Rich Stubler’s brief unemployment ends

Football coaches often leave one position only to quickly take another, but Rich Stubler's transition appears to have been extraordinarily rapid even by those standards. Thursday afternoon saw the Edmonton Eskimos' defensive coordinator turn down an extension to stay with that club, and less than an hour after that story was filed, Sportsnet's Arash Madani reported that Stubler will be joining the B.C. Lions as their defensive coordinator. It's a move that makes tremendous sense for both B.C. and Stubler, but it's one that leaves Edmonton with a significant staffing hole to fill.

Stubler has a well-deserved reputation as one of the league's top defensive minds. He's been coaching since 1971 and has worked in the CFL since 1983, mostly as a defensive coordinator. Over that time, he's won Grey Cups with four different teams (Hamilton, Edmonton, B.C. and Toronto) and developed some top defensive units. His head-coaching stint in Toronto in 2008 didn't go so well, as the team started 4-6 and he was fired mid-year (in his defence, though, the Argonauts then finished the season 0-8 under legendary replacement Don Matthews, so Stubler's coaching might not have been the issue), but he's worked his way back up, spending a couple of years in the U.S. high school ranks before taking a position as B.C.'s defensive line coach in 2010 and moving up to Edmonton's defensive coordinator slot in 2011. Both of those units turned in great performances, so Stubler still seems to have his touch.

The Eskimos' defence was a key reason for their turnaround from the West Division basement to a berth in the West final this season, and Stubler played an important role there. Edmonton allowed just 401 points during the season (22.3 per game), second-best in the league and a massive upgrade over the league-worst 545 they conceded in 2010. That's pretty compelling evidence for Stubler's ability. General manager Eric Tillman's intensive roster overhaul undoubtedly helped too, but massive roster turnover can present its own challenges for coaches; Stubler showed an ability to synthesize a mostly-new group of players into one of the league's top defensive units in 2011, and that suggests he'll do very well with the Lions' already-dominant unit. He also has experience with new Lions' head coach Mike Benevides, who was the B.C. DC in 2010 when Stubler was the DL coach, and the two appear to be quite capable of working with each other. There was some suggestion earlier this offseason that Benevides might retain the DC role himself, but this appears to make more sense; a head coach has a lot on his plate, and with a capable guy like Stubler who he gets along with handling the defence, Benevides can still be involved on that side of the ball without having to micromanage the minutiae.

Edmonton's in a bit of a tougher spot now, though, as many top defensive assistants around the CFL have already found jobs. The Saskatchewan Roughriders announced their defensive coaching staff Thursday as well, solidifying Richie Hall's position as DC, bringing in defensive backs coach Barron Miles from B.C. and retaining assistants Alex Smith and Mike Walker, so those names are off the board, and most other franchises have already locked up their staffing. (Hamilton's an exception, but they still don't even have a head coach.) As the offseason goes on, the choices get more and more limited. The Eskimos could promote from within or offer an assistant somewhere else a promotion to DC, but whoever they pick will have big shoes to fill.