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CIS Corner: Laurier legend Gary Jeffries’ coaching days likely numbered, report says

It is nothing shy of sad Wilfrid Laurier University's Gary Jeffries cannot go on his own terms when you remember the circumstances the coach inherited.

It comes as a no shock that the former Vanier Cup-winning coach is likely out after a total of 35 seasons with the Laurier Golden Hawks. Jeffries just presided over Laurier's first successive losing seasons in a decade, with this campaign concluding with a 34-0 first-round loss to Queen's that seemed all but an inevitability once the Golden Gaels' first touchdown was on the scoreboard. His presumptive replacement will be gifted with a grace period and a maturing roster, so it's understandable why Laurier athletic director Peter Baxter would believe the timing is right for a change. The program that regularly finished near the top of Ontario University Athletics football, winning Vanier Cups in 1991 and 2005, could use some fresh blood.

The sadness many who relish university football surely feel regarding Jeffries should come first. The buck stops with the head coach in football, but anyone with a heart and knowledge of the situation could sense how devastating it was for Jeffries, 66, to possibly go out on such a low note.

How low? The Golden Hawks offence, with three inexperienced quarterbacks often running for cover behind an offensive line of first- and second-year players, went 0-for-October in reaching the end zone. They scored only 10 touchdowns in nine games, none finding pay dirt in the second quarter of their Sept. 29 loss to Guelph. On Saturday, punter Ronnie Pfeffer had the Golden Hawks' longest run from scrimmage in several weeks when he scampered 31 yards out of punt formation; naturally, he was knocked out of the game when he was tackled. That's the kind of year it was.

It's not clear if any coach could have cobbled together anything with such a young team. That made it tough to see when you know Jeffries was a Laurier lifer in the best sense, having been part of sports at the Waterloo, Ont., university since 1970, first as a player, as a head coach in both men's and women's basketball and football assistant before finally getting the reins. To know anything about sports at Laurier, even as an alumnus and follower of another CIS team, was to know he meant as much to the Golden Hawks as their adopted anthem Country Roads (a tribute to Hall of Fame coach Tuffy Knight, the West Virginia native who built the Laurier probably at the then-little school).

The Golden Hawks' arc from 2002-05 would be fine filmmaker fodder for a CIS equivalent to TSN's Engraved On A Nation documentary series. Jeffries, then defensive coordinator, first became interim coach during a 2002 season when Laurier was (a) affected by a staff strike that put then-coach Rick Zmich on a picket line (b) lost star QB Ryan Pyear to a major knee injury and (c) beat only the U of T. A turnaround Yates Cup runner-up season in '03 was besmirched the following winter when star running back Derek Medler was busted for drug dealing (Medler has turned his life around).

That could have had a long-term drag on Laurier's fortunes. Yet under Jeffries, they went 22-1 across the next two autumns, including a last-second Vanier Cup win over the Saskatchewan Huskies at a frigid Ivor Wynne Stadium in 2005. Saskatchewan was heavily hyped coming in. The U of S had ended the Laval Rouge et Or's three-peat hopes one week earlier in the Mitchell Bowl semifinal and had the so-called comfort factor of being in their third Vanier in four seasons.

The undersized Golden Hawks were the first OUA team in 10 years to even reach the national championship game. The conference had been dealing with a decade of derision about being a weak link, so all of Ontario needed them to win that Saturday afternoon in early December. In what what connoisseurs remember as a great show of small-school pluck, Pyear drove Laurier to two scores in the last four minutes to win 21-20. That helped make OUA football more nationally revelant. Since then, Western has also reached the Vanier Cup, while Queen's and McMaster have raised the trophy.

Push for Ptaszek

Of course, that day marked the last time Stefan Ptaszek, current head coach at No. 1-ranked, defending national champion McMaster, was the Golden Hawks' offensive coordinator. Ptaszek's departure took away the Golden Hawks' offensive mojo and their recruiting lock on the talent-rich Burlington/Hamilton region.

That's probably why there's a clamour for change at Laurier. Ptaszek would be anyone's first choice, obviously, but why mess up a good thing at McMaster? With recruiting getting more intense in university football by the year, Laurier would have to move quickly, especially since another traditional power that's come upon rough times, the Ottawa Gee-Gees, are also casting bread on the coaching waters.

Everyone's time comes in football. It will be unfortunate that this is how a legend goes out at Laurier, but very seldom do you win your last game.

Neate Sager is a writer for Yahoo! Canada Sports. Contact him at neatesager@yahoo.ca and follow him on Twitter @neatebuzzthenet.