CFL: Ticats hand reins to Steinauer, as Jones steps aside
HAMILTON— Orlando Steinauer says there was a time when he fought the urge to get into coaching after his playing career was done.
With those days clearly behind him and eight years of experience on the sidelines under his belt, Steinauer was introduced Monday as the 26th head coach of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. He takes over for June Jones, who stepped aside to give Steinauer the reins, but will remain with the team as associate coach and offensive co-ordinator.
The Ticats had to make the unusual coaching shuffle in order to retain the sought-after coach, who was an assistant on Jones’s staff last season. Both the Toronto Argonauts and B.C. Lions asked Hamilton for permission to talk to Steinauer about their vacant head coach positions.
Steinauer said retaining Jones on the staff was a key reason for him to remain in Hamilton.
“For June to make the suggestion to step aside speaks vol- umes for him,” Steinauer said. “To be able to retain him on this staff is an amazing thing for me.”
The 45-year-old Steinauer started his coaching career with the Toronto Argonauts in 2010 and has had a steady rise since, but originally he wasn’t sure this was the path he wanted to take.
“I always saw myself as a coach, I kind of fought it,” he said. “I was really reluctant.”
He said the first time former Argos general manager Jim Barker called him with a job offer, he turned it down.
“I just told him I wasn’t ready to put my family though this coaching thing,” he said.
He eventually joined the Argos’ staff, getting promoted to defensive co-ordinator in 2011. He was retained as a defensive backs coach when Scott Milanovich took over as Argos head coach in 2012.
He moved to Hamilton in 2013 to become defensive co-ordinator under head coach Kent Austin before leaving to take the same job with NCAA Division 1 school Fresno State in 2017, helping the Bulldogs to a West Division title in the Mountain West Conference. His stay in U.S. college football was short-lived, however, as he returned to Hamilton as an assistant coach last season.