Don’t count the Lions out just yet, Buono warns
Wally Buono has just sat down for his media availability and the first question isn’t about the B.C. Lions or the Saskatchewan Roughriders but, rather, the strange and alien event taking place across the street from B.C. Place, a universe away.
“Twenty-five million in prize money for a video game (the International Dota 2 Championship at Rogers Arena), what do you think about that Wally?” Buono has thought about it. “We should forget about football as it is and sell it as a video game,” he says jokingly, we think.
It’s then suggested people would pay to watch a video football game with Buono handling one set of controls and Chris Jones, the Roughriders’ head coach, handling the other.
“No,” he answers. “I have a hard enough time with my cellphone.”
Buono, of course, belongs to a different time and place than the world that has turned eSports into a global phenomena and the cellphone into an extension of the human brain.
This is also a convenient characterization of the CFL’s patriarch who, his critics will tell you, has lost contact with the modern game, which explains why the Lions missed the playoffs last season and sit at 3-5 this season, heading into tonight’s meeting between the Lions and the visiting Roughriders.
But is that a true thing ? Has the game and today’s athlete passed Buono by?
The Leos’ record over the last two years suggests something is missing between the team and the head coach, who used to record 13-win seasons as easily as he rolls out of bed.
So, is this on Buono? “Hold me accountable for what?” Buono answered when asked about his role in the Lions’ early season travails. “You have to hold me accountable for putting the players on the field, for saying these are the players I’m trusting.
“Have we been perfect? No. But I’m saying the majority of time the coaches have done a good job. What are they going to do, fire me? What do I care? This is frustrating and it’s hard on everybody. So hold me accountable, but if I could do something more, I’d do it.”
Apparently this is another subject he’s thought about.
There is a perception in this market that Buono is the Teflon Man, that his track record with the Lions, his incredible career and his status within the game have given him a free pass.
In complete candour, there’s something to that. It’s difficult to take the knife out and carve the winningest head coach in CFL history, who’s also unfailingly accessible and co-operative with the media.
It’s also difficult to sit in judgment of Buono because in 2011, he picked the perfect time to walk away from the sidelines only to be forced into a return when the succession plan with, first, Mike Benevides, and then Jeff Tedford, failed.
But there’s also something about this Lions’ team that, to date, hasn’t lived up to the standards Buono set in his first nine years as the Leos’ coach.
Buono’s best teams in B.C. were invariably physical on both sides of the line of scrimmage, featured an efficient passing game with big-play capabilities and were consistent in their preparation and on-field discipline.
The 2018 Lions have been that in spurts. But only in spurts and, on top of everything else, they’ve lacked focus and intensity. Buono’s words, not ours.
Eight games in, at least, that’s their story. But in the CFL it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish and this story is far from over.
“Football is still fun, but losing isn’t fun,” said Buono. “If I thought we had a team that couldn’t win I’d feel different, but I believe this team can win.”
In his final year, in fact, Buono is as committed as he’s ever been to his job. Offensive line coach Dan Dorazio has been with Buono for two decades. Defensive co-ordinator Mark Washington has been on Buono’s staff for 11 seasons and played for him another five years.
They see the same coach they’ve always seen.
“Wally’s consistent,” said Dorazio. “He’s a disciplined, detailed guy who knows what the mission is every day. You can count on him.”
“He stresses the same thing and it’s the truth,” said Washington. “The coach’s responsibility is to put the players in position. He hasn’t made a play in 40 years. It’s always on the guys on the field.”
Now, it could be that the solution to the Lions’ issues is as simple as getting more production out of a few key players — quarterback Travis Lulay tops that list — while being on the winning side of the four or five plays that determine a game.
Buono believes that’s the case and, given his track record, you tend to believe him. But, whatever the Lions’ problem is, he doesn’t believe it’s coaching.
“I think I’m coaching it better, to be quite honest,” he said. “I know it sounds arrogant, but there’s a reason I came back. I wanted another opportunity to win. I wanted another opportunity at a championship.”
That would make a great closing scene to his career. It’s just that the scriptwriters don’t always get the ending right.