Condell Bombers’ new offensive co-ordinator By: Taylor Allen Posted: 6:08 PM CST Monday, Dec. 22, 2025

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This article was published 22/12/2025 (258 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Mike O’Shea has finally owned up to the fact that promoting Jason Hogan to offensive co-ordinator was a mistake.

The Winnipeg Blue Bombers officially announced early Monday veteran CFL coach Tommy Condell has been hired to be the team’s new playcaller.

“We needed to,” said O’Shea in a Zoom call.

“He’s certainly able to drop his ego and say, ‘Yeah, this is a job I want.’”

“We weren’t good enough last year for a variety of reasons, and we needed to seek someone with more experience.”

To Hogan’s credit, he has accepted a demotion and will stay on staff as the running backs coach. He served in that role for three seasons — helping Brady Oliveira become the best tailback in the league — before getting promoted to OC ahead of the 2025 campaign.

According to O’Shea, it’s yet to be determined if quarterbacks coach Jarious Jackson will return for a second season.

“(Hogan) certainly wanted to have more production in his first year as an OC, so he’s disappointed in how it’s turned out. But I think if you were to ask him, he’s probably more disappointed for the team, not for him personally,” said O’Shea.

“And then obviously returning back as a running back coach, that’s something that I think he’s thankful for. He’s been in that position before, he knows the room. I think he’s going to be excited for that. But also from my standpoint, he’s a really good coach. And I think the timing was just maybe a little too soon for him. And then most importantly I don’t know that I did a good enough job. In fact, I know I didn’t do a good enough job supporting him and making sure I was giving him what he needed. But certainly for a guy to take a step back and continue with the same team, that’s a rarity. So I like that about his character.

“He’s certainly able to drop his ego and say, ‘Yeah, this is a job I want.’”

The Bombers ranked seventh in points scored (23.1 per game) and uncharacteristically committed 45 turnovers, which was second highest in the league. O’Shea revealed several candidates were interviewed before the club ultimately decided to hand the keys to Condell, who initially broke into the CFL in 1997 when Jeff Reinebold hired him as special team’s co-ordinator. Since then, he’s been with the Ottawa Renegades (2004-05), Saskatchewan Roughriders (2006), Hamilton Tiger-Cats (2014-15; 2020-23) and Toronto Argonauts (2017-18) before spending the last two seasons at the OC of the Ottawa Redblacks.

Ottawa is coming off a challenging year during which they started four quarterbacks and ranked eighth in points scored. Condell arrives in town having already worked with Bombers starting QB Zach Collaros as the two were in Hamilton in 2014-15 when the pivot started to establish himself as a star in the league.

“He was with Zach early in Zach’s formative years and they were very productive together.”

“He was with Zach early in Zach’s formative years and they were very productive together, so that would be a big part of it,” said O’Shea.

“And he does have a tremendous amount of experience, not just as an OC but coaching and in other leagues. So all those different experiences add up to a guy who’s going to be unflappable.”

Collaros has made it widely known how much he enjoyed playing under Condell, but O’Shea claims that wasn’t the reason for the hire. Condell has been known to favour the passing game as he hasn’t had a rushing attack rank higher than fourth in his nine years as an OC dating back to 2013.

It’ll be interesting to see whether his style meshes with Oliveira — who the Bombers are paying $290,000 this season and $300,000 in 2026 and 2027. The Bombers have relied heavily on the ground game dating back to when Andrew Harris was in town.

“Yeah, I don’t think that’s going to be a problem,” said O’Shea.

“I do believe our coaching staff as a whole understands on any given week, whatever it’s gonna take that week to win a game. That part of our DNA is not gonna change.”

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