The Noel Thorpe saga with the Montreal Alouettes came to an end on Monday, but like Star Wars, the plot may just rewind to its origins by the time the season starts.
Thorpe had resigned from the Alouettes last week to reportedly sign with the new coaching staff in Edmonton and their new head coach Jason Maas.
Thorpe’s History Gives Him Shot at Head Coach
Thorpe was the special teams coordinator in Montreal from 2002 through 2007 and returned for his second stint, as defensive coordinator, in 2012. A great football mind, Thorpe was lined up to be the next head coach of the team when general manager Jim Popp fired Tom Higgins and assumed the role as interim head coach, last August.
The “Luke, I am your father”-like-plot-twist came the day following the conclusion of the regular season when Popp announced he would drop the interim tag and return as head coach in 2016. The Alouettes went 6-12 and missed the playoffs for the first time in their twenty-year history. Popp also promoted defensive coordinator Kavis Reed to assistant head coach, Thorpe’s current position.
Thorpe certainly proved his worth throughout the years and when he nearly brought the team to a victory against the eventual Grey Cup Champions, the Edmonton Eskimos, when Popp couldn’t make the trip to Alberta due to illness late in the season. Most were expecting Thorpe to be the head coach next season. Popp thought otherwise.
The final thread tying Thorpe to the Alouettes snapped, and he announced his plans to leave the coaching staff.
After stating his intentions to leave Montreal and move out West, CFL Commissioner Jeffrey Orridge released a statement to the league stating that Thorpe, with two years left on his current contract, was not allowed to resign from the Alouettes to join the Eskimos and that any coaching movement needs to be agreed upon in writing by Orridge. The Alouettes confirmed on Monday that Thorpe will return as defensive coordinator and assistant head coach in 2016.
Noel Thorpe Back in 2016 May Be Negative
Montreal’s miserable failures last season are part of its downward spiral since former head coach Marc Trestman left for Chicago in January of 2013 and Anthony Calvillo played his last down later in the summer of that year. Compared to the teams from the early part of the century, this Alouettes edition looks like a pee-wee football from a north-west Alaskan town that is blanketed in snow for the majority of the year.
Thorpe’s defence is the only lifeline of this team that played seven different quarterbacks over the course of the 2015 season. There is a serious issue when the team has more quarterbacks on its roster than wins on its record.
In fact, Popp had a worse record than his predecessor, with each having three wins but Popp holding an extra loss. Yet, it is a mysterious to how and why owner Bob Wetenhall and president Mark Weightman are allowing Popp to remain on the sidelines and with the club. Thorpe deserves the head coaching position and has every right to be upset at his bosses. His position with the Eskimos would have been the same position he has with the Alouettes; this would have been a major insult to the Alouettes organization.
Although Thorpe’s return next season could be great for Montreal, he would be unhappy and may cause friction within the coaching staff. Between Thorpe, Reed, and Calvillo, the new offensive coordinator, all have more-or-less equal paths to become the next head coach – a different situation compared to last summer when Thorpe was the first in line for the throne.
For a team that finished second-to-last in the league, coaching friction should be the first problem to fix – which is what the Roughriders are doing – but apparently this is the least of the team’s worries.
And like Star Wars, the battle between the Empire of egos in Popp and Weightman will continue against the Rebellion led by Mr. Thorpe himself. The saga continues.
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