Blue’s LaPolice counting on Reed

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This article was published 13/02/2010 (6056 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Some people may see Kavis Reed as the coach who cost the Saskatchewan Roughriders the 2009 Grey Cup.

Winnipeg Blue Bombers head coach Paul LaPolice sees him as a man with character and courage.

Reed was named assistant head coach and defensive co-ordinator of the Bombers on Friday while Jamie Barresi was announced as offensive co-ordinator. The two worked with LaPolice last season as members of the Roughriders staff.

LaPolice was impressed that Reed stood up following Saskatchewan’s last-second Grey Cup loss to the Montreal Alouettes and took the bullet for an extra man flag that allowed the Als to get a second crack at a game-winning field goal that went through the uprights after the first missed.

"It showed character," said LaPolice. "It makes you respect the man. We all make mistakes. You made one this morning. I don’t know what it was but you did. We’ll make mistakes but how we respond and minimize them is what our legacy will be… I’ve talked to people with teams all over the country and they all said the same thing — ‘our organization would have called out the player.’ We’re going to be in the business of fixing problems and not blaming people."

Reed, 36, is already in Winnipeg and working on plans for this coming season. He says he’s put last season behind him and will use it as a learning experience.

"It’s part of football. Just a few weeks ago I watched an NFL playoff game and almost the same thing happened. Those are things where sometimes we get too much credit and too much blame," said Reed, who has worked as defensive co-ordinator with both the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and Toronto Argonauts following a successful playing career with the Edmonton Eskimos. "It happened. We can’t go back and change that play. But we can put in mechanisms and learn from it so it doesn’t happen again."

Barresi will come to Winnipeg and work with LaPolice to design the offence and work mostly with the quarterbacks. Barresi has worked with some impressive coaches and says he’ learned a little from all of them.

"I worked with Jim Caldwell (Indianapolis Colts) first at Penn State and then at Wake Forest for a total of 13 years," said Barresi, who played quarterback at the University of Ottawa before heading south to learn the coaching craft. "I worked under Joe Paterno at Penn State. I worked with Galen Hall at the University of Florida and coach (Ken) Miller and (Wally) Buono in the CFL also taught me a lot."

The 53-year-old Barresi is a native of Hamilton and said leaving Regina was a tough decision.

"We had such a good working atmosphere there. Part of me wished it could continue," said Barresi via telephone from Regina. "But this is a good opportunity with good people and a good organization and I’m looking forward to it."

The hiring of Reed and Barresi still leaves the Bombers with a few openings on their staff.

"We’re in talks with guys. We’ll make an announcement within the next week or so on the rest of the staff," said LaPolice. "We’ll offer a job to an offensive line coach in the next couple of days. Bob Dyce is under contract as our receivers coach and we’ve given him permission to talk to Saskatchewan about their offensive co-ordinator job. We’re hoping he stays. Defensively, Richard Harris will be on staff as defensive line coach. We’ll have a special teams coordinator and a linebackers coach. And if Bob goes, some kind of offensive coach."

Dyce is expected to make a decision this weekend between the Bombers and Riders.

LaPolice said the club continues to talk with potential free agents Aaron Hargreaves (receiver) and Ryan Donnelly (guard) in hopes of signing them prior to Monday’s free agency opening.

Reports late Friday night suggested Hargreaves was close tp a deal with the Bombers.

LaPolice would not comment on plans the club has for adding to the roster once free agency gets underway.

gary.lawless@freepress.mb.ca