Chris Jones joins rare group of Grey Cup-winning coaches to leave the next year

It's not all that unusual to see CFL coaches move from one team to another for a better opportunity the way former Edmonton head coach Chris Jones did Sunday (with official confirmation of his move to become Saskatchewan's head coach and general manager coming Monday), but it is somewhat unusual to see a CFL head coach leave a team immediately after winning the Grey Cup. Jones joins a very short list there, but one with some pretty famous coaches on it. Here are the previous six CFL head coaches who have left their team during the offseason after a Grey Cup win, dating back to the end of the Second World War in 1945 (before even the CFL's official formation in 1958). Note that this doesn't include coaches like Wally Buono and Ralph Sazio, who gave up coaching roles after a Grey Cup win (in 2011 and 1967 respectively), but remained with the same organization as general manager. It also doesn't include coaches like Adam Rita who won a Grey Cup (1991 with Toronto) and then were fired midway through the next season, or coaches like Frank Clair who won a Grey Cup (1969 with Ottawa) and then retired.

Kent Austin, 2007-08: 2007 marked Austin's first year as a CFL head coach after one as a quarterbacks coach (in Ottawa) and three as an offensive coordinator (in Toronto), and he managed to lead the Saskatchewan Roughriders to a 12-6 finish and a 23-19 Grey Cup win over Winnipeg (aided by an East Final injury to Blue Bombers quarterback Kevin Glenn and three interceptions from replacement Ryan Dinwiddie, who was making his first CFL start in the big game). Austin then left in the offseason to take the offensive coordinator job at Ole Miss, his alma mater. He worked there as OC for two years, then served as Cornell's head coach for three seasons before returning to the CFL as Hamilton's coach and general manager in 2013, a position he still holds.

Don Matthews, 1995-96: This might be the most unusual offseason transition for Grey Cup champions in league history, as the 1995 champion Baltimore Stallions were no longer in existence in 1996. Yes, a reborn Montreal Alouettes team emerged in 1996 with the same owner (Jim Speros) and many of the same players, but the CFL officially folded the Baltimore team and gave Speros a new franchise in Montreal, releasing players and coaches from contracts in the process. GM Jim Popp managed to resign many of the players (although he did lose some stars such as O.J. Brigance to the NFL, and he had to adapt to the Canadian ratio, which CFL USA teams weren't required to abide by), but Matthews opted to leave and take over as the head coach of the Toronto Argonauts. He promptly won back-to-back Grey Cups with them in 1996 and 1997 (and interestingly enough, left after the 1998 season to take the head-coaching job in Edmonton). Matthews won another Grey Cup in 2002 with Montreal and served as a consultant with the Alouettes last year. He's in the Canadian Football Hall of Fame and has the league's second-highest win total of all time. Matthews appears to be the only Grey Cup-winning coach before Jones to immediately leave for another CFL team.

Mike Riley, 1990-91: Before Riley became a famed NCAA coach at Oregon State and now Nebraska, he got his start as a head coach with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, coaching them from 1987 to 1990 and winning Grey Cups in both 1988 and 1990. He left in the 1990-91 offseason to take a job as head coach of the San Antonio Riders of the World League of American Football. After the WLAF suspended operations following the 1992 season, the Riders were supposed to transition to CFL USA with Riley as head coach, but the team folded before the 1993 season started. (San Antonio would eventually get the relocated Sacramento Gold Miners in 1995.) Instead, Riley became the offensive coordinator at USC (the West Coast one, not South Carolina), stayed there until he became Oregon State's head coach in 1997, left in 1999 to take over the NFL's San Diego Chargers and had three seasons there, worked with the New Orleans Saints in 2002, returned to Oregon State in 2003 and stayed there until leaving for Nebraska this past offseason.

Hugh Campbell, 1982-83: Campbell (the father of current Ottawa head coach Rick) got his CFL head coaching career off to a legendary start, taking the Eskimos to the Grey Cup game in his first season (1977) and then proceeding to win it the next five years. After the 1982 win, Campbell left for a job as head coach of the USFL's Los Angeles Express in 1983. He then became the head coach of the NFL's Houston Oilers in 1984, stayed there for two seasons, and then returned to Edmonton as the general manager from 1986 to 1997 (where he'd win two more Grey Cups) and as the team president and CEO from 1998 to 2006 (where he'd add another two Grey Cups). He retired after the 2006 season.

Marv Levy, 1977-78: Following college head coaching stints at Cal and William and Mary, Levy went to the NFL as a special teams coach, then came north of the border as the Montreal Alouettes' head coach in 1974. He won the Grey Cup that year and won it again in 1977 (the famed Ice Bowl), then left to become the head coach of the NFL's Kansas City Chiefs. Levy would coach the Chiefs through 1982, then take two years off, coach the USFL's Chicago Blitz and return to the NFL as the head coach of the Buffalo Bills partway through the 1986 campaign. Levy would coach the Bills through 1997, appearing in four straight Super Bowls from 1990 to 1993 (but not winning any) and then return as their general manager briefly for the 2006 and 2007 campaigns.

Jack Gotta, 1973-74: Gotta played in the CFL as a receiver and defensive back from 1957-64, then became an assistant coach with the Saskatchewan Roughriders. He jumped to an assistant position with the Ottawa Rough Riders in 1967, then replaced retiring legend Frank Clair as Ottawa's head coach in 1970. He went on to win two Annis Stukus Trophies as Coach of the Year in 1972 and 1973, and won the Grey Cup in 1973. He left that offseason to become head coach and general manager of the World Football League's Birmingham Americans, winning that league's only championship in 1974. (Gotta's replacement in Ottawa, George Brancato, would win the Rough Riders' last Grey Cup in 1976 and lead them to their last championship game appearance in 1981.( Gotta stayed on as general manager with the renamed Birmingham Falcons the next year, and had them at 9-3 when the WFL unexpectedly folded. Gotta returned to the CFL as Calgary's HC/GM in 1977, and would stay in one role or the other with the Stampeders until 1983: he then became a CFL on CTV commentator, left to coach the Roughriders in 1985 and worked there through the 1986 season.