Buono’s firing of successor must sting
BENEVIDES IS GONE: But GM’s task now is to find a replacement to rebuild both team spirit and fans’ hope
Wally Buono has always said his job is to provide hope, and to understand why he fired Mike Benevides on Thursday — which was the equivalent of firing his son — we refer you to some numbers which had nothing to do with Benevides’s 33-21 regular-season record or his 0-3 mark in the playoffs, but everything to do with the Lions’ direction over the last three years.
In 2011, the year the Lions hosted and won the Grey Cup, the team averaged 36,510 fans per game at B.C. Place. The next year, Benevides’s first as a head coach, that number fell to 30,366. The next year it was 28,311.
This year, in another Grey Cup year, the Lions averaged 27,900, and that number was inflated by a substantial giveaway owing to the nowinfamous guaranteed win by team president Dennis Skulsky. The real number is under 25,000, and somewhere in there, Lions’ fans had sent the clear message they’d lost hope in the current regime.
So does firing Benevides rekindle hope?
In the wake of Thursday’s announcement, that’s the question which hangs over the Lions’ offices in Surrey. Can their problems be fixed with a new coach? Were this year’s failings the responsibility of Benevides and his staff? Was Benevides provided with sufficient resources to build a winner?
The mere fact that Buono reached this decision tells you all you need to know here. In his 25 years in the Canadian game, Buono has been about winning first, but he’s also been about structure, continuity and loyalty. He has his guys. He sticks with his guys. And Benevides, going back to a gig as an unpaid assistant in Calgary under Buono, had been groomed for this job for over a decade.
The start in 2012, when the Leos went 13-5, was promising enough. But in the next two years they went 11-7 and 9-9 and, in the final three games of 2014, they looked like a broken team. Yes, there were mitigating circumstances, and you wonder how this story turns out if Travis Lulay is healthy in 2013 and 2014. But, injuries aside, Buono felt there was still enough to build a competitive team, and it now seems the Leos’ performance in Sunday’s Eastern semifinal sealed Benevides’s fate.
A win there and Benevides is back. A respectable performance against the Alouettes and he likely returns. But the Lions looked so inept in the 50-17 loss, so utterly disorganized and amateurish, Buono fired his hand-picked successor just four days later.
There were other disturbing signs. The team’s 4-5 record at B.C. Place. The wild swings in performance. The inability to generate a consistent offence. As mentioned, there were reasons for all the Lions’ shortcomings but, in the end, it’s the responsibility of the head coach, especially when the general manager has the complete and unconditional trust of the owner.
So where do the Lions go from here? Again, we return to the question of hope, and the onus is now on Buono to provide hope for the fan base. The Lions have to make a hire that captures the imagination of their following. They have to hire a name that excites this market. Over the last three years the Lions have also been losing ground to the Whitecaps and, at the very least, they have to re-establish their place as the second sports ticket in the Vancouver market.
At the risk of stating the obvious, hiring a retread — George Cortez, Paul LaPolice — doesn’t excite anyone. If they hire one of the top young coordinators — Orlando Steinhauer, Noel Thorpe — Buono had better be sure he gets the right guy, because there are no longer any bodies between the GM and the door. The one name who ticks every box for the Lions is Stampeders offensive co-ordinator Dave Dickenson and, clearly, there are questions about his availability. But unless they can hire Dickenson or someone of equivalent stature — and Buono returning to the sidelines remains a possibility — it can fairly be asked, why didn’t they stick with Benevides to see if he could turn it around next season?
Instead, they plot a new course. Buono didn’t make this decision lightly. He was fully invested in Benevides, both on a personal and professional level, and this carried a huge emotional cost. But he felt there was no other way.
We’ll know soon enough if it was the right decision. So will Buono, because if it isn’t, they’ll be coming for him next.