This will be your fifth season as an Als coach; you’ve seen many faces throughout the years. What sets the new coaching staff apart?
I can already tell that the general approach is very different. Each coach has his own colour and his own way of doing things. As for Mr. Sherman, he’s not like any other coach I’ve seen in the past four years. Everything he says is always very detailed and meaningful. He spends a lot of time ensuring that we understand what he wants to accomplish. He also gives us a lot of opportunities to express ourselves. We already spent a week together in Florida and we’re about to regroup again soon. Whenever we meet, Sherman asks us to give presentations on various topics. It’s very important to him that we get to know each other because he considers that the staff has to be united for the team to be successful. He made his expectations clear from the get go and, in return, he expects absolutely no surprises from his coaches throughout the season and he absolutely doesn’t want the players to have any either.
So far, free agency has especially served as an opportunity to stack up on defence. Should we expect mostly offence-driven transactions during try-outs, combines and the draft?
The first week of free agency has indeed helped us solidify our pool of potential starters on defence. We already have strong assets on offence in Williams, Cunningham, Jackson, Sutton… It was evident that we had to stack up on defence first. That’s what we did and we were even able to adjust the ratio by signing Westerman.
The goal on offence will be to gain depth. It’s not as alarming because there are still a few free agents that could help us achieve that. The Canadian Draft will also be a key moment for us considering that we have first pick. We could use that weapon to snatch a young potential starter or trade it for an experienced player. There’s still lots of potential.
The following step will be to strengthen our special units. We need more depth there as well and that means recruiting the best Canadians out there. National players make up for half the team; they have a significant impact. We see it year after year : the Grey Cup winning team is always the one with not only the most talented Canadians but mainly with the most depth.
Tyrell Sutton will be back with the team at 31 years of age. Are you counting on him to still play the same dominant role?
Certainly. Tyrell is a soldier. He’s our leader on offence. He’s the guy who doesn’t talk much, but his actions speak for themselves. He’s the guy you have no choice but to respect. His work ethic and passion are remarkable. He played with all his heart until the very end last year. That’s just who he is and my role is to keep him healthy because I know he’ll keep playing like that until late in the fourth. I want to be able to take him out of the game sometimes to spare him a few hits. I want him to be durable so I’m making it my mission to protect his health as much as I can.
The team let go of Brandon Rutley recently and recruited Josh Robinson, a player of the same size as Tyrell. Is the goal to prepare his backup?
Absolutely. He’s the same type of player as Sutton. They will never be suited at the same time because of the ratio, but my goal is to prepare Josh so that he can fill in for Tyrell if need be. The fans will love him, I’m sure. There’s also Amir Carlisle who’s style is more like Rutley’s. It should make for a good battle at training camp.
What did the trade of Jean-Christophe Beaulieu for Patrick Lavoie bring to the team according to you?
The new organization wants to be more imposing. It’s a trend that fans will soon come to notice. We want to be the team that rattles the cage and dominates physically. JC was between a RB and a tight end, less and less of a fullback because he’s not particularly big. Pat is 240 lbs, he can stir things up and he has great hands. He also won two Vanier Cups and two Grey Cups. Pat’s a winner, a leader; he has the type of character that we want in our locker room. Of course, everybody was very attached to JC, me first since I coached him in Sherbrooke, but I know we got a quality player out of the trade.
Knowing the locker room, what impact do you think Coach Sherman will have on the guys?
He’s already making an impact. The plan that we made a few weeks ago is being executed by Kavis. We were able to get our hands on the type of players we wanted to acquire through free agency. In addition to that, most players that we wanted to keep agreed to stay. Unfortunately, some left, but we have to keep in mind that the goal remains to build a younger team. Coach Sherman was very upfront about it and all the decisions he makes are for the best interest of the team. All the actions taken to this day have discussed. Everything is calculated and approved by the group. Nothing comes as a surprise.
Learn everything there is to know on the team’s latest transactions HERE.
