Hiring a coaching staff next on the Edmonton Elks’ to-do list

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When Larry Thompson bought the Edmonton Elks, we predicted his new club president would be a former player with ties to the team, and with Rick LeLacheur continuing to have a strong influence behind the scenes.

Check.

When the very respected Chris Morris was hired in the top role, we predicted the promised “lengthy search” process for a general manager was actually a short list including one single, solitary candidate — the ever popular Ed Hervey.

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Check.

Well, prediction time has come again.

Let’s look beyond another smoke screen and see what domino will fall next. When the supposedly “thorough interview process” is completed in Edmonton’s coaching — insert air quotations here — search, the man standing behind the EE podium will once again be a very familiar face to the Edmonton fan base.

Look for Rick Campbell to be the third person introduced among the trifecta of Back to the Future moves, in a clear and obvious decision to fully embrace connecting Edmonton’s once proud football history with whatever this has become here.

But if that is indeed the case, then why stop at those three? Let’s take the coaching predictions to a deeper and important level.

Unless the B.C. Lions hire him as head coach to replace Campbell in this rather likely scenario, look for St. Albert native Jordan Macsymic to return to his old stomping grounds and assume the same offensive co-ordinator role he’s held in Vancouver since 2020.

Macsymic cut his teeth with his hometown team, first joining the double-E as an offensive assistant in 2013, moving up the ranks to earn his first co-ordinating job here in 2019.

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Team ties. Young with a bright future. Check.

Staying with the Back to the Future model, expect former Eskimos great J.C. Sherritt, currently serving as linebackers coach and run-game co-ordinator with the Saskatchewan Roughriders, to become the Elks defensive co-ordinator in 2025.

The always-undersized-but-overdelivering former middle linebacker won a Grey Cup in 2015 with the same Edmonton club he spent all eight years of his career with, before joining the coaching ranks with the, ugh, rival Calgary Stampeders, of all teams in 2019.

Team ties. Young with a bright future. Check.

And rounding out the co-ordinator roles, look for another young man, Mark Kilam, to finally return home.

The former University of Alberta Golden Bears linebacker has spent the past 20 years with the Stampeders, including an incredible run of 15 seasons served as special-teams co-ordinator — a role that will be going to head coach Dave Dickenson’s brother, Craig Dickenson.

Family ties are to be respected, of course, and Dickenson is a quality coach. But in this case, the Elks are coming out on the winning side too.

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There should be no doubt about it, either. In Canadian Football League circles, Kilam is considered top notch. If fact, there has been much speculation he may even have the makings of a future CFL head coach.

Edmonton ties. Young with a bright future. Check.

This crystal ball is ready for a break after so much use. But before going down for a long winter’s nap, it has one final prediction to make:  A trade with B.C. for Vernon Adams Jr. before the snow melts, and finally offer the Elks some much-needed and long-sought stability at the quarterback position.

Another long cold winter has arrived in the Alberta capital, but it appears there is a bright football future on the Edmonton horizon.

While Hervey’s the third different GM since the Elks last reached the playoffs all the way back in 2019, the Elks will be moving on to their fifth different head coach since Jason Maas led them to the East Division final.

You remember him? He was the former quarterback-turned-head coach who was fired for the team not being able to live up to expectations.

Mind you, that was the third time in four seasons he led Edmonton to the divisional final round, even if two of those trips were made through the East Division crossover.

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Remember when that wasn’t good enough for this town?

Since then, the Elks have completely missed the playoffs all four years that followed. In fact, using a post-season berth as a measuring stick sets the bar impossibly high for the club, which finally managed to climb out of the basement of the West Division standings this year.

The combined record of all of Maas’s replacements is a mind-boggling 18-50 (for a win percentage of .265).

And while Campbell might not have the greatest track record as a head coach since winning the Grey Cup with the Ottawa Redblacks in 2016, so far, the Elks Era in Edmonton makes his 82-92-2 (.472) look downright impressive.

But if he surrounds himself with the right staff in an Edmonton reunion, the Elks may just be able to begin a return to the old ways Thompson’s been talking about.

And besides, it’s not like they could get any worse.

E-mail: [email protected]

On Twitter: @GerryModdejonge

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