The CFL is back, and we’re looking at a team a day leading up to regular-season kickoff on June 23. Today, the BC Lions.
TRAVIS LULAY WAS at a speaking engagement in December when news broke that Wally Buono, BC Lions GM and vice president of football operations, would be returning as head coach for the 2016 season.
“The guy at the table leans over and shows me a tweet about it,” says Lulay, the longtime Lions quarterback. “He said, ‘You probably already know this.’ I was like, ‘That’s news to me.’”
Lulay, whose own future with the team was up in the air at that point—he eventually signed a two-year deal with the club in February, avoiding free agency—admits he was surprised by the news. “I didn’t think that was going to be the next course of action,” he says.
He wasn’t the only one. Buono himself says that a return to coaching wasn’t part of the plan. But he’d made a promise to team owner David Braley back when he’d retired from coaching in 2011, after the Lions defeated the Winnipeg Blue Bombers to win the Grey Cup on home turf: Should the team ever need him to coach, he would reprise his role.
After the Lions went 7-11, finishing third in the Canadian Football League’s West Division and losing their lone playoff game in 2015, head coach Jeff Tedford resigned. He’d been the club’s replacement for Mike Benevides, who was released after three years as head coach following a 2014 season that saw the team finish fourth in the West. That left Buono with a tough decision.
“I came to the conclusion that we needed to stabilize the organization,” says Buono. “The best way to do that was just to get back into coaching. People knew who I was, people knew what I was all about.”
| Team outlook | BC Lions |
|---|---|
| 2015 record | 7-11 (3rd in West) |
| Incoming players | Levy Adcock (OL), Mike Edem (DB), Jeremiah Johnson (RB), Nick Moore (SB) |
| Outgoing players | Andrew Harris (RB), Josh Johnson (DB), Alex Hoffman-Ellis (LB), Khreem Smith (DE) |
This season, with Buono back in charge, the plan is to right the ship—to give the fan base a reason to be excited again, and, as Buono puts it plainly, to start winning.
“I think there’s a sense of urgency,” says Lulay. “We’ve been trending the wrong way.”
Buono, now 66, is the winningest coach in CFL history. He has hoisted the Grey Cup five times as a head coach—three times with the Calgary Stampeders and twice with the Lions. He was inducted into the CFL Hall of Fame in 2014, and entered the BC Sports Hall of Fame earlier this month. Buono, then, is the first to admit there isn’t much left for him to accomplish.
“Is there any real upside for me? No,” he says of his return to coaching. “When they ask me about my legacy, as far as wins and losses, if I lose 10 more games, is it gonna make a difference? If I win 10 more games, is it gonna make a difference? Probably not.”
Buono is motivated, he says, by his promise—his return is a matter of fulfilling an obligation more than anything. But that doesn’t mean he isn’t excited, even if the excitement is a little different than it used to be.
“I’m not giddy-excited, I’m not youthfully excited,” he says. “But I’m excited about all the work that’s gone into it, all the hard work that the players have done. I’m more excited to see the progress we’ve made, the direction that we’re going.”
If Buono’s return is to be considered a success, that direction will need to signal a marked improvement over the disappointments of the past few seasons. The very early signs, though, are promising.
More 2016 CFL season previews: Calgary Stampeders; Edmonton Eskimos; Saskatchewan Roughriders; Winnipeg Blue Bombers; Hamilton Tiger-Cats; Toronto Argonauts; Ottawa Redblacks; keep checking back for more as the regular season approaches
According to Lulay, Buono’s return has already brought stability to the team. Not everyone knew what to expect of him as a coach, and some of the players who hadn’t been around during his last tenure reached out to the 32-year-old Lulay during the off-season, curious about what the man they knew as GM would be like in his new role.
“I came into the league with Wally, so I have a good understanding of what he expects as a coach,” says Lulay. “There’s still a number of us around from that championship team who can act as voices in the locker room. I’ve embraced the role of being an advocate for Wally being back.”
Lulay says his teammates didn’t need too much convincing. Buono already had what the quarterback calls “a built-in credibility,” and, says Lulay, there have been “good vibes” throughout the team’s training camp in Kamloops, B.C.
“It feels like old times,” he says. “Wally’s very clear-cut. He lets his feelings be known. He lets guys know what he expects of everybody. It gives guys clarity. He’s all about winning.”
“All about winning” might sound a little easier said than done, but it’s a straightforward approach intended to help the team get back to basics. Buono calls his coaching style “a little bit old school and a little bit new school.” He is, in his words, a “benevolent dictator”—meaning he expects his rules to be followed to a T. But he’s also adapted to the times.
“I let them have music during stretch, and I let them have a little bit of a cell break, to check their cellphones, because that’s the world of today,” he says, explaining that his coaches are instructed to give the players five minutes within the hour to look at their phones so they can check messages or look at social media. If they aren’t allowed that, says Buono, they’ll lose focus. (Even Buono has his own Twitter account, though he has what he calls a “tweet manager”—his daughter, Christie.)
Buono says his ultimate goal is to put the team “back where they deserve to be” and then “hand it over to somebody and let them continue the run.” While the Lions have suffered some bad luck, and some bad years, Buono has good reason to expect better results from his players.
Solomon Elimimian, winner of the league’s Most Outstanding Defensive Player and Most Outstanding Player Awards in 2014, saw his season end in mid-August with an Achilles injury, but Elimimian arrived at camp healthy. So, too, did Lulay, who has dealt with shoulder and knee injuries, and who lost the role of starting quarterback to Jonathon Jennings, the 23-year-old who took over midway through last season as a rookie after Lulay went out injured.
The team is well positioned with a gifted young arm in Jennings, but Lulay doesn’t see himself as just a backup.
“First and foremost, I work hard and put myself in the position to be the best quarterback I can be,” says Lulay. “If my mindset is that I’m supposed to be a backup, I’ll go play like a subpar version of myself.”
He admits, though, that being a veteran presence is part of his role—and it’s something he’s embraced. Like Buono, he wants to build something great again. With the veteran coach at the helm, the team has big plans.
“Here’s what I would be satisfied with,” says Buono, offering his short list of goals in his characteristically clear-cut way. “Building a good football team. Finishing in first place. And then winning the Grey Cup.”
