Landry: Reps or rest? The answer is rest . . . or maybe reps

Don Landry

CFL.ca

It has been a classic conundrum for head coaches in the CFL for years and years now.

And it is one that both Hamilton’s Orlondo Steinauer and Montreal’s Khari Jones need to wrestle with as the playoffs appear on the horizon:
What’s most important to their respective teams at this point? Reps or rest?

Your guy’s a little bit sore after a season’s rigours. But he and his mates are playing well right now. What’s a coach to do?

A coach is to wrestle with that puzzle, and ultimately do what he believes to be correct for his team. And there is no easy answer, no standard way to operate.

“I don’t think there’s a right way or a wrong way,” said Hamilton offensive assistant coach Jim Barker, who has vast experience in this area as well as many others, in a CFL career that has spanned more than 20 years as an assistant, a head coach, and a general manager.

“Anybody who says there’s a right way and a wrong way, hasn’t been involved in it.”

“Because every team and every situation is different,” he said.

Both the Alouettes and Ticats have a number of concerns to keep in mind as they meet this weekend, even beyond the question of whether they sit or play their starters against each other.

With the possibility that the two of them will meet again in the Eastern Final – should the Als get past the Edmonton Eskimos at home the week before in the semi – there’s always the problem of sharpening your established general game plan without giving the opposition too much intel on how to prepare.

“There’s things that you might hold back,” said Steinauer of this Saturday’s game in Montreal.

If Khari Jones feels the same way, we might be in for a ton of vanilla in this game, the sauce and sprinkles, the whipped cream and the nuts being shelved until the playoffs begin.

I’ve often wondered if a coach might ever entertain the thought of going the other way on that philosophy; throwing all kinds of weirdness in play selection and execution at the other guys, in order to get them wondering just what the hell might happen if and when they meet again three weeks down the road.

Back to the matter at hand, though, in managing player health and performance in a non-must-win scenario.

With first place wrapped up, and a bye week coming when the division semi-finals are played, Steinauer needs to navigate that setup as well as two more regular season games that don’t alter his team’s fate in the standings.

He is approaching the management of the situation with a little flexibility, feeling – like Barker – that there is no absolutely right or wrong answer in a rust or rest scenario.

“That’ll unveil itself over time but we don’t have a cookie-cutter set model right now,” he said, before his team went out and beat the Ottawa REDBLACKS last Saturday.

Jones has already given us some insight into his plans for the stretch, with the Alouettes locked into second place and a playoff home date on the 10th of November. Like Hamilton, the Als have two remaining regular season games that won’t change their playoff seeding.

Against Toronto in Week 19, Jones sat veteran defensive end John Bowman, the 37-year-old team leader looking for one final hurrah to add to his splendid career. And when tailback William Stanback crossed the 1,000 yard mark for the season during that game, Jones said something to the effect of ‘thank you very much, now drape one of those big parkas over your shoulders and try to stay warm on the bench.’

For Jones and the Alouettes, maybe the question of whether to keep the beat going or rest some of the starters is a slightly easier one to handle. With no bye week remaining for Montreal, any worry about too much rest, not enough activity, doesn’t seem such a tenuous balancing act.

With guys nicked up – some of those little injuries are public knowledge while many are not, of course – there might be little question as to what you need to do with many of them either this weekend or next when the team closes its regular season schedule in Ottawa. You rest those guys and give them a chance to be as fresh as they can possibly be.

Both Jones and Steinauer will likely talk to the players themselves when it comes to making at least some of the decisions. Barker remembers that it’s how one of the great coaches in CFL history used to handle it.

“Back in the Don Matthews era, the players basically decided what they wanted to do,” said Barker, noting that things were a little simpler back then, what with no salary cap to keep in mind when injuries may have led to late-season replacements.

“Every team has a character and had been built a different way. And it all depends on what your team is about,” he added.

“It’s a unique situation,” said Steinauer. “There are some challenges. But once our roster’s set, everybody who’s going out there is expected to play. Play hard.”

“We’re not gonna play tentative or scared. But we’re definitely not gonna be reckless.”

We’ve heard it a million times before from players; if you cut corners, if you throttle back on your play, that’s when you are even more susceptible to injury. It’s up to Steinauer and the Ticat staff to ascertain, over these last two weeks, just who should remain on the field in a full-out capacity. Jones and his staff have to walk that tightrope too.

As well, each of these coaches has to know that, behind their starting quarterbacks, they have guys who have been lightly played so far in 2019. Guys who would be served well by taking snaps beyond any garbage time that might emerge in Weeks 20 and 21. After all, haven’t Dane Evans and Vernon Adams played enough to be grooving in their respective offences?

Still, both Evans and Adams are young, and could probably continue to benefit from as much playing time as possible. Jones and Steinauer need to balance that need with those of the understudies who may have to be asked to step in during post-season.

Barker remembers doing it both ways during his career, resting veteran-laden teams while in Toronto, playing younger teams straight through, while in Calgary. In 2013, the Argos sat most of their starters in the regular season finale against Montreal, including quarterback Ricky Ray.

They lost the Eastern Final, to Hamilton, that season, but Ray went 17-for-20 in the first half and the Argos took a 24-17 lead into the break. The Ticats pitched a shutout in the second half, suggesting the outcome had more to do with adjustments on their part than rust on Ray or the Argos’ part.

As a closing thought on all of this, I’d like to present the 2015 Edmonton Eskimos as an exhibit. One that I believe can allay a coach’s worry about the possible loss of momentum heading into the playoffs, if players are rested.

That year, the Eskies secured first in the West in their final game, which happened to occur during the CFL’s second-last week of the season.

There was concern among the team’s faithful. Three weeks between games, now? Three weeks until they host the Western Final? It’s too much time off, thought many. A few suggested the Eskimos ought to have lost their final game and host the semi, so they could avoid a much too long lay-off.

Linebacker J.C. Sherritt, I remember, told me it was nothing to worry about, seeing as how he’d experienced a long, forced rest during his days at Eastern Washington University.

“I waited 28 days before a national championship game and I felt I was fine when I got on the field,” Sherritt told me at the time. “So, it won’t be the first time that I’ve took that break.”

The Eskimos beat Calgary, 45-31, in the Western Final, on their way to a Grey Cup championship a week later.

Rest did nothing to alter Edmonton’s successful trajectory in 2015.

So, is it rest? Or reps?

“You get your team ready for the Grey Cup,” Barker said, his heavy emphasis on the word “your” driving home the point that a definitive answer is not written down in anyone’s coaching manual.

The science is not exact. Both Steinauer and Jones must be well aware of that by now.

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