Thursday 3 January 2013

Ticats Bring Steinauer Back to the Jungle

The Ti-Cats are starting the new year off right by getting a major hiring out the way. Today, the team introduced Orlondo Steinauer as the new defensive coordinator. Steinauer is the fourth defensive coordinator in as many years. Greg Marshall left following the 2010 season to become head coach in Saskatchewan, Corey Chamblin left the following year to take the head coaching job in Saskatchewan and Casey Creehan went back to Winnipeg to be the defensive coordinator back in November.

When it became known that Creehan would be going back to Winnipeg, I placed Steinauer on my personal shortlist of candidates to take over for him. Steinauer wasn't my top choice, but I did like the idea of bringing him in. While he has limited experience in the role (a 12-game stint as Toronto's defensive coordinator in 2011), he's had success as a defensive backs coach the last three years with the Argos.

And if player reaction on Twitter is any indication, Steinauer's hiring is being met with lots of excitement. Both Dee Webb and Kevin Eiben tweeted out that they thought this was an excellent move. Both Webb and Eiben are familiar with Steinauer from their days in Toronto (Webb was coached by Steinauer when he was in Toronto; Eiben and Steinauer were teammates) and they both seem very excited that Steinauer has been brought in to fix the defense in Hamilton. And Webb was ahead of the curve on this one, saying the team should bring Steinauer in back when Creehan went to Winnipeg (and it is also where the title of this post came from).

After seeing his scrum with the press in a video posted on the Ti-Cats' website, I too am excited about his hiring. I was extremely impressed with everything Steinauer said. Everything. Of all the things the Ti-Cats needed to fix for 2013, the defense was the biggest. If Steinauer can get the defense to just the league average, the Ti-Cats will be a playoff team.

I think he can, and will, do just that.

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