Winnipeg Blue Bomber Report Record: 2–7–0

Bomber Report

Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Coach, let's not get ahead of ourselves

Kelly assistant brings Blue boss back to Earth on rest of season

By: Gary Lawless

Posted: 29/08/2009 1:00 AM | Comments: 5

Mike KELLY, admittedly, was getting a little ahead of himself before one of his assistant coaches brought him quickly back down to Earth.

Kelly and the rest of the Bombers football operations staff returned to work Friday after a few days of rest during the club's bye week and immediately the rookie head coach started talking about winning a bunch of games over the next block of the schedule.

Defensive secondary coach Rick Campbell quietly, and because Kelly is his boss most likely in a deferential manner, interjected with this pearl in an attempt to settle his boss down.

"Rick Campbell just gave me a good one -- 'Let's win one of our next one,' " Kelly said.

"That's pretty good, because I was talking about the stretch for the rest of the season and where I thought we could truly be. I'm never going to put out a public statement on that, but that is pretty good: 'Let's win one of our next one,' because that game with Saskatchewan is a pretty big one."

The Bombers sit at 3-5 and will next get back into action on Labour Day in Regina against rival Saskatchewan Roughriders. Kelly says looking past that game would be a mistake and Campbell's sage advice snapped him back into the moment.

"I have such a great staff. I didn't hire a bunch of guys to be yes men. I don't want yes men around," Kelly said. "I want people around that stimulate thought and conversation. During the course of a week, I rely on that coaching staff quite a bit to tell me, 'Hey you're screwing things up' or 'We're doing things the right way.' I spent the morning with the coaching staff bouncing ideas off the guys. They are my inner circle."

Kelly said Campbell chimed in with some of that direction on Friday morning.

Kelly said the Bombers left town in high spirits and he hopes they return in similar form.

"There was an awfuly positive feeling about how that game went in Vancouver (the Bombers downed the B.C. Lions 37-10 in their last action before the bye week) and we all left feeling good about what can happen for us going down the stretch," said Kelly, who spent five days in Philadelphia with his two daughters and helped them prepare for their return to school.

"My thought never wandered too far from Saskatchewan and what we need to do against a very good football club in a venue that is exciting with the support they get there."

The coaches were scheduled to spend all of Friday and today evaluating their roster and working on schemes for Labour Day. Kelly says they'll also look in the mirror.

"When I was gone, Ken Anderson, our video co-ordinator, did a great job putting together tape for me so I can evaluate how we've done things, how we've called games. You're always looking. How could I have gotten the team more ready at times and what could we have done better," the coach shared.

The team will return to the field Sunday morning and Kelly says he wants to see who hit the gym on the week off and who hit the wings and beer.

"We'll try and knock the rust off them a little bit. This is a long time off and I'm not a fan of this long a break," Kelly said. "I want to see where everybody is in terms of their conditioning, because you can tell after a week if they've been doing anything. We asked of them on their week off that they run a little bit and work out a little bit, get their blood pumping. I want to see where we are conditioning-wise and what the overall mood of the team is. I want to gauge that and then refocus them."

Defensive end Fred Perry is done for the season, according to Kelly, due to a broken arm. Kelly said the team will not have any new personnel on the field Sunday and he expects to fill Perry's position from within.

Dorian Smith and Riall Johnson will battle for the starting position on the line heading into Labour Day and likely do some job-sharing.

gary.lawless@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition August 29, 2009 D3

5 Comments

You can comment on most stories on winnipegfreepress.com. All you need to do is register and/or login and you can join the conversation and give your feedback.

Posted by: duffy2

August 30, 2009 at 5:11 PM

I hope Winnipeg has been working on the execution of their passing game because if Saskatchewan stops our running game we are toast. Mike Kelly is a little bit like a yo-yo, he is up and down. This is scary as we have only won 1 game(against B.C.) and Kelly thinks we are unbeatable, its great to be positive but he also must be realistic. I am not sold on his game plan yet and I wish he would quit calling the offensive plays and leave that to the offensive co-ordinator leaving him time to zero in on what we can do against Sask. defence. It would be fantastic to beat the Riders in Regina--then we would have every reason to start bragging. Until that happens, keep it low key.

Report abusive comment

Posted by: bobganason

August 30, 2009 at 1:15 PM

Play Rial or Shawn Maine. Move Shabazz to safety and let Logan play as a DB. In the past Logan has played as a DB and came up with good plays. Rial and Shawn should be given a chance to play. Backups in the other teams are playing well and if so why not our backups? In the past WBB has let go many players with out a proper evaluation. To name a few Steve Baggs, Dorsey, Goodspeed and Glenn etc. etc. Glenn had a great game for Hamilton yeaterday. Why blame others. We should blame ourselves.

Report abusive comment

Posted by: KKEK

August 29, 2009 at 8:14 PM

I still don't like Fred Reid running kicks back. It's playing with fire. We need someone else taking care of those duties so Reid is as fresh and healthy as possible for all running back duties.

Report abusive comment

Posted by: AdamantEthos

August 29, 2009 at 2:33 PM

Shabazz! I can hardly wait to see him make some crushing tackles and interceptons.

Report abusive comment

Posted by: bobganason

August 29, 2009 at 2:32 PM

Looking at what Burris could do against Argos, I am confident Bishop can win some games for us. If Bishop could throw over 200 yards against Argos in his first game as the starter then that's a healthy sign. Argos are known for their defence.There should be no QB change unless Bishop fails all together. That's why I suggested to keep Richie Williams.

If the coach is going to fill in all vacant spots within in the team then I would suggest he should bring in Ramonce Taylor and give him a chance to reform or otherwise find a good kick returner.

Report abusive comment

The comment period for this story has ended.

Breaking News Alerts

Sign up for our new Breaking News Alerts
Editor's Bulletin

Sign up for daily bulletins
Winnipeg road closures

Check if your commute is affected
Blogs to Watch

We pick our favourite local blogs for you to follow
Breaking News Widget

Create and embed a Winnipeg Free Press breaking news widget on your site or blog
Twitter

Follow our reporters and news feeds on Twitter