The Rick Campbell era has ended while the Ryan Rigmaiden era has begun.
The B.C. Lions introduced Rigmaiden as the football club’s new general manager at a press conference at the team’s Surrey practice facility on Wednesday, and at the same time, announced that they had parted ways with head coach Rick Campbell after four seasons and that Neil McEvoy was moving from the co-GM position that he shared with Campbell to the newly-created title of Vice President of Football Operations.
As we speculated last week in this column, the club moved quickly to elevate Rigmaiden from his previous role of Assistant General Manager and Director of U.S. Scouting in an effort to retain the 45-year-old native of Spokane, Washington.
Rigmaiden was the Lions Director of U.S. Scouting from 2013 to 2017 before leaving to join the Winnipeg Blue Bombers organization. He returned in 2020 and has been responsible for bringing in import talent such as Sione Teuhema, Josh Banks, Alexander Hollins, Manny Rugamba, Jarell Broxton, Josh Woods and Kent Perkins to the Lions.
His first task as general manager will be to find a new head coach.
“The head coaching search is going to start immediately. There are several coaches that are currently unemployed that we are going to talk to. We also have several here internally that we will interview as well and then get permission (from other teams) for a handful of others,” said Rigmaiden, who becomes the 17th general manager in club history.
There are approximately “eight to 10” candidates that the club will interview via ZOOM calls over the next week to 10 days, with that number being whittled down to three or four finalists who will then be interviewed in person.
The front-runner for the head coaching position is former Lions quarterback Buck Pierce, who has been with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers organization since 2014 in various coaching capacities and has held the title of offensive coordinator since 2020.
Other candidates include former Hamilton head coach Orlondo Steinauer, former Winnipeg and Ottawa head coach Paul LaPolice, former B.C. and Hamilton defensive coordinator Mark Washington and former Calgary special teams coordinator Mark Kilam as well as internal candidates that include offensive coordinator Jordan Maksymic and defensive coordinator Ryan Phillips, who is the only assistant from last year’s staff still under contract.
The organization has no timeline in terms of naming a head coach and both Rigmaiden and McEvoy stressed that this will not be a rushed decision. That being said, there has to be some urgency as the new head coach will need time to assemble his own staff moving forward.
Rigmaiden has set out three criteria that his hire will have to meet.
“Leadership, accountability and toughness. I think those are essential for any head coach no matter what sport you are talking about. That’s going to be something that we emphasize,” replied Rigmaiden when queried on the subject.
Rigmaiden hopes the new coach will be able to get the Lions to play with some edge.
“The biggest thing I see is our lack of ability to overcome adversity on the field. There is a lack of mental toughness on this team. Internally, we have all been discussing that after last season. There are a variety of reasons why that happens. Instilling a new head coach with some different ideas and different values is going to be the biggest part of that,” said Rigmaiden.
Another pressing item on his agenda will be trading quarterback Vernon Adams Jr. and there has already been an organizational shift in philosophy in how that will be dealt with moving forward.
“He (Adams Jr.) will not have a say in this process. We are going to do what’s best for the club but we are going to be in constant communication with him,” said Rigmaiden, walking back a promise that Campbell made as co-gm that Adams Jr. would be consulted in trade talks.
Rigmaiden added that it was strictly a business call, referring to his solid relationship with Adams Jr. going back to the time when Adams Jr. was a 19-year-old at Eastern Washington University, and that the process would begin immediately by “calling two or three teams” on Monday night.
EXTRA POINTS
* The natural landing spot for Campbell is Edmonton. As we mentioned last week, new Edmonton owner Larry Thompson wants to reconnect the Elks to the history and tradition of the Eskimos. He already has hired Chris Morris as the Elks president and then followed that up by signing Ed Hervey as the Elks general manager. Morris played 14 years for the Eskimos while Hervey suited up for eight seasons with the green and gold. Hiring Campbell would be a natural fit seeing how his father Hugh coached the Eskimos to five straight Grey Cups from 1978 to 1982. Hervey also hired Campbell in B.C. during his stint as the Lions general manager.
* As for the Lions assistant coaches, Phillips could be reunited with former teammate Dave Dickenson as the defensive coordinator for the Calgary Stampeders if things don’t work out in B.C. Meanwhile, Edmonton has asked the Lions for permission to speak to Maksymic about their head coaching vacancy. In other news, linebackers coach Travis Brown has interviewed for the defensive coordinators position in Ottawa but could follow Campbell to Edmonton if the Ottawa job falls through as the two have history together going back to Brown’s playing days as a RedBlack.
* With Hervey leaving as Tiger-Cats general manager, former Lions quarterback Danny McManus becomes the leading candidate to replace him in Hamilton. McManus, who led the Leos to a Grey Cup in 1994, has been with Winnipeg since 2013 as the club’s assistant general manager and director of U.S. scouting. McManus was also the quarterback for Hamilton when they last won the Grey Cup in 1999 and is revered in The Hammer. Other candidates include former UBC head coach Ted Goveia, who is the Bombers assistant GM and director of player personnel and a pair of Canadians working as scouts in the NFL in Vince Magri (Buffalo) and Chris Rossetti (New York Giants). Magri and Rossetti both spent time with the Toronto organization before going south.
Veteran B.C. sports personality Bob “the Moj” Marjanovich writes twice weekly for Black Press Media.
