As the off-season progresses, the Hamilton Tiger-Cats are taking on the look of a June Jones team.
In a conference call to welcome Orlondo Steinauer back as assistant head coach, Jones revealed that Phillip Lolley, his defensive coordinator for the team’s 6-4 run through the second half of the season, wouldn’t be back for 2018.
Jerry Glanville, a lifelong football coach with ties woven through Jones’ coaching career, will assume the defensive coordinator role. Jones said he invited Lolley back, but Lolley declined the opportunity.
RELATED:
» Steinauer returns to Ticats as assistant head coach
» Jones, Ticats appoint Glanville to defensive coordinator
After a year away from the CFL, Orlondo Steinauer is coming back to Hamilton with the Ticats (Ticats.ca)
“Jerry is one of the best defensive minds and one of the great motivators in the game of football and we’re excited to have him come on board with the Ticats,” Jones said in a press release.
“I played for Jerry, coached for Jerry, and he has coached for me. We think alike and he has been a big influence on not just me, but the game of football itself. The Hamilton Tiger-Cats and the CFL just got better.”
Glanville, 76, got his first taste of the CFL at Ticats training camp this past year, when he served as a guest coach. His 30-year career has seen him serve as a head coach for over 12 years (Houston Oilers 1985 to 1989; Atlanta Falcons 1990 to 1993; Portland State University, 2007 to 2009) and as a defensive coordinator in the NFL for nine years and in the NCAA for for three.
He first crossed paths with Jones in Houston in 1987. They worked together in Atlanta from 1991 to 1993, then at the University of Hawaii, where Jones was head coach, from 2005 to 2006. Glanville coached Jones for five years in Atlanta, from 1977 to 1981.
Jones said on the call that his coaching staff would be officially announced Monday.
Steinauer, who worked on then-coach Kent Austin’s staff in Hamilton from 2013 to 2016, has plenty of defensive coaching experience. He joined the team as defensive coordinator in 2013 and added assistant head coach to his job title in 2016 before he left Hamilton last year to be the defensive coordinator at Fresno State. The team went 10-4 last year and finished its season with a Hawaii Bowl win over the University of Houston.
June Jones will have a different looking coaching staff when the 2018 season gets started (CFL.ca)
As assistant head coach, Steinauer’s focus will be on the offensive side of the ball this year.
“I’m here to first of all to support June Jones in any way I can,” Steinauer said. “I’m in here as 100 per cent support in any way that I can to bring the Grey Cup back to Hamilton.
“An opportunity to learn on the other side of the football is extremely attractive. All I’ve done is study offences for 20 years as a player and a coach and you can always get clinic talk and other things from people, but to sit back and really dig into something can help me as a coach.
“It’s not just Xs and Os. I can learn the way they install offences or defences, but this a chance to observe and overview the organization, the way he runs things. There’s an infinite number of ways I can learn in my professional development and I’m just excited for that opportunity.”
While coaching in California, Steinauer held onto the home he and his family owned in Oakville. While he positions himself to one day be a head coach — he emphasized on Friday that’s not an immediate goal — he said he felt like he was in the right place working with the Ticats again.
“For my family, where I wanted them to be personally and professionally, while it was a very tough decision (to leave Fresno State) we feel that this was the right decision for us,” he said
