CFL head coaches Maas, Mace not interested in adding GM duties to job descriptions

WINNIPEG – It has become a thing again in the CFL, but neither Jason Maas nor Corey Mace have any interest in adding general manager duties to their CFL resumes.

Last week, the Ottawa Redblacks named Ryan Dinwiddie as their head coach and GM. Dinwiddie went to the Canadian capital after five seasons — and two Grey Cup wins — as the Toronto Argonauts’ head coach.

Dinwiddie joined Dave Dickenson of the Calgary Stampeders as the only CFL officials to hold both titles. But Maas, the Montreal Alouettes head coach, and Mace, who holds the same post with the Saskatchewan Roughriders, don’t want the dual roles.

Montreal faces Saskatchewan in the Grey Cup game Sunday at Princess Auto Stadium.

Maas, completing his third season as Montreal’s head coach, said he’s already in personnel decisions with general manager Danny Maciocia and is good with keeping it that way.

“I’m not involved in contracts but I’m involved with the day-to-day personnel on our football team and obviously having a say on our 45-man roster and who’s in our building,” Maas said. “And in the off-season dealing with all of those things. 

“Is that (GM duties) what I focus on? No, not whatsoever. I’m just aware of it because it’s out there and you see it … but right now my main focus and everything I love to do is in coaching.”

Mace led Saskatchewan to a CFL-best 12-6 record and into the Grey Cup game as a second-year head coach.

“I’m only in Year Two in doing what I’m currently doing and my focus is completely there,” he said. “The relationship JO (vice-president of football operations/GM Jeremy O’Day) and I have is similar to Jason and Danny. 

“We’re hands on in putting a roster together and anybody coming into and out of the building. My brain hasn’t even gone that direction, just focused on what’s on my plate currently.”

—

WINDS OF CHANGE — The winds of change will be blowing in the CFL in 2026 and ’27, but the Grey Cup coaches haven’t given that much of a thought.

In September, the CFL announced that next season team benches will permanently be moved to opposite sides of the field, a 35-second clock will run between plays, and punts, kickoffs, and errant field goals going through the end zone without being touched by a returner won’t result in a point.

Then in 2027, the field will be reduced to 100 yards, end zones will go from 20 yards to 15 and the goalposts will move to the back of the end zones.

“I just really haven’t had the time to sit down and diagnose all that quite yet,” Mace said during the Grey Cup head coaches news conference. “There’s going to be some changes to it, and schematically, I’m sure that’s going to change a bunch.”

Maas agreed.

“I have nothing to say to it,” he said. “I’m solely focused on 2025 and finishing it off.”

—

OAKMAN RELEASE — Not surprisingly, Montreal Alouettes players weren’t consulted in the club’s decision to release defensive tackle Shawn Oakman.

The CFL suspended Oakman indefinitely Oct. 31 — the night before the East Division semifinal — for violating its gender-based violence and harassment policy. Not long afterward, the Alouettes released Oakman.

“They (players) didn’t have any say, I’ll say that first and foremost,” Maas said Tuesday. “It was right before our game (42-33 win over Winnipeg on Nov. 1) so when I went in the locker room the day we played, it (message to team) was ‘Compete, focus and discipline’ and the focus part was, ‘Let’s focus on us right now.'”

Oakman was completing his first season with Montreal. The towering six-foot-eight, 280-pound defensive tackle was an East Division All-CFL selection after recording 34 tackles and five sacks in 17 regular-season games.

He was suspended by after the findings of a third-party investigation. According to the league, the 33-year-old allegedly threatened to send sexually explicit material to an intimate partner’s child, who’s a minor.

“I think as a human being, knowing Shawn, knowing the man who played for us and all those things, I have empathy for him,” Maas said. “But choices and things that are done, are done.

“I don’t know all the particulars of everything, and I don’t know how it’s going to all play out in the end. I know he’s not with us any longer, I know he’s not playing the CFL right now, so what’s been done has been done.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 11, 2025.