Burke’s fate big headache for Bombers

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This article was published 05/01/2012 (5081 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

IT is a decision that is entirely beyond the control of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers front office, but which at the same time could have far-reaching implications for the 2012 CFL season.

Tim Burke said Wednesday that he expects to know by Friday whether he will be returning next season as the defensive co-ordinator of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

Burke is in the running for the vacant head coaching job with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and said Wednesday afternoon that the Ticats have informed him that they will make a final decision by the end of this week.

“It’s down to three people and from those three, they’re going to make their decision by the end of this week,” Burke said by telephone from his off-season home in Lawrence, Kan.

Burke was asked if he likes his chances.

“To be honest with you, I don’t have a feel one way or the other,” he said.

What happens to Burke could lead to sweeping changes within the Bombers organization. If he gets the job, the Bombers will, of course, be without the man who in just one year as defensive co-ordinator shaped what was a good defence in 2010 into the most dominant unit in the entire CFL last season.

Burke’s departure would leave Winnipeg without a defensive co-ordinator already a week into January, although it bears noting they didn’t have one at this time last year either after Kavis Reed left in December 2010 to take the head coaching job in Edmonton. It wasn’t until mid-January 2011 that the Bombers nailed down Burke — and we all know how that turned out.

But Burke leaving to take the Ticats job could also have ripple effects within the Bombers organization beyond just the defensive co-ordinator’s position.

“I’d obviously want to bring in my own people, people who I know and trust,” said Burke, when asked if he might take some Bombers colleagues with him to Hamilton.

The Burke drama plays out even as reports surfaced Wednesday night that Chris Wiesehan, the Bombers receivers coach the last two seasons, is out of the running for the team’s vacant offensive co-ordinator’s job and might be headed back to the NCAA. Wiesehan came to the Bombers from the UCLA Bruins, where he was the tight ends coach.

Bombers spokesman Darren Cameron said Wednesday night he had no official news of Wiesehan’s status with the club.

Wiesehan was the leading internal applicant for the offensive co-ordinator’s job left vacant when the Bombers fired Jamie Barresi after the Grey Cup. With both Bobby Dyce and Khari Jones — the two leading external applicants for the Winnipeg job — accepting positions in Saskatchewan this week, Wiesehan’s chances at landing the Bombers job were thought to have improved.

But sources say Bombers head coach Paul LaPolice is now pursuing other external candidates for the offensive co-ordinator’s position.

Whether LaPolice will also be looking for a new defensive co-ordinator depends on what happens with Burke in Hamilton the next couple days.

Toronto Argonauts special teams co-ordinator Mike O’Shea is also still a candidate for the Ticats job, sources said.

But the man the Ticats really want to take the job is former Calgary Stampeders offensive co-ordinator George Cortez. Cortez is currently the quarterbacks coach for the Buffalo Bills, but TSN reported Wednesday morning that the Bills have granted Hamilton permission to interview Cortez for the Ticats job.

It’s unclear if Cortez is even interested in the job. He previously took his name out of the running for the head coaching job with the Toronto Argonauts in 2009.

The Ticats have made the opportunity as attractive as possible for Cortez, however, trading this week for quarterback Henry Burris, with whom Cortez won a Grey Cup in 2008.

Burke says he’s not expecting to hear the Ticats decision until after that interview takes place.

“Obviously, they’ve waited this long so I’m guessing it’s because they want to do one more interview,” Burke said.

While Burke has never before been a head coach at any level of football, his recent resume — his defences have competed in the last four Grey Cups in a row and won two of them — makes him an attractive candidate if Hamilton is willing to take a chance.

While Burke has made no secret of his desire to become a head coach — it’s one of the reasons he left Montreal to join Winnipeg — he also describes what sounds like a very stressful period in his life right now.”

“It occupies your mind. It’s in the back of your mind all the time,” Burke reflected. “You’re always trying to prepare, figuring out what staff members I might have (in Hamilton) and all that. But at the same time, I’m thinking all the time about what I want to do as a D co-ordinator in Winnipeg, too.

“So I’ve got all those thoughts running through my mind, at the same time as I’m just trying to relax now that it’s the off-season.”

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca