MONTREAL — Danny Maciocia didn’t go digging into the back of his closet to dust off an old green-and-gold coloured playbook from two decades ago.
When the Montreal Alouettes general manager took over the role of head coach a week ago after dismissing Khari Jones, along with defensive co-ordinator Barron Miles, Maciocia found himself back in familiar territory, having held one capacity or the other in Edmonton, including both head coach and GM in 2008.
” ‘Interim’, interim head coach. Just let me clarify that right off the bat,” Maciocia corrected reporters gathered around at Olympic Stadium following Alouettes walk-through practice Wednesday.
After all, this isn’t the final solution Maciocia intends, but with the non-player salary cap placed on football-operations staff in the Canadian Football League, clubs can’t necessarily go about replacing co-ordinators or coaches — or even GMs, for that matter — whenever they see fit, prior to their contracts expiring.
“It’s no different than what you guys are dealing with in Edmonton,” Maciocia said of Chris Jones, who is wearing three hats as the Elks GM, head coach and defensive co-ordinator following the off-season firings of, in order, Brock Sunderland, Jaime Elizondo and Noel Thorpe, who were all under contract to the end of this year.
Maciocia ended up bringing Thorpe in to replace Miles in the sideline shakeup following a 1-3 start to the season.
“I mean, there’s a non-player salary cap. There’s a head cap,” Maciocia added, pointing out only so many football-operations employees can exist, along with what they get paid. “And then there’s a salary cap (for players). So, it does restrict you. But those are the rules, so we understand them and we just have to roll with them.
“I contemplated many different scenarios: Hire from within, which obviously the cap wouldn’t have been a big deal; or go out, which then the cap does become a concern. And we thought that by taking this course to the conclusion of the season, it was the best-case scenario for us, short-term.”
While Thursday’s game against Edmonton at Percival Molson Stadium (5:30 p.m., TSN, ESPN+, 630 CHED) will be his first CFL game as a head coach in 14 years, he doesn’t have all that much rust to knock off.
“The last time I coached a game was the Vanier Cup in 2019,” said Maciocia, who spent nine years heading up the U Sports football program at Universite de Montreal. “This is going to be one of the few times I’m on the sideline and not co-ordinating, because I’ve always co-ordinated, for the most part.
“So, it’s going to be new. It’s going to be different.”
Especially compared to his previous time as a CFL head coach patrolling the sideline in Commonwealth Stadium from 2005-08.
OLD PLAYBOOK
While his time with Edmonton began with a Grey Cup championship, Maciocia said he’s not looking to transcribe anything over to the Alouettes playbook.
“No, that’s obsolete. They don’t run that type of offence any more,” Maciocia said of his days as Edmonton’s offensive co-ordinator, which began in 2002. “Now, there’s just so much movement. It’s kind of hard to figure out who’s going where.
“That playbook had its time and clearly I still treasure the memories being out there from ’02-2010. And it was a great run with coach (Rick) Campbell, and I constantly still speak to Ricky Ray and Jason Maas. I’ll speak to (Mike) Pringle, too, every once in a while and talk about being together in ’03, especially with his situation, how it all went down here in Montreal. Those were good times and that’s one chapter, now we’re trying to write another chapter.”
FROM ALS TO ELKS
The only thing that changed for Tre Watson coming out of the Alouettes scheduled bye last week: The colour of uniform he will be wearing on the field Thursday when the Elks visit.
Released by Montreal following a 41-20 loss to the Saskatchewan Roughriders their last time out, the six-foot-two, 230-pound Maryland product will start at middle linebacker against his former club after getting signed by the Elks this week.
“Crazy circumstance, man. But things happen for a reason and tomorrow should be a lot of fun,” said Watson, who comes in with 17 tackles and a sack in four games with Montreal. “When you’re trying to build back an organization to a winning level, you need some continuity. So, obviously I’m here hoping to provide that. Provide some stability in the middle of the defence, that always helps a lot.
“When guys are comfortable, when guys know the guys around them, you play more confident. And when you play more confident, you just make more plays and that leads to us winning some football games.”
In and out: QB Taylor Cornelius, who hasn’t dressed all season, is making his first start … TE Mike Beaudry was re-signed this week and activated as the third QB behind Kai Locksley, who will line up primarily as SB and handle short-yardage snaps … Also re-signed this week, CB Malik Sonnier is starting in place of the injured Nafees Lyon … DT Nick Coe draws in for the injured Christian Rector while DE Pharoah McKever starts in place of Matt Thomas, leading to four personnel changes on defence from last week.
E-mail: gmoddejonge@postmedia.com
On Twitter: @GerryModdejonge
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