The Hamilton Tiger-Cats got some much-needed rest in Week 10, but head coach Orlondo Steinauer wasn’t able to relax.
“As much as the bye week is supposed to be enjoyable, it was a rough one,” he told the Hamilton media as the team returned to practice Sunday.
The week off forced major decisions for the three-win franchise and the axe swung down hard on Monday, as the team fired veteran offensive coordinator and assistant head coach Tommy Condell. Despite disappointing results over the past few years, the choice to cut ties remained a difficult one for Steinauer due to his close personal relationship with Condell.
“I can’t say enough positive things about Tommy and his contribution to the organization as a whole and then to me, personally and professionally,” he said. “That’s a friendship that started in 2013 and even when I went to Fresno State, even when he was in Toronto, we were always in contact. I knew at that point, once I went to Fresno, that we’d work together again.”
But football is a what-have-you done for me lately world in only the strictest business sense, and no amount of personal likability could save Condell from the chopping block when his unit sat second-last in points scored and third from the bottom in net yardage.
Now, the task of turning around the Ticats’ moribund offence falls to Scott Milanovich, who joined the team as a senior assistant in the offseason and has been doing his job remotely since training camp. His return to Hamilton is already creating a buzz within the team.
“Obviously, there’s always changes but it’s just excitement, you know what I’m saying?” running back Jame Butler told reporters. “Coach was here during camp so we got to meet him then and so obviously (he brings) the same kind of energy. We’re just excited to work with him.”
Milanovich’s resume speaks for itself. The former pro quarterback won two Grey Cups as the Montreal Alouettes’ offensive coordinator in 2009 and 2010, before taking over as head coach of the Toronto Argonauts in 2012, winning another championship in his first season.
After posting a 43-47 record in five seasons at the helm of the Boatmen, the 50-year-old passing guru moved to the NFL in 2017 and spent three seasons as quarterbacks coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars. He briefly returned to the CFL as head coach of the Edmonton Elks in 2020 but never coached a game due to the cancelled season, jumping ship to spend two more years managing QBs for the Indianapolis Colts.
However, taking over an offence mid-season that is starting a third-string rookie at quarterback is an entirely different animal, and Steinauer isn’t putting any lofty expectations on his new play-caller.
“We’ll see over time. He’s obviously not a miracle worker,” the coach said frankly. “He is organized, he’s laid his expectations in the groundwork, and today was step one. Obviously, what means the most is when the lights are on, and I can just tell you that he’ll be prepared and ready to go and so will our players.”
Still, Milanovich has a history of working with elite quarterbacks like Anthony Calvillo and Ricky Ray, while moulding young understudies like Zach Collaros, Trevor Harris, and Cody Fajardo into future stars. Even in the NFL, he bled a playoff run from the stone that was Blake Bortles.
If anyone could help turn Taylor Powell into the next young star, it would be Milanovich. And if Butler is to be believed, the team’s offensive issues aren’t really that complicated anyway.
“We’ve just got to execute. We’ve got to keep our offence on the field. We sometimes put our defence in hard positions,” he said. “We’ve got to execute on first downs and then obviously, try to get first downs on those second downs. It’s just putting T.P. in a better position on second down and letting him do his thing.”
The Ticats (3-5) will return to action on Thursday, August 17 against the Edmonton Elks (0-9).
