By Perry Lefko, Sportsnet.ca
B.C. Lions player personnel director Bob O’Billovich will be announced on Wednesday as the new general manager of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, Sportsnet.ca has learned.
“Yeah, it’s going to happen,” a source said.
O’Billovich has had previous managerial experience with the Toronto Argonauts and Lions in a previous stint with the B.C. team.
O’Billovich replaces Marcel Desjardins, who had been the Ticats’ GM for one and a half seasons.
The Ticats have given O’Billovich total autonomy to decide on all matters related to football, including head coach Charlie Taaffe, who had a disappointing year in 2007 compiling a 3-15 season. Taaffe has two years remaining on his contract. O’Billovich is expected to meet with Taaffe to decide if the two can work together.
Should O’Billovich decide to bring in his own coach, Taaffe will likely receive consideration for the vacant job in Montreal. He was the Canadian Football League’s Coach of the Year while working for the Alouettes in 1999 and 2000.
Dan Rambo, who was hired in August by the Ticats as director of football operations, will remain in that capacity, working out of his home in the Ottawa region.
Mike McCarthy, the Ticats’ senior advisor, football operations, and player-personnel director Craig Smith have been given their walking papers, according to a source of The Canadian Press.
O’Billovich served as the B.C. Lions’ player-personnel director since ’03, helping find such unheralded gems as quarterback Casey Printers and defensive end Cameron Wake.
It was on O’Billovich’s recommendation that B.C. signed Wake following the ’06 season. The former Penn State linebacker was transformed into a defensive end and went on to post a CFL-best 16 sacks in being named the league’s top rookie and defensive player this season.
— With files from The Canadian Press
