CFL.ca Staff

EDMONTON -- The Edmonton Eskimos announced Sunday afternoon that they have assigned Marcus Crandell to Quarterbacks Coach, while head coach Kavis Reed will take over the offensive playcalling.

Entering his fourth year as a CFL coach, Crandell was in his second season as the club's offensive coordinator. 

“I’m going to be far more instrumental in game planning,” said Reed. “We have the ability to do somethings a little bit differently that will allow us to have more explosive plays.”

After a successful 2011 campaign, the Eskimos offence has struggled in 2012, sitting last in net offence (4,098 yards), average offence per game (315.2) and second-last in points scored (279) and average points per game (21.5).

Injuries have also affected the Eskimo offence this season, with all three quarterbacks, Steven Jyles, Kerry Joseph and Matt Nichols, seeing time as the starter.

Nichols made his debut for Edmonton last Friday in Calgary and although he was poised at times, the offence simply could not match the output of the Stampeders, falling 39-15 at McMahon Stadium.

A former CFL quarterback and 2001 Grey Cup MVP, Crandell played 11 seasons with Edmonton, Calgary and Saskatchewan. He posted 1,297 completions for 17,227 and 86 touchdowns in 153 games in the CFL.

Along with the coaching adjustment, Reed also announced that Joseph will get the start this week versus Hamilton.

“Matt Nichols did a phenomenal job of managing the football game,” says Reed. “We got all the answers that we were expecting from Matt. Situationally he was tremendous, in terms of extending plays he was tremendous, but at this point now in a critical game we’re going with a healthy Kerry Joseph in there. We knew that Kerry was close to being back at that 95% that we wanted him to be. That week off allowed him to get back at that point. Matt is our number two guy now and he’s earned that.”