THE CANADIAN PRESS
CFL.ca Staff
With files from BCLions.com
VANCOUVER — For Wally Buono, returning to the sidelines as a CFL head coach for the first time since 2011 is a little scary – but he can hardly wait.
“2016, I’m looking forward to it,” Buono told reporters on Wednesday in Vancouver, the same day Jeff Tedford announced his resignation.
The Lions’ general manager and vice-president of football operations added another title to his name after Tedford, who joined the Lions in 2015, opted out inside the early-December window stipulated by his contract.
“I’d be lying to you if I said I wasn’t a little scared, but I’d also be lying to you if I said I wasn’t a little excited.”
Tedford guided the Lions through a tumultuous 7-11 season that saw many highs and lows, culminating with a 35-9 loss to the Stampeders in the Western Semi-Final. Along the way however he helped drastically improve a defence that was among the league’s worst out of the gate, while his most impressive accomplishment was developing a promising 23-year-old quarterback in Jonathon Jennings.
The latter development is a mark Tedford could leave on the team for a very long time.
“Jeff has done a lot for the organization as far as bringing in new ideas, new methods and new technology,” said Buono, “which I believe has helped us going forward. He’s helped develop a lot of what we believe to be a very good nucleus of young players.
“I guess the one that’s always highlighted and it usually is, is the quarterback.”
WATCH: Buono takes over the headset in BC
Jennings exploded onto the scene after entering the season as the third string quarterback. Injuries to Travis Lulay and John Beck forced him into a mid-season game against Calgary, one in which Jennings threw three interceptions and the Lions went on to lose.
But after that game, Jennings was arguably the CFL’s most productive quarterback. He finished his rookie season with 2,004 passing yards and 15 touchdowns to 10 interceptions, completing 66 per cent of his passes and logging a QB rating of 99.8.
Those numbers are almost unheard of for a 23-year-old rookie, and Jennings’ performance was enough to displace free agent-to-be Lulay as the team’s starter moving forward.
“He provided a lot of excitement for our fans and when you look at going forward for 2016, the thing that always stands in your mind – at least it does in mine – is how do we improve our football club? How do we give our fans hope?
“Jon Jennings is the beginning of that.”
As Tedford departs in hopes of landing a college head coaching job, the Lions now become Buono’s team again. Buono is the CFL’s all-time winningest coach with 254 regular season wins, and was the fastest head coach ever to reach 100 career victories.
His post-season coaching record is 22-16 with five Grey Cup victories in nine appearances, including two Grey Cups in nine years with the Lions. Buono coached the Lions to a 101-60-1 record over that span and made the playoffs every season.
Under Buono’s watch as GM and Tedford and Mike Benevides’ as head coaches, the Lions have gone 7-11 and 9-9 in their last two seasons respectively – a far cry from the team’s dominance in 2012 when the team hosted the Western Final and 2011 when it won the Grey Cup.
But the Lions’ last Grey Cup followed the team’s only two losing seasons under Buono, as the Lions went 8-10 two years in a row leading up to their dramatic 2011 victory on home turf, the first year a newly-renovated BC Place opened up.
That turnaround came as a result of stability and continuity, which Buono will look to build off again this time around.
“We have a very good nucleus of veterans,” said Buono. “We have a very good group of young players who are emerging to be stars in our league.
“I’m aware of how we need to get better without tinkering too much with what we already have here as a football club.”
Of course, some change may be unavoidable. The Lions have three big-name players on offence set to become free agents in Lulay, Andrew Harris and Emmanuel Arceneaux, and all three could be out of the fold come February.
BC would surely miss their presence but in the same breath, their subtraction would give the Lions cap flexibility heading into what appears to be a thick free agent crop.
Whatever happens, Buono is accepting the challenge of turning the BC Lions around in 2016 with full confidence.
“Is it going to be easy?” asked Buono. “If it was going to be easy then maybe I wouldn’t have taken the job, right?
“I know it’s going to be tough, but at the end of it I don’t believe this organization or myself have ever shied away from a challenge,” he answered. “This is a challenge, but I believe it’s a challenge worth taking and I do believe it’s a challenge we can overcome.”
