Jason Hogan, the new offensive coordinator of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, is still relatively unknown in CFL circles, leading many to wonder what his scheme will look like when the offence hits the field later this year.
“People keep asking what (my scheme is) going to be. I don’t want to reinvent the wheel. I want to keep it simple, but I love exotic stuff. I love those — not necessarily the Mickey Mouse plays, but I do like the trickery. I do like to keep the guys excited. You’ve gotta get the guys in the room excited and those types of plays definitely do it,” Hogan recently told Derek Taylor on 680 CJOB.
“It’s hard for me to define the offence. I want to keep it simple. I want to let the guys play fast and not think as much. I do like to throw some exotic stuff in there, but at the end of the day, it’s how do we get our guys to play fast, not overthink it. We call it paralysis by analysis. I don’t want them to just freeze at the line of scrimmage because they’ve got too much going on — you’ve got the game clock, you’ve got the exciting fans. There’s a lot going on, so how do we keep it simple for them, all the while keeping it exciting.”
Hogan, who has yet to turn 40, is still relatively new to the league. He was a two-time Ontario Football Conference all-star quarterback with the St-Leonard Cougars of the CJFL before committing to Concordia University in 2009. There, he was expected to play alongside a handful of future CFL players, including Cory Watson, Kristian Matte, Cory Greenwood, and Rene Paredes.
Instead of joining the Stingers roster, however, Hogan remained a student at the school while coaching at Collège André-Grasset, a nearby CÉGEP program he’d attended years earlier. He served two seasons as the school’s assistant offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach before moving up to offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach the following three years. He was then hired as a quality control coach with the Montreal Alouettes in 2016 and stayed on with the team in 2017 as a defensive assistant.
In 2018, Hogan was hired as the quarterbacks coach at the Université de Montréal before moving to running backs coach in 2019 and running backs and receivers coach in 2021. He was set to serve as the school’s assistant offensive coordinator in 2022 but the Blue Bombers came calling, hiring him as their running backs coach. He’s since helped the team qualify for three straight Grey Cup appearances with Brady Oliveira becoming the CFL’s best running back.
In a way, the timing of Hogan’s promotion to offensive coordinator, precipitated by Buck Pierce leaving to become the head coach of the B.C. Lions, is perfect. Winnipeg’s offence struggled for portions of the 2024 season, masked by occasional brilliance from star players and a strong finish to the regular season.
In 2023, Winnipeg finished first league-wide in points per game (33.0), first in net yards per game (414.7), second in yards per play (7.24), first in rushing yards per game (139.1), second in passing yards per game (292.4), and second in sacks allowed (33).
In 2024, the team fared worse in every category, finishing seventh in points per game (24.8), sixth in net yards per game (358.5), tied for fifth in yards per play (6.48), third in rushing yards per game (111.7), eighth in passing yards per game (260.2), and fifth in sacks allowed (36).
Year-over-year, that’s a 24.8 percent decrease in points scored, 13.5 percent decrease in net yards, 10.5 percent decrease in yards per play, 19.7 percent decrease in rushing yards, and an 11.0 percent decrease in passing yards. Yikes.
It wasn’t all doom and gloom for the unit, of course. Winnipeg’s offence improved modestly year-over-year in giveaways, Brady Oliveira won Most Outstanding Player — becoming the first Canadian to do so since Jon Cornish in 2013 — and Zach Collaros set a new single-season career-high in passing yards.
On the whole, however, it’s clear the Blue Bombers relied too heavily on a dominant defence and Sergio Castillo’s leg to win games. The offence needs to do a better job of pulling its weight in 2025 and it’s Hogan’s job to ensure that happens. He didn’t hesitate to take the job, citing the unit’s many weapons as a reason to be excited.
“It’s something that was interesting in terms of a challenge and you get to work with remarkable men, all these players and coaches that I’m surrounded with. (It’s) timing as well. If not now, when? When will you ever get this opportunity, especially with a room like the guys we have: Zach, Brady, (Nic) Demski, Dalton (Schoen), the staff who we had — and obviously that’s changed a little bit — but the people in the building are really special to me and my family, so I couldn’t pass it up,” he said.
Veteran receivers Dillon Mitchell, Reggie White Jr., and Jerreth Sterns were brought in on affordable free-agent contracts to replace Kenny Lawler, who signed a megadeal with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, and Ontaria Wilson, who is now a member of the New York Jets. The Blue Bombers will also be without Drew Wolitarsky for the first time since 2017 after he was released to provide some relief against the salary cap.
“It’s just a question of how can we adapt to the guys we have,” said Hogan. “We have an idea of who we have right now, we obviously have some guys, some new faces coming in, some fresh starts in camp. We’ve gotta be able to, as a staff, put our guys in the best situation possible week in and week out.”
In previous years, as a positional coach, Hogan was given the freedom to spend the offseason with his family, having little communication with the team during the winter months. As a coordinator, he’s now much busier during the offseason, indicating that he’s involved in discussions regarding player personnel and staffing. He’s also leaving no stones unturned regarding scheme and play design, even taking inspiration from highlights he sees on social media.
“I’ve got everything on Twitter and Instagram popping up since I’ve been able to join Twitter and Instagram and now, every time something pops up, it’s just, OK, now I spend that extra minute just to dive into it and look at it and see if it applies to the Canadian game. Not everything you see on there applies to the Canadian game but your mind is constantly racing. I was just up last night with something I wanted to spend an hour and a half on max and ended up spending three hours on it and went to bed at one a.m.”
Hogan is from Rosemère, Que., a suburb located 35 kilometres northwest of downtown Montreal. His family still lives in the area and though they’ve enjoyed visits to Winnipeg, they’re not ready to move to the city full-time, with Hogan citing the cold weather.
If he helps the Blue Bombers win a Grey Cup at home in 2025, Hogan and his family would be wise to make the move. They might never have to pay for a meal ever again.
