“I’m Happy As Hell To Be Here”

Initially made public on Saturday night, Paul lapolice's hiring as RedBlacks head coach was made official earlier today. Here are a number of quotes from the press conference.

Marcel Desjardins: “This is a great day for the REDBLACKS. We conducted a thorough process in coming to a decision as to who our head coach was going to be. We started it by talking to a number of our key players and leaders to just get a sense of what they were looking for in a head coach. 

“The main three criteria for them was to have a coach that was a very good communicator, who was going to build a solid staff and also somebody who had a passion and a will to win but also to prepare to win. Those were things that were very important to them so I thank them for that.” 

“We’re excited as a group to have new ideas come in; to have a new vision from what we’ve been doing from a coaching perspective. Off the field in terms of how we prepare from an offensive standpoint, those are things that we’re in line with in terms of how we go about that process.” 

“It was a combination of maybe what some of the people were lacking that he had, plus, the fact he was an offensive guy and could run our offence at a high level – we just felt this was the best option. He’s all about teaching and communicating. When your players are telling you they want a guy who’s communicating, that says something. Paul’s all about that. That stuff, plus his vision, was a good fit for us.” 

“At the end of the day, Paul was by far the best candidate for us. There are a lot of good people in this league that all deserve a chance to be head coach of a CFL franchise. But, for us, Paul was the best choice. We’re excited as a group to have new ideas to come in, to have a different vision from what we’ve  been doing from a coaching perspective.”

Photo by Scott Grant, Image Communications

Paul LaPolice: “I’m happy as hell to be here,” said LaPolice, who had been the Winnipeg Blue Bombers offensive co-ordinator since 2016 and was the team’s head coach from 2010-12. “I’m humbled and honoured to be the head coach of the Redblacks, to be in this community.” 

"I don't have any grand aspirations or bold statements to say. I will say this, we will leave no stone unturned in our game planning, our preparation and our willingness to work on a daily basis to put us in a position to win championships. I expect our team to play fast, to play physical and have fun on a daily basis and always worry about our process, not the end result." 

"I'm a better football coach as I've had more experiences and been around other people and been in other organizations. Four years in one organization to take notes on this is how you would do this and see situations and how I would handle things differently." 

"It's important to have conversations about how we do things and how our processes are and then you look at the big picture. We made sure we communicated and made sure we were on the same page, as much as you can be. I heard a lot of good things about Marcel." 

“You can’t win games when you’re minus-17 in turnovers. We have to take the ball away better defensively and protect the ball better offensively. We just have to make sure we do things winning teams do: Protect the football, take it away, put points on the board, prevent explosive plays. I don’t think winning or losing football games is one thing. If you want one thing, we have to play intelligent, smart CFL football. We have to start teaching our players how to do that.” 

“To the fans, I want to say, let’s make sure we make this the loudest place in the east. Let’s start making crowd noise important to us so when somebody comes into our house, it’ll make it even more difficult for them."

Here's a look at LaPolice's coaching history:

2000–2001 Toronto Argonauts (QB/RC/RB) 

2002–2003 Winnipeg Blue Bombers (OC/RC/RBC) 

2004–2005 Hamilton Tiger-Cats (RC) 

2006      Toronto Argonauts (RC) 

2007      Saskatchewan Roughriders (RC) 

2008–2009 Saskatchewan Roughriders (OC) 

2010–2012 Winnipeg Blue Bombers (HC) 

2016–2019 Winnipeg Blue Bombers (OC)

His record as a head coach is not particularly good (16-28), but it does include a Grey Cup appearance off a 10-8 regular season. I don't know the whole story but the disclaimer that I come across most often is to the effect that he was not properly supported by the front office.

Whatever. To be honest, I was fed up with Rick Campbell, the team's all-too-often awful home performance, fourth quarter collapses and baffling in-game decisions. Bring on the fresh start.