The CFL crew with no identify now doesn’t have a head coach.
Scott Milanovich resigned Monday as the top coach of the Edmonton Soccer Workforce to discover NFL alternatives. The transfer got here simply over a yr after Milanovich stepped down because the quarterback coach with the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars after three seasons to return to the CFL, the place he bought his first alternative to turn into a professional head coach.
“Scott knowledgeable me (Monday morning) that he was resigning as the top coach of the Edmonton Soccer Workforce to just accept a place within the NFL,” Edmonton GM Brock Sunderland mentioned in an announcement. “It’s disappointing that he was by no means in a position to coach a sport for our group because of the pandemic.
“We want Scott and his household all the very best in his future endeavours.”
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Milanovich despatched a brief assertion to International Information Monday.
“I want issues had gone in another way, however no one knew COVID was going to occur,” he mentioned.
Milanovich guided the Toronto Argonauts to the 2012 Gray Cup title in his first yr as a head coach. However he by no means bought the prospect to educate Edmonton because the CFL didn’t play in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Milanovich, who turned 48 on Monday, is anticipated to turn into the quarterback coach with the Indianapolis Colts. That place grew to become vacant after Marcus Brady – who served because the Montreal Alouettes’ receivers coach from 2009-11 when Milanovich was the offensive co-ordinator and assistant head coach on Marc Trestman’s workers – was promoted to offensive co-ordinator on Monday.
Milanovich can be good mates with Colts head coach Frank Reich. Each have been quarterbacks collegiately at Maryland and served as backups within the NFL earlier than getting concerned in teaching.
Milanovich actively courted Reich to hitch his Toronto workers in 2012 earlier than the latter accepted a job as receivers coach that yr with the Arizona Cardinals. Brady, who changed Milanovich as Montreal’s offensive co-ordinator, reunited with Milanovich as Argos offensive co-ordinator (2013-17) earlier than being employed because the Colts assistant quarterback coach in 2018.
Milanovich and Brady received three Gray Cups collectively as coaches (2009-10 with Montreal, 2012 with Toronto). Earlier than coming into the teaching ranks, Brady was a CFL quarterback with the Argos (2002-03), Hamilton Tiger-Cats (2004-05) and Alouettes (2006-08) and met Reich largely due to the Colts coach’s relationship with Milanovich, the ’12 CFL coach of the yr.
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Brady replaces Nick Sirianni, who left Indianapolis to turn into the Philadelphia Eagles’ head coach. Brady turns into simply the third Black offensive co-ordinator within the NFL after Kansas Metropolis’s Eric Bieniemy and Tampa Bay’s Byron Leftwich.
Kansas Metropolis and Tampa Bay sq. off within the Tremendous Bowl on Feb. 7 at Tampa’s Raymond James Stadium.
Milanovich’s departure creates two issues for Edmonton as he additionally was the membership’s offensive co-ordinator. So Milanovich’s successor must be somebody with an offensive background in the event that they have been to deal with each jobs as a result of the offensive assistants at present on workers doubtless don’t have sufficient expertise to imagine duty for the unit.
Two potential candidates might be Jaime Elizondo and Jim Barker, each offensive-minded coaches with intensive CFL backgrounds.
Elizondo has served as an offensive assistant or offensive co-ordinator with Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa. Barker has been a CFL head coach with Calgary and Toronto (twice) and received 4 Gray Cups.
And it might appear former CFL head coach Chris Jones has thrown his hat into the ring after a tweet Monday. Jones, an assistant coach with the NFL’s Cleveland Browns, was Edmonton’s head coach in 2015 when it received the Gray Cup.
”EdmFootballTeam would love the chance win one other one! #GreyCup2021,” Jones tweeted above an image of himself with the Gray Cup.
Edmonton defensive co-ordinator Noel Thorpe is one other veteran CFL coach, having additionally served with Montreal (defensive co-ordinator/assistant head coach from 2013-17) and Ottawa (defensive co-ordinator 2018-19). However like Jones, Thorpe doesn’t have an offensive background.
Milanovich was a former NFL quarterback with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (1996-99). He additionally suited up with NFL Europe’s Berlin Thunder (2000), the XFL’s Los Angeles Xtreme (2001), Enviornment Soccer League’s Tampa Bay Storm (2002), and Calgary Stampeders (2003).
–With a file from Morley Scott, 630 CHED
© 2021 The Canadian Press
