hired, the Tiger-Cats had asked for permission to talk to each of them for a 2019 job here. The two hires were widely reported over the weekend, and with them the Ticats will be staffed with veteran co-ordinators at all three phases of the game.
June Jones, who stepped aside as head coach after the season so Steinauer could ascend to the Big Chair, will return to concentrate solely upon his high-octane offensive systems.
With Jones, Washington and Reinebold on the field, Steinauer will have the flexibility to move from unit to unit during practice, spending more time with whatever area needs the sharpest focus that day. He can also grow into his first head coaching role without the extra burden of assuming responsibilities for the defence, which he said he would prepared to do if he couldn’t find a suitable co-ordinator. The veteran trinity would also provide a sheltered learning experience for any young coaches who might be on the Ticat staff. Steinauer told The Spectator that the Ticats may initially fill only 10 of the now-maximum 11 coaching jobs and then, in consultation with the co-ordinators, determine over the next few weeks where the final spot should be used. Properly developing younger and cheaper coaches will become particularly important over time, because of new CFL regulations reducing coaching staff size and capping overall football operations salaries.
Washington, 45, won Grey Cups as a defensive back in Montreal and B.C. and has been on the Lions’ coaching staff for the 11 years since he retired as a player. He spent his final five years in Vancouver as defensive co-ordinator.
Four of his players made the 2018 western division all-stars, including CFL all-star defensive backs Anthony Orange and TJ Lee. During the waning weeks of 2018 the Hamilton defensive backfield showed vulnerability, after being among the positive surprises for the majority of the season.
Reinebold, 61, has held just about every possible coaching position in professional and college football.
He’s been a CFL head coach in Winnipeg, a defensive co-ordinator in Montreal, Edmonton and Hamilton and had a successful stint here as special teams co-ordinator over the first four years of the Kent Austin era, before becoming defensive co-ordinator when Steinauer went to Fresno State in 2017.
He was replaced in August with the Ticats still winless. He will take over special teams from Frank Gansz Jr. who came into the 2018 training camp as a guest coach and out of it as the special teams co-ordinator.
The critical blocks of the coaching pyramid appear to be in place, but that’s only a start for a team which has had three straight losing seasons, although they did host a playoff game in both 2016 and ’18.
Like the rest of the league, the Ticats have a horde of impending free agents and, compounded by the CFL’s expiring labour agreement, that is making any blueprint for a return to winning a lot much harder to read.