MONTREAL — The Alouettes’ general manager Danny Maciocia is confident Jason Maas can lead the team to the promised land.
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Watch the full press conference in the video above.
He repeated this several times on Tuesday during the inaugural press conference of the club’s 27th head coach.
“Now when I look at the state of our football team, I see that Jason is the perfect candidate to take us to the next level,” said the GM confidently.
“I did a lot of background research on all of the interviewees and Jason Maas was by far the best candidate.”
Maciocia and Maas have known each other for more than two decades. What made the difference, however, was the opinion of the players who were with the new Als head coach.
“Mike Reilly, a quarterback I never coached, told me his three years with Jason Maas were the best three years of his career. That’s saying a lot considering he won a Gray Cup with another head coach.”
Trevor Harris, who has worked behind the center of the Alouettes for the past two seasons, also praised Maas. This was also the case with Ricky Ray, Henry Burris and Almondo Sewell.
For his part, the freshman said he was lucky to get a second chance to become head coach in the Canadian league.
“I look forward to working with Danny and everyone in the organization to build on the successes they had last year,” said the 2016-2019 Edmonton Eskimos rider.
Everyone stays except Bolduc
As a reminder: Maas was the only one of the five candidates in 2022 who was not on the coaching staff of the “Als”. The other four were André Bolduc, Byron Archambault, Noel Thorpe and Anthony Calvillo.
With the exception of the first, they will all be back with the Sparrows in 2023. Maciocia confirmed this and explained that Bolduc had accepted a position with the Saskatchewan Roughriders.
“I think he got to a point in his career where he wanted to experience something different,” Maciocia said of the man who was assistant head coach for a while at Montreal.
“He’s going to have a great experience and I wish him every success. We would have liked to keep him in our organization but he got a great opportunity elsewhere.
trust
Thorpe will continue to act as defensive coordinator while Calvillo will perform the same offensive duties. However, the former Alouettes star player will no longer demand offensive games in 2023, as was the case in 2022. Instead, Maas assumes this responsibility.
Archambault will be back in charge of special teams but has received a promotion. In fact, he now holds the title of assistant head coach.
In the world of football, it’s quite rare for a driver to land and practically always keep the same staff in place.
“It’s a matter of trust,” said Maas. Given the kind of man Danny is and who he trusts, I know they’re good people. I also saw her working remotely last year. I have seen their success and the way they work.”
Since his appointment last Saturday, Maas has taken the time to meet with all the coaches individually. He also gave Maciocia his approval to offer them new agreements. Only attacking coach Luc Brodeur-Jourdain currently has no contract for the 2023 season. However, both Maciocia and Maas have signaled that they would like to return.