Burke put on hold

By: Paul Wiecek Posted: 1:00 AM CST Saturday, Jan. 7, 2012

WINNIPEG defensive co-ordinator Tim Burke -- and, by extension, the entire Blue Bombers organization -- remained in limbo Friday as the day came and went without the expected announcement in Hamilton on whether Burke has landed the Ticats head coach job.

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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 07/01/2012 (5079 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

WINNIPEG defensive co-ordinator Tim Burke — and, by extension, the entire Blue Bombers organization — remained in limbo Friday as the day came and went without the expected announcement in Hamilton on whether Burke has landed the Ticats head coach job.

“Nothing has changed,” Burke said Friday. “Nothing’s going on. I haven’t spoken to anyone (in Hamilton) since early in the week when they told me they thought it would be done by the end of the week.

“Not a word since then.”

JOHN WOODS FOR POSTMEDIA NEWS
Tim Burke — JOHN WOODS FOR POSTMEDIA NEWS Tim Burke

Burke, who’s never been a head coach before, said while he’s still managing to sleep at nights, he’s looking forward to an end to the waiting game in Hamilton.

“I’d just like it to be over,” said Burke, “one way or the other.”

The Ticats received permission earlier this week to interview Buffalo Bills quarterbacks coach George Cortez. Cortez has been widely reported to be the Ticats’ first choice to become their new head coach, a vacancy that was created when they fired Marcel Bellefeuille after last season.

The stakes could not be higher for the Bombers, who are already without an offensive co-ordinator after they fired Jamie Barresi and would dearly love to keep Burke, who in his first season in Winnipeg sculpted the Bombers into the most dominating defence in the CFL.

But such is life in the annual revolving door that is the off-season in the CFL, Bombers assistant general manager Ross Hodgkinson said Friday.

“It’s the time of the year, there’s lots going on,” Hodgkinson said. “I’m working on contracts, working on budgets and doing what we need to do to get ready for 2012.”

Topping the list of those things is signing starting quarterback Buck Pierce to a new contract and Hodgkinson said progress is being made.

“It’s interesting,” he said. “I spoke with Buck about an hour ago, we had a conversation and (GM) Joe (Mack) is going to call him in a day or so. Things are in the works.”

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca