Testing the ammo: Every snap an evaluation at Bombers mini-camp

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This article was published 22/04/2016 (3456 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The free agent haul was significant, highlighted by the addition of tailback and homegrown star Andrew Harris to upgrade the Canadian content.

The quarterback has declared himself 100 per cent healthy and there is a new/old boss at the offensive controls ready to breathe life into a comatose attack.

But as much as Mike O’Shea and the rest of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers desperately want to focus on looking ahead to 2016, the smell from 2015 and from the four-year playoff and quarter-century championship drought is going to linger for awhile.

So will the contract status of the Bombers head coach — he’s entering his final year — until the club makes some noise in the playoffs or falls out of the post-season discussion. Either way, it could mean for some tight collars over the next seven months or so.

“Every year you want to win a championship,” O’Shea countered Friday during a media conference, “so I don’t think this year is different.”

Asked what it might take for him to be coaching this team beyond 2016 — to earn an extension — O’Shea didn’t flinch.

“We talked early on about winning championships. And we need to win a championship,” he said. “But I don’t say that’s what’s going to get me a contract offer… that doesn’t really enter into it for me.

“We need to make the playoffs because we need to make the playoffs. We’ve got a great fan base and a great alumni group that have been waiting for quite some time for us to make the playoffs and go far and win a championship.

“There’s no pressure or urgency from this year that’s different than any other. I mean, the goal is the same.”

The Bombers offensive talent will hit the field Monday for a three-day/five practice mini-camp that will be all about getting the troops accustomed to Paul LaPolice’s schemes, CFL veterans and fresh faces alike.

“First and foremost, it’s to get the players acclimated to LaPo’s offence,” said O’Shea. “We want to make sure we have a head start on training camp, from terminology to the expectations.

“They’re going to leave here (after the camp) with a great understanding of what our expectations are and how they play offensive football for the Bombers this year.”

There will be no defence at the mini-camp, but O’Shea insists that doesn’t mean it will be just a bunch of offensive players milling about. Every snap of every practice will be an evaluation.

“To say that there’s not going to be competition is a stretch, because these guys are the type of players we are going to bring in who are going to compete on every rep, even if it’s against air,” he said. “I know they’re not having that physical competition of a one-on-one battle across from a defender, but we want to see these guys compete on every rep to get better and better and better in these five practices.”

The Bombers added two assistants to O’Shea’s coaching staff Friday, with Marty Costello coming on board as the assistant offensive line coach and Paul Boudreau as a special teams assistant. O’Shea will still oversee special teams in 2016 after taking over the unit from Pat Tracey last season.

Costello spent the past two seasons at UW-Stevens Point as run-game coordinator and O-line coach and prior to that he worked at Valley City State, first as co-offensive co-ordinator and quarterbacks coach and then as the offensive boss and O-line coach. That Valley City State squad won three consecutive conference championships.

Boudreau, whose father was an assistant with the Edmonton Eskimos in the 1980s, spent the last four seasons as the assistant special teams coach with the St. Louis Rams. He has also coached at Widener University, Massachusetts Maritime Academy, Fitchburg State College, Central Connecticut State, Brown, Cincinnati and Northeastern. He also served as a volunteer special teams coach with the Rams (2006) and the Bombers in 2008.

ed.tait@freepress.mb.caTwitter: @WFPEdTait