  Former Eskimos GM Hugh Campbell says the team's situation is a great opportunity for head coach Richie Hall to put his stamp on the team. (QMI Agency file photo). |
The firing of Danny Maciocia is a very good thing for the future of Richie Hall, says Hugh Campbell.
Assuming, that is, Hall has a future past Sunday afternoon in Calgary.
“I think it’s his best chance to be considered a success,” said Campbell, the legendary coach of the five-in-a-row Grey Cup champion Edmonton Eskimos.
“I think it’s his best chance to manage the coaching staff and determine who is in the spotter’s booth and everything else involved. Obviously he’s going to be the one doing it. Rick LeLacheur is not going to be the one to go do it,” he said of the current president and CEO who canned Maciocia but isn’t going to be around sticking his nose in football operations.
“I just think it’s a good challenge to see what Richie Hall can do,” he said of the head coach having his own head.
“He hasn’t had enough time to do his own thing yet, to be the last line of command, the person in control of the offence, defence, special teams and all the players.” said Campbell.
“The Eskimos don’t cur-rently have the culture of one for all and all for one right now.
“You can see that from a distance. It’s not the united cohesive group it might be by now if they would have hung on and beat Montreal when they had them dead in their second game of the season.
“Richie hasn’t had time yet without the person who picked some of his coaches who was maybe telling the offensive guy he has to do this or that. Richie’s got it in his lap now,” added the coach who was in the Grey Cup game all six seasons he coached.
He lost the first and won the next five in a row.
He was a coach who was smart enough to hire arguably more qualified people than himself in Cal Murphy, Joe Faragalli and Don Matthews as his assistants and then manage to manage them.
“I’m not involved so I’m not really sure what Richie has around him to make it work. And I know he has a lot of players who had an allegiance to Danny.”
And Campbell said it just got a lot more difficult for the head coach, too.
“Richie has it much tougher now than he did before losing Fred Stamps,” Campbell said of the receiver.
“He was leading the team the right way. They lost something there they don’t have much of — they have one leader less than they had before and they have some real tough games coming,” he said of a five-game run of Calgary, Saskatchewan, Calgary, Calgary and Montreal.
Campbell says he backs LeLacheur on all the moves he’s made this year.
“It’s hard to say this without saying I have some position,” said Campbell, who said he is no longer on the Eskimos payroll as a consultant and really didn’t do much consulting when he was.
“But I know enough about it. Danny is such a good guy and a good person I know it was tough for Rick to do. I went through the same thing with Joe Faragalli. But the team has to be moving in a positive direction.
“I’m a Rick LeLacheur supporter all the way.
“I know there’s been some criticism from a distance with the statements he made at the press conference after the loss to Winnipeg. I was in Edmonton when it happened. I thought that was an excellent move,” he said of LeLacheur putting everyone in the organization on notice.
“When the fans aren’t happy, you better make sure you let them know you aren’t happy.
“And the other thing Rick did (deciding to fire Maciocia and getting the OK from the board of directors to do it three days before he did) is pretty close to how I would have handled it, too. I usually had my mind made up but waited a day or two to sleep on it. So far I agree with the reasons why he did what he did.”
And as for the idea which just doesn’t seem to want to go away, that Campbell should come back as interim GM until the Eskimos hire a new one, he said he has very little interest in that.
“I am so relaxed and so happy in my life right now,” he said of retirement.
“I’d do anything for the Eskimos out of duty but I think this is a great opportunity for Richie Hall to point everybody in the same direction. It’s a great opportunity for Richie to show he can be the football guy.”
terry.jones@sunmedia.ca
