Bisons begin reshaping herd

The Manitoba Bisons turned the page on a storied chapter of the football program on the sidelines last season. This year, another new era dawns on the field.

With quarterback Jackson Tachinski graduated, third-year pivot Cole Anseeuw will take the reins of a younger Bisons offence as it figures out who its core group of playmakers are for the foreseeable future.

“It’s not just (Tachinski),” said head coach Stan Pierre, who enters his second year at the program’s helm. “I think he’s probably the face of this era, but we’re also losing essentially all our offensive backfield production from last year. So that’s really where the challenge lies for us.”

Besides the quarterback, the Bisons also graduated their centre, top two running backs and three of their top receivers. There’s fewer turnovers on defence, but young players will need to step up in the first and third level, as two starting linemen and three defensive backs have left the program.

“It’s a challenge for sure, but it’s not something that you’re not used to doing,” added Pierre. “This is the nature of the beast, and it means a new opportunity for a new guy, and we’ll see what happens. We’re optimistic, for sure, but it changes everything. Jackson was so unique; it changed a lot about our team, about our offence, everything.”

Tachinski, a former Canada West conference Player of the Year, tantalized with his arm and his legs as one of the most prolific dual-threats in the country the last three seasons as the Bisons’ starter.

Anseeuw, a former hockey player who developed his game on the gridiron at St. Paul’s, is a more traditional pocket passer.

The 6-4, 205-pounder isn’t completely green heading into this season. He started three games last fall while Tachinski was injured, completing 60.3 per cent of his passes for 483 yards, three touchdowns and two interceptions.

Now with a full off-season to prepare as the starter, things are starting to slow down for the young pivot.

“Obviously, there’s nerves going into the games last year a little bit, but I think everything’s kind of just slowed down a lot,” Anseeuw said. “Like this off-season, we put in a lot of work (with the) quarterbacks and (the) coaching staff helped us with understanding defences and coverages so that we can understand defences more and then manipulate defences to work in our favour.”

Anseeuw also took part in the CFL’s QB Internship program for the second year in a row with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, learning from the likes of Zach Collaros for a few weeks and getting reps against pro competition.

“I guess I knew I’d have a good position going into the off-season from being backup last year and being able to start in a couple games and getting comfortable with how things moved at a faster pace at the university level, I think was a big thing,” he said.

“This off-season, I think it was just mentally focusing on just slowing the game down, working on my ability to understand defences and just making the right decisions and being comfortable with the guys and being a unit as an offensive unit.”

Pierre was encouraged by Anseeuw’s play in those game reps last year, and his improvement during training camp this summer has been noticeable, now in his second year working in offensive co-ordinator Blair Atkinson’s system.

There’s a better understanding from everyone on offence of what is expected of them.

“Firstly, he’s very serious about it. He works really hard at it. So he’s a smart guy. He’s a talented guy. He showed some flashes last year that he could do it, but we kind of have a saying kind of in our coaches’ room that ‘Nobody becomes the starter until they’re the starter,’ and I think that’s really a true statement,” Pierre said.

“As a defensive coach, as I’m analyzing Cole, I see him making good decisions and getting the ball off on time and making good throws. Has it been perfect? No, but it wasn’t with Jackson either,” Pierre added. “He’s been good in camp, for sure.”

The Bisons went 4-4 in conference play before falling in the Canada West semifinal to the Regina Rams in 2025. It was the third year in a row that the Bisons had dropped out in the conference semis.

A fresh slate opens on Sept. 5 against the reigning conference champion Saskatchewan Huskies at Princess Auto Stadium (2 p.m.).

Pierre — who served as defensive co-ordinator under legendary head coach Brian Dobie for 22 years before being appointed the head job — and his coaching staff are still fine-tuning the team into the way he wants it to run. There is a learning curve for everyone, especially when it comes to working with a younger crop of players.

“There’s still lots. Even if all the kids that have transitioned have bought in, there’s still some culture leftover from the way things were done in the past, and that’s not going to go away until they’re all gone and the kids are all new,” Pierre said.

“These things, program running, they run in long cycles. We’re right at the beginning. It takes a few years to run through the cycle, and each year is different. We’re learning what maybe the ideal composition of our team is, and should we have more pieces in certain spots or certain areas in terms of recruiting and stuff like that? And how much of that can we take on? There’s still lots that, as a staff, we’re wrestling with to try to find what the perfect formula is for us and how we want it to coach and practice and all those sort of things.”

The evaluation of the team might not come in wins and losses in a year like this, but Pierre said he’s holding his younger team to the same standard as the group before, with “tangible benchmarks of what their expectations are and their expectations for improvement and achievement are.”

“I think it just all starts with trust. Letting those young guys know that us veterans, we have all that trust in them, and they’re obviously in that position for a reason,” said fifth-year linebacker Nic Pereira.

“I was talking to one of my corners the other day; he’s going into his first year. I said, ‘Listen, it’s looking like you’re probably gonna be the guy. I know the nerves are going to be there, and everything, but the guys have your back. We just want you to know that we trust you, and whatever happens, happens, and we’re all going to be in this together.’”

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