What else do you want?

Re: Organizational stability

Anyone can sit back from their rocking chair with pictures of John Barrow on their wall and say "Stay the course because blah blah blah" but the point is that organizations that truly stay the course don't force it.

Management know their roles and don't threaten to leave at the first sign of money. Huff/Dickenson, Walters/OShea, and yes even the mighty Pittsburgh Steelers don't throw around money and titles to unqualified football coaches in a desperate attempt to make them stay, they want to stay and know their jobs. Mike OShea is a football coach, not a President of Ops. Huff runs the show, Dickenson calls the game.

In a way I feel sorry for Stein - he was handed this bag and now there's no other way around it. He runs the entire show and we're stuck watching him learn on the job. Clearly his inexperience on offense has cost this team 2 years in a row, and Sr people like Burke, Reinebold and Barker bolted once Stein was given keys to the kingdom. It's insulting to someone like Burke who cut his teeth with this organization not to get the big job over a football coach with zero management experience. Cant blame him one bit for leaving.

I'm all for continuity - with people that have earned their positions.

What's particularly disheartening is the template for real success on the field is clear. Putting win or die experienced football people with proven track records in positions to succeed.
Took awhile for Young etc to accept this as the painful progression from Katz to Obie to Austin showed. But it appears ownership has lost its stomach for it and has settled for a kind of middle ground.
Worse still it seems comfortable with the results and expect fans to do the same.
Management, player personnel have cleary regressed. Stein is an average coach, Washington is just competent, Condell can be better if given broader talent to work with. In total it's a mediocre,
uninspiring structure that doesn't expect or command excellence..just competitiveness.
The usual suspects had a meltdown when I said the regime wasn't serious about building a GC winning team. I'm more convinced than ever and I can only imagine what new cope they've adopted.

The management structure as it sits is not really much different than when they brought in Austin. He was actually head of football operations but brought in his buddy Tillman who did the real heavy lifting of finding talent. Austin wouldn’t have been able to rebuild the team the way he wanted it without that experienced player personnel guy who actually reported to him.

To me things went south here when Barker left in 2021. I believe he had a larger role in bringing in talent with his extensive contacts in the U.S. and previous league experience than what was let on. Presumably the Ed Hervey hire was to take over some of the contract negotiation and talent evaluation end of things to replace Burke and / or Barker. Possibly because of his previous issues, the team doesn’t trust him to have full authority here and he’s not really able to put his stamp on the team for better or worse. And Orlondo doesn’t have enough experience to offer up a viable alternative who he can trust in. Until they find this person, or one of Hervey, Zimmerman or Allemang is able or allowed to step forward, we likely won’t see significant progress here.

You’re not wrong on either point. That was likely the only way the team could offer Austin enough money to pry him away from a comfortable NCAA gig. Kent was also smart enough to know he couldn’t handle the whole gig on his own and had the luxury of working with an experienced guy like Tillman in Sask who he was able to bring in almost immediately after getting hired. Money flowed a lot freer then, in Ticat land and the CFL in general as we all know.

Steinauer just doesn’t have the contacts with senior management guys at this stage. They took a stab hiring Hervey but who knows what that working relationship is like as neither one has really crossed paths before playing or coaching. Ticats likely didn’t want to start from square one with a new coaching staff after two GC appearances so sold the farm trying to keep Stein here and happy.

Agree.  I've resisted jumping on the "hate Scott Mitchell" bandwagon, but at some point, it's no different than holding Steinauer accountable for his poor personnel and coaching decisions.

I like the idea of hiring Danny Mac, but I'd also be ok with Barker as the GM.  There's a reason why the team sank like a stone when he & Reinebold left, and probably more than one.

Ticats scouting staff waiting for the ArriveCan and travel restriction mandates to pass this weekend. Then they’ll go nuts and sign probably two more guys by the end of the year.

There’s also good deals on different Cheetos brands at Target. For sure they’ll restock the club suites with those puppies.