Danny Maciocia will have to choose the right candidate to fill the position of head coach of the Montreal Alouettes. If not, the Canadian League’s top wide receiver and one of its very good quarterbacks could well look elsewhere in 2023.
Eugene Lewis and Trevor Harris have been very clear: they want to know the identity of the new boss before committing to the team again, they who will become free agents during the winter.
Lewis, an Ambrosie Tour MVP finalist, goes even further: he wants to be involved in that decision. All decisions, in fact.
“I feel that at this point in my career, I want to be involved in the big decisions of the team. I want to know who will be the head coach, who will be the receivers coach, the general manager and I want to know before I make a decision, he dropped. Before, things happened and I adapted. Now, I want to have my say, even during transactions, whether it is the exchanges or the players who will be released. I want to be involved.
“I’ve seen a lot of things since I’ve been here and I know what it takes to have a stable team where people are happy and have good relationships with the coaches and vice versa,” he said. he continued. I’ve seen it all and I know what it takes. I hope to have the opportunity to do so here. »
PHOTO PHILIPPE BOIVIN, ARCHIVES SPECIAL COLLABORATION
Eugene Lewis and Trevor Harris
Harris, who proved in the second half of the season that he still belongs, at 36, to the league’s elite, agreed.
“Of course it will influence my decision. When you are a quarterback, you feel what is the limit that your performance can reach. For me, that ceiling is determined by how high the performance of my receivers and running backs can go. I’m not a stat freak, but I want them to hit certain plateaus. I set goals for them. I want them to raise their game, but I also want them to feel good about their performance.
“To accomplish that, you have to have the right head coach and the right coordinator. I have confidence that Danny will be able to put the right people in place. I don’t know yet if I will be back, but we will know very soon. »
These two departures would create huge gaps in the Alouettes’ roster, which finally seems to have put an end to the endless carousel of quarterbacks since the departure of Anthony Calvillo with Harris, who had 4,157 passing yards this season, the one of his best career harvests, which gave him third place in the CFL this season.
“I absolutely see myself as one of the three best quarterbacks in this league,” said Harris, who believes he still has a few good seasons left in the body.
Missing ingredient: stability
If Harris believes that the team had the necessary elements – in attack at least – many have identified the lack of stability as the main ingredient missing from the Alouettes.
“It’s stability,” Lewis said bluntly. I have been in Montreal for a long time. I had a few coaches, a few GMs, even a few owners, not to mention a few quarterbacks. I’m almost immune to it now and was able to play at a high level despite everything that was going on around the team. Stability can be found anywhere: the plans just need to be well prepared. »
“There wasn’t much missing, but we said it, Trevor, Geno and me: if we don’t win with this team, it will be our fault,” said tackle Almondo Sewell. But we also joked among ourselves that [le réseau ESPN] could report on all the changes that have happened to this team this season. It was crazy. That says a lot about the members of this team: if it had happened anywhere else, the team would have finished with a 2-16 record. Here we started from 2-6 to finish at 9-9. »
For running back William Stanback, it’s not so much what the Alouettes lacked as what the team was unable to do that explains his exclusion.
“It’s our lack of execution [contre Toronto]. We had no rhythm at the start of the match. It hurt us, because we let Toronto take the lead instead of us doing it, like we were able to do last week against Hamilton. This is where we wandered. We knew it was going to be a tough battle. All that remained was to find out who was going to score the most points. We are the team that was unable to stop the other in the end. »
PHOTO FRANK GUNN, THE CANADIAN PRESS ARCHIVES
William Stanback (31)
The lack of consistency of the defense has also surfaced during this review. If sometimes she had a lot of bite – like against the Tiger-Cats a week ago, when she managed six sacks – Noel Thorpe’s defense has often found itself flat. As against the Argos, when you can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times quarterback McLeod Bethel-Thompson has been pressed, he who has never been joined behind his line. The Alouettes’ defense didn’t manage to turn around against the Argonauts.
“That’s what happens when you use a defense that tries to apply pressure all the time: when the attack is able to counter you, it opens up a lot of space for them to make their plays,” said explained Sewell. Often we only have a second and a half before the ball leaves the hand of the opposing quarterback. If you don’t join it, your cover holes and mistakes look worse than they are. We can’t use that as an excuse, but that’s what happens when you use a defense like ours. »
Linebacker Adarius Pickett, however, hinted that defensive scheme choices may have been relayed to the players too late in this game.
“I found that sometimes we weren’t in a good position and the games came a bit late. We were not able to identify the formations [des Argos] like we usually did. »
The marauder Marc-Antoine Dequoy was not of this opinion, however.
“It’s been the way it’s been done since Noel has been in office,” he said. It is certain that as a defense, you prefer to have the games more in advance. But he likes to see the opposing formations. We’ve been doing this all year. It is not an important element in this defeat. »