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How will the Ticats deal with offensive coordinator Tommy Condell's resignation?
Monday's sudden resignation from Hamilton Tiger-Cats' offensive coordinator Tommy Condell (who cited family reasons) could have significant implications for the team. Condell had been in that role in Hamilton since December 2012, and even worked with Ticats' head coach/vice-president of football operations Kent Austin for three seasons before that at Cornell, so this represents a substantial change in Austin's coaching staff. As Drew Edwards writes at 3 Down Nation, it could lead to a lot more pre-game and in-game work for Austin if he isn't able to find a replacement he trusts who thinks similarly:
Condell used his six-day-old Twitter account to drop the bombshell on Monday morning, citing the ambiguous “best interests of my family” as the motivating factor for his departure. The news came as a surprise to the organization as well, which must now fill a massive hole in their coaching staff just six weeks before training camp is set to begin. The timing is less than ideal.
Austin said he expects to hire another coach but whether that person will hold the offensive coordinator title and call plays as Condell did remains to be seen. Most CFL staffs have been in place for months and finding someone with in-depth knowledge of the Condell-Austin system – the two have worked together the last six seasons – seems unlikely.
The most plausible scenario will see Austin take over the play-calling duties and that raises the first of two important questions: how much can one man reasonably be expected to take on and still be successful?
Austin already holds the vice president of football operations title in addition to head coach and quarterbacks coach. While he has given the title of general manager to Eric Tillman, the Austin is still intimately involved with every aspect of front office decision-making. He’s got plenty of responsibilities as head coach – both on and off the field – and adding the bulk of game-planning and play-calling to that list of tasks would increase that burden even further.
Edwards makes valid points about how much Austin can do, and do well. Holding multiple roles the way Austin, Saskatchewan's Chris Jones (VP/GM/HC/DC), B.C.'s Wally Buono (GM/HC) and Montreal's Jim Popp (GM/HC) do can work well at times, but those individuals need to have trusted people to lean on to take some of the work away. There's a reason those jobs are usually held by different people; each can be a full-time gig. Finding a real offensive coordinator who can fit with Austin's system at this point and call plays could be exceptionally difficult, especially as the Ticats only have one current non-Austin coach (RBs coach Corey Grant) listed on the offensive side of the ball. The Hamilton offence was very successful under Condell, too, (despite a ton of injuries), so a change isn't necessarily for the better. We may see Austin taking a much-more hands-on role with the offence this season, and that could work (he certainly has plenty of experience as a quarterback, as an offensive coordinator, and as a head coach), but that could make it tough for him to manage his other responsibilities.
Fortunately, the Ticats do have some other talented people Austin could potentially lean on. Newly-announced GM Eric Tillman has held that role before in Saskatchewan and Edmonton and done well with it, so perhaps Austin won't need to be as heavily involved in scouting and personnel decisions as he has been in the past, and defensive coordinator Orlondo Steinauer has received substantial buzz as a head-coaching candidate, so perhaps he can take on some of the week-to-week or even in-game HC duties. Giving some additional responsibility to those guys (and potentially others) might free up Austin to either do much of the OC's work himself or to thoroughly train and supervise a new OC.
The Hamilton organization does have plenty of experience, so this isn't necessarily dire. It's going to be interesting to see how Austin addresses Condell's departure, though, and particularly if he redistributes some of his workload accordingly to allow him to take on more of what Condell was doing. If he doesn't alter his own approach, Austin might find himself with an OC who isn't on the same page as him, or he might find himself spread too thin over his variety of jobs. Either of those situations could hurt the Ticats in 2016.
