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I remember chatting with Marcel Desjardins at the CFL Combine back in March of 2014.
At that time he told me he was enjoying the next phase of building the Ottawa REDBLACKS, the one that actually had to do with players and coaches and the like. His first few months on the job, after being hired in January of 2013, had him concerned with things he never really dreamed of. He recounted, with amusement, how he had to weigh in on locker room design and covering off details like making sure the doors would be big enough to allow grand jacuzzi tubs to be brought in.
Everything was so new with the franchise when he began, these were the types of considerations that had to be prioritized, even before Desjardins hired Rick Campbell as head coach and before Desjardins left that combine feeling fairly certain he liked the look of a young man named Antoine Pruneau, who became the REDBLACKS’ first-round pick in that year’s draft.
From structural design to football infrastructure, Desjardins has taken the REDBLACKS a long way in a short time, as they prepare to meet the Edmonton Eskimos on Sunday in the 103rd Grey Cup presented by Shaw.
“Everybody in our organization deserves this,” he said, as we sat in a quiet room adjacent to the Eastern Champions breakfast, which was in full swing at the Delta Hotel earlier this week. “Our fans deserve it because it’s been a long, long time.”
A long, long time for Ottawa football fans. But not for the REDBLACKS, who’ve made it to the championship game in just their second year after going a dismal 2-16 during that first campaign in 2014.
After the disappointment of that season, Desjardins, Campbell and the rest of the Ottawa brain trust went to work devising a plan that would quickly turn the team’s fortunes around. A plan that would mean trying to ensure that a culture of caring – and the winning that would come along with it – would flourish.
The winning has come and that’s nice. But for Desjardins, an appearance in this year’s Grey Cup Game is sweeter because of the way the berth has been secured.
“We do things – and we’re not perfect by any stretch – but we try to do things the right way from ownership, through management, to the players,” he said. “To be able to do it the right way is almost as rewarding as just being able to do it.”
“That’s what I’m most proud of.”
Desjardins and the REDBLACKS got to work even as the ashes of a forgettable season were being blown away last autumn.
First, they decided, they needed a new offensive coordinator. In settling on and then hiring Jason Maas – who’d been coaching quarterbacks with the Toronto Argonauts – Desjardins then had a compass with which he could chart a course.
“Knowing what we were going to do offensively in December certainly played into what we were going to do in free agency,” he said.
REWIND: LANDRY GOES 1-ON-1 WITH DESJARDINS IN THE OFF-SEASON
