Danny Maciocia has replaced Khari Jones as the head coach of the Montreal Alouettes.
“This kind of decision is always difficult to make, but we felt that we needed to make it early in the season while there is still time,” said Maciocia in a statement. “We want to thank Khari Jones and Barron Miles for their work, and wish them the best in the future.”
The Alouettes have started the regular season with a 1-3 and are currently on a bye week. Montreal lost to the Saskatchewan Roughriders by a score of 41-20 this past week at Mosaic Stadium.
Maciocia was hired as the team’s general manager in January 2020 following a nine-year stint as the head coach of the Université de Montréal Carabins. He posted a 57-16-0 record at the U Sports level, winning one Vanier Cup championship and three Dunsmore Cups.
The Montreal native began his professional coaching career with the Als in 1996 as a quality control coach. He became the team’s offensive coordinator in 2001 before serving in the same role with Edmonton for three seasons (2002-04). He was promoted to the role of head coach in 2005 and won a Grey Cup that same year.
Maciocia added the title of general manager in 2007 and held both roles for two seasons until he resigned as head coach with a 33-38-1 record. He stayed on as GM until he was fired in July 2010 following a 1-4 start to the season.
Montreal also fired defensive coordinator Barron Miles and replaced him with longtime CFL assistant coach Noel Thorpe. This will be the Vancouver native’s third stint with the team as he began his CFL coaching career as Montreal’s special teams coordinator (2002-07) before returning to serve as their defensive coordinator (2013-17).
Thorpe most recently served as the defensive coordinator of the Edmonton Elks (2020-21) following a two-year stint with the Ottawa Redblacks (2018-19).