The Tom Higgins firing came as a surprise in Montreal, considering it happened less than 24 hours following their third win of the season- and first in fifteen years in Vancouver. Nonetheless, the firing was a planned one by owner Bob Wetenhall and a new era is ushered in, almost at the mid-point of the season as General Manager Jim Popp takes over as coach for his fourth stint on the sidelines since 2001.
The firing comes along with a couple of changes in the coaching staff. Anthony Calvillo will take over from the offensive coordinator, Turk Schonert as the quarterbacks coach, while Andre Bolduc, formerly known as an “offensive assistant” fills in for Calvillo as the receivers coach.
Calvillo is rightfully named the coach to man the budding stars in Rakeem Cato, Tanner Marsh, Brandon Bridge and the injured Jonathan Crompton, behind center. It came as a bit f a surprise when Calvillo, football’s all-time leading passer, was named the receivers coach in his first coaching gig by Higgins. Calvillo sure did pass on knowledge to the young quarterbacks in his former role, but will now have full control in coaching them and helping them grow.
Undoubtedly, this change is to the biggest benefit of the young pivots. Despite a good start and leading his team to a 2-1 record in his first three games, Cato has been anything but stellar since. His first trio of starts featured 65/90 passing for 822 yards, four touchdowns and two interceptions. His average quarterback rating was 108.8. Since then, his 72.2 completion percentage has dropped down to 67.3%- 70 completions on 104 attempts- while he has thrown a mere three majors and he was picked off five times on 913 yards. His QB rating also dropped 23.9 points, down to 84.9.
His best game statistically out of the past four was when he made the least pass attempts, this past week against the Lions. He went 16/19 on 154 yards but opened the game with a pick-six before recovering and throwing a TD to Nik Lewis. The offence was carried by the backfield of Tyrell Sutton, Stefan Logan and Brandon Rutley.
Thanks to a trio of stellar backs, the Alouettes may need to rely on them to carry the attack in games where Cato isn’t performing well. But this is the CFL and games are not won by rushing the ball- unless the ball carrier is named Jon Cornish.
Calvillo will need to step in as the QB coach and help Cato find his form that he played with at the beginning of the campaign, before the opponents found his strengths and weaknesses. At times, Cato either seems over-confident or not confident enough. He makes poor decisions and often finds himself scrambling out of the pocket. Calvillo will need to settle him down and bring him back down to earth in order to find a stability in his game. Cato will not be a pocket passer like Calvillo was, but the way he scrambles right now is ineffective and ill-timed and needs to learn when its time to make a run.
As for the receivers, their new coach was a former slotback in the CFL, between 1996 to 2001, playing for Ottawa, Edmonton and Montreal. He has spent more years in football coaching, as he took over the Sherbrooke University Vert et Or football program from 2007-2011 and was named the RSEQ Coach of the Year in 2010. Filled with a bunch of veterans in Lewis, Fred Stamps and S.J. Green, Eric Deslauriers and Sam Giguere, Bolduc will spend more time and work more with the rookie Alex Charette, who has a bright future ahead of him in Montreal.
The Tom Higgins firing will certainly help out the quarterbacks, who are now coached by Anthony Calvillo. Although Calvillo will not be fully responsible for Cato & co., Popp and Schonert will need to make the right in-game decisions in order to pave the way for wins by Cato. Barring any distractions, the Montreal Alouettes really don’t have any where to go but up.
Main Photo: Montreal Alouettes quarterback Rakeem Cato (12) throws against Bruce Johnson (25) and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers during the first half of CFL action in Winnipeg Friday, July 10, 2015. Getty Images/John Woods
