Ticats.ca
It’s a simple tradition, but one that Phillip Lolley strictly adheres to. After every win that he’s been a part of as a coach in the CFL, he’s taken some time to get to know the city he’s been living in.
You know where this is headed. As the newly-named defensive coordinator of the Tiger-Cats, Lolley’s not the go-to guy for fun things to do in Hamilton.
“I don’t go out nowhere when we lose. So I haven’t been out,” Lolley said on Wednesday, comfortably seated in a leather chair in the Tiger-Cats’ media centre. He’d just completed his second day of practice in his new role, bumped up from defensive run game coordinator and linebackers coach, into the spot left open by Jeff Reinebold, who was removed as D.C. and declined a job reassignment.
“People ask me if I’ve seen the town, and I say, ‘Not yet,’” Lolley said. “I worry more about the players. I’m 63-years old, this game’s been great to me. I’ve got a bunch of rings. A bunch of them. There’s a picture of them in my office.”
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Lolley was promoted to defensive coordinator as the team hoping to help turn things around in Tiger-Town (Ticats.ca)
Just four seasons into his time in the league, the Butler, Alabama native has ridden the Canadian Football roller coaster. He was the linebackers coach on the 2014 and 2015 Edmonton Eskimos, winning a Grey Cup his second year on board. He was part of the mass coaching exodus that followed Chris Jones from Edmonton to Saskatchewan last year and watched as the Riders went 5-13. He moved away from Jones and his staff this year and the Ticats are of course still looking for their first win.
The losses have stung, he admits, but he’s learned through a long career to put the good and the bad into perspective.
“I look at the game different. When I was young, I couldn’t handle (losing),” he said.
“It was hard for me to handle anything negative. Then you realize (as a coach) you’re dealing with people’s lives. It took me a while to understand that not every human in the world thought like me. You make (your players) the best you can make them. You’ve got to stay strong.”
This year is a test like few others in his career for Lolley. Through 15 years (1999 to 2003) in a variety of roles at Auburn, Lolley racked up rings. There were undefeated seasons, SEC championships, national titles. This year, it’s been heartbreaking losses and now a coaching shuffle that the organization hopes will get the team on track.
“We’re going to be all right once we get going,” Lolley said. “In this game anything can happen. If you’re the best team, things can fall to pieces. Once you get on a roll either way, negative or positive.”
Lolley and Jones have a deep history. When Lolley was the coach at North Jackson High School in Stevenson, Ala. — he spent 22 years coaching at the high school level in his home state — he gave Jones his first coaching job. When Jones got his first CFL head coaching gig in 2014, he called Lolley and asked him to join his staff.
“We’re going to be all right once we get going. In this game anything can happen. If you’re the best team, things can fall to pieces. Once you get on a roll either way, negative or positive.”
Phillip Lolley
Lolley accepted Jones’ offer in 2014, looking to get a feel for a league that plays the game a little differently than he’d grown used to in Alabama. It didn’t take long for him to realize that he could coach and win in this league. He watched Jones, one of the most revered defensive minds in the CFL, up close for three seasons, and figured at the end of last season that he was ready to venture out on his own. Will the Ticats’ defence take on some Jones-like aspects as the season rolls forward? Lolley didn’t want to specify on that.
“I’ve learned a lot from everybody. Everybody I’ve ever coached with,” he said.
“I’m one of those guys, I soak things up like a sponge and I file it in my memory. I do things my way and my way only when I’m in charge, but I have stolen a lot of information from a lot of great people and I file it philosophically with what I can use. Everything else goes in one ear, out the other.”
After three seasons with Jones, Lolley said it was time for a change.
“It was time for me because I think folks tie us together so much, and Chris needed his space, too,” Lolley said. “It’s almost like a dad watching over his son in a way. I’d nurtured this situation and it was time for me to go on. I’ve got some things I want to fulfill in my life.”
Lolley feels like he’s got a lot of coaching left in him. He still loves the long hours that come with the job and he lights up talking about coaching up his players on the field day to day. It’s hard to be apart from his family, his three grandchildren especially, he’s thinking about them while he’s working away in Canada. Those rings that he’s collected through his career? They’re all for them.
“They wanted to know why I never wore them. I told them I keep them in a box for them and it’s all theirs once something happens to me one day,” he said. “I’ve just never been one to wear a whole lot of that stuff.”
The photo of the rings in his office is enough for Lolley. As he settles into his new job, he’d happily take the first baby step of finally getting out of that office the day after a game and seeing what Hamilton has to offer.
