Jeff Krever
CFL.ca
The Hamilton Tiger-Cats have a budding star in Defensive Coordinator Orlondo Steinauer, but they better enjoy it while it lasts.
He is after all rising hastily among the league’s coaching ranks, and appears to be on the fast track to becoming a head coach.
“Absolutely,” Steinauer, asked about whether he someday sees himself in that position, said on Thursday morning at the East Division Champions’ Media Breakfast.
“I see it happening.”
For the 40-year-old it’s not a matter of if, but when. It’s only November and there could already be four head coaching vacancies as the Eskimos, Bombers, expansion REDBLACKS, and possibly Alouettes all search for their man.
Yet in an eight-team league, Steinauer also understands that these opportunities only arise every so often and that competition will be high.
“What’s interesting is you can only get those jobs as they become available,” he said. “Obviously for people that haven’t had their shot like Chris Jones and Mike O’Shea, and I know Khari Jones is getting his name mentioned – this is a great opportunity for them because there’s so much opening right now.”
Steinauer said he hopes that he too will be in the mix this off-season, but is prepared to wait.
That’s what happened with Corey Chamblin, who was first passed over for the Riders’ head coaching position in favour of Greg Marshall. After becoming the Ticats’ defensive coordinator though, he earned another opportunity for the job a year later – this time with success.
Now at just 36, Chamblin is the league’s youngest coach and on the verge of bringing a Grey Cup Championship to Saskatchewan.
“I’m willing to pay my dues and bide my time, and we’ll see how it goes,” Steinauer said. “As it arises I’ll entertain it more, but it’s definitely not a focus.”
The big focus for now remains on the Ticats, who aim to win their first Grey Cup since 1999.
A large part of that is due to Steinauer’s work in his current role, where he helped the team bounce back from a rough start to finish second in the East and earn a home playoff game in Guelph against the Als.
The defence overcame bad weather and miscues both on offence and special teams to keep things close with Montreal, before Henry Burris and the offence did the rest to come away with a thrilling overtime win.
Suddenly the Ticats were the hottest team in the CFL, and would head to Toronto for the Eastern Final boasting one of the league’s elite defences over the second half of the season.
It was a defensive renaissance of sorts, one that rookie defensive back Arthur Hobbs said was just a matter of players settling in and trusting Steinauer’s direction for the team.
“A lot of times a coach will tell you something at the beginning of the season, but until you see it over and over for yourself as a player, you don’t want to believe it,” Hobbs said.
“We started out 1-4, everyone was down on us and he just taught us, just keep on doing what we’re preaching here and keep doing the techniques and what everyone’s taught us to believe.”
Evan McCollough, actually one of the elder statesmen of the Ticats’ defence despite being just 26, said the most impressive thing about Steinauer’s feat this season is how he’s helped such a young defence play like a cohesive veteran unit.
“He brought in a group of guys that come with different passion and understanding of the game, and basically it’s just playing hard and on top of that he helped enhance everybody’s game by coaching and teaching the players things that some other coaches wouldn’t teach,” said McCollough.
Steinauer’s biggest test came last weekend in the Eastern Final against a red-hot Ricky Ray. Ray completed 15 of his first 16 passes and posted nearly 300 passing yards in the first half alone, at one point giving the Argos a 14-point lead.
But when every ounce of logic said panic, Steinauer didn’t.
“When your coach isn’t panicking, there’s no reason for you to panic. We’ve come from behind in a lot of games this year which is tough to do, but our team sticks together and that’s what we preach heavily in Hamilton.”
“He just came to us on the sideline with his calm normal voice like he always did, and he said go out there and get the job done.”
It was that kind of presence that helped lead the defence to a second-half shutout of Ray, which included three two-and-outs. The offence did its part in controlling the clock and putting up points, and now they’ll play in the Grey Cup.
“When your coach isn’t panicking, there’s no reason for you to panic,” Hobbs said. “We’ve come from behind in a lot of games this year which is tough to do, but our team sticks together and that’s what we preach heavily in Hamilton.”
That of course is only part of the reason both Hobbs and McCollough agree that Steinauer would make an excellent head coach.
“He’s a perfectionist, and a lot of times as rookies we tend to make mistakes and as a coach he never overlooks them,” said Hobbs. “He coaches you like you’re a vet and with this being my first year I’m seeing things for the first time, but he’s such a good coach.”
“He’ll always tell you that he’s a perfectionist,” added McCollough.
“So he always wants to be prepared 100 per cent, and he’s going to make sure that you’re prepared whether it’s defence or even before he had to go into the offensive roles and helped the offence out – let them know what gives the defence problems. He knows both sides of the ball and I just believe he’d be a great head coach.”
Steinauer laughed when he heard how his players describe him, although he didn’t disagree that his attention to detail is one of his greatest qualities as a coach.
“That’s pretty much me,” Steinauer said. “And you can ask my assistant coaches, they’re the same way.”
“It’s just something that’s a part of me. It took me until about midway through college to just fully accept it about myself.”
It’s how he described himself as a player, too.
“I wanted to be the best, I wanted to do things the right way,” he continued. “Didn’t always mean I got the results I wanted, it’s just who I am as a person.”
“My wife and kids will tell you – I laugh because I just know what they go through with me sometimes.”
Steinauer’s road to becoming a defensive coordinator wasn’t so cut-and-dried. He actually first took on that role with the Argos on an interim basis under Jim Barker when Chip Garber was fired in August of 2011.
At that time he was only 38 though, and with only one full season as a defensive backs coach under his belt it may not have been the most ideal situation.
“I was just a DB coach at that time and then thrust into the role of coordinator,” said Steinauer. “I did feel ready for the opportunity as crazy as that sounds – learned under fire but we did finish that season strong as I got to implement some of the things I believed in.”
He was removed from the position after that season, but under Chris Jones returned to his old position coaching the defensive backs in 2012.
That season the Argos had one of the best defensive units in the league for a good part of the season, and on the strength of a red-hot offence earned an eventual victory in the 100th Grey Cup Championship on home turf.
The following off-season he interviewed with then-Ticats head coach George Cortez for the defensive coordinator position left vacant when Casey Creehan was relieved.
“I actually sat down with George and that was on a Friday,” said Steinauer. Just a few days later Cortez was fired though, leaving Steinauer’s fate in question.
“I just assumed I was going back to Toronto,” he said. But as prot
ocol goes, the Argos called Steinauer again the next week to let him know that Kent Austin wanted an interview.
“So I interviewed again just before Christmas, and I ended up agreeing on Christmas Eve.”
