Jim Popp, the only GM that the Alouettes V 2.0 have ever had, is gone.
http://montrealgazette.com/sports/f...al-manager-jim-popp-leaves-montreal-alouettes
8 Eastern Division championships, 3 Grey Cup titles and a rekindled fan base: all tremendous accomplishments. But he stuck around past his best-before date. He never adequately replaced Anthony Calvillo and his ego was his undoing. As good a GM as he is Popp is not and will never be a competent head coach.
On the other hand, Popp was perhaps the only GM in the CFL who really had no say in who his head coach would be. Ownership always decided for him and that's why we got clunkers like Dan Hawkins and Tom Higgins.
Right now it appears as though ownership is prepared to remove the "interim" tag off of Jacques Chapdelaine. There are pros and cons to such a decision. On the plus side, the team won 4 of its final 6 games under Chapdelaine. One more win and they'd be hosting a playoff game next week. He also put his stamp on the team by cutting Duron Carter and Brandon Whittaker which seemed to resonate positively with the players. On Saturday after the Als beat Hamilton one player after another (including veterans like Nik Lewis) praised Chapdelaine's leadership and said openly that they wanted him to be back next season.
And let's also not forget that Chapdelaine, for what it's worth, is a "pur laine" who "la majorite" can relate to. That fact is irrelevant for a franchise like the Habs, which will sell out their games with any coach as long as they win, but for the Als, if having a Francophone coach helps them sell tickets they can't ignore it. So perhaps Chapdelaine has done enough to earn a shot as the head coach.
On the negative side, however, is this: most anyone who becomes a GM wants to have the power to hire his own coaching staff. Are the Als going to be able to attract the best man for the job if they tell him on Day One that he has to keep Chapdelaine as his head coach? It's never a good thing when a coach doesn't answer to his GM. Now perhaps they find a GM who agrees that Chapdelaine is the best man to coach the team going forward but who knows? Additionally, we shouldn't be overly impressed with the job Chapdelaine did. He took over when the season was pretty much a lost cause and he lost just enough games to make the last 2 games (both Alouettes victories) essentially meaningless. It's good that the players showed enough pride to have two come-from-behind wins to end their season but remember that both Calgary and Hamilton rested their starting QB's and still nearly won both games.
All I know for sure is that the Als cannot go a third season in a row with no playoff appearances. In Montreal you have to win to remain relevant unless you're the Habs (and even then...)
