Burke has his work cut out in 2012

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This article was published 09/01/2012 (5013 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

There was a big sigh of relief from Bomber nation over the weekend when news emerged that defensive co-ordinator Tim Burke had been passed over for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats head coaching job and would return in 2012.

But lost amid the jublilation is the fact the Blue Bombers are going to need all the help they can get in 2012 after a month of off-season moves that appear to have dramatically improved at least two of their three CFL East Division rivals.

Those improvements begin in Hamilton, where Bomber fans’ relief at not losing Burke to the Ticats should be tempered by the fact that the man the Tabbies did choose as their new head coach — former Buffalo Bills quarterbacks coach George Cortez — has four more Grey Cup rings than the Winnipeg franchise combined over the past two decades.

Which is to say, of course, that Cortez has four Grey Cup rings, the most recent won in 2008 when he was the offensive co-ordinator and assistant head coach of the Calgary Stampeders.

The starting quarterback for Cortez in Calgary that 2008 season — as well as the Most Outstanding Player in the West Division and the Grey Cup MVP — was, of course, Henry Burris.

And Burris also just happens to be a Ticat now too, after a separate move earlier last week saw Hamilton ship the perpetually underachieving Kevin Glenn to the Stamps — where Glenn is expected to back up Drew Tate — in exchange for Burris, who is expected to start.

The Ticats are betting that a sub-par performance by Burris in 2011 was an anomaly and that with Cortez pulling the offensive strings in 2012, Burris can return to something more like the form he showed in 2010, when he was named the CFL’s Most Outstanding Player.

Meanwhile, a short distance up the QEW, the situation in Toronto is also looking a lot brighter for the Argos in 2012 after they also brought in a new head coach in former Montreal Alouettes offensive co-ordinator Scott Milanovich and a new quarterback in former Edmonton Eskimos pivot Ricky Ray.

Milanovich was Anthony Calvillo’s brain in Montreal, where he’d been the quarterbacks coach since 2007 and the offensive co-ordinator since 2008 until Toronto hired him last month.

The Als, of course, competed in three of the last four Grey Cup games — and won two of them — and folks in Montreal will tell you that it’s not entirely a coincidence that all that winning took place once Milanovich got control of the offence.

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While Calvillo is, of course, in a class of his own, the Argos think Ray — a two-time Grey Cup winner in Edmonton and a former Grey Cup MVP — will only benefit from working under Milanovich in a Toronto offence that will provide him some decent weapons, including running backs Cory Boyd and Chad Kackert and receiver Chad Owens.

Put it all together and a CFL East Division that was clearly the weaker of the two divisions in 2011 looks to be vastly improved heading into this year. Winnipeg was the beneficiary of that division weakness in 2011, winning the division with a 10-8 record despite losing seven of their final 10 regular-season games.

That was good enough to get it done in 2011. It seems unlikely it will be good enough in 2012.

So yeah, it’s great Burke is coming back after melding the Bombers defence into the most dominating defence in the league in 2011, precisely because it’s starting to look like the Bombers are going to need at least that again just to be competitive this coming season.

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca