Aug
Cats happy to just win
Courtesy Hamilton Spectator:
“We’re just focused on getting better every day.”
This is Ticat head coach Marcel Bellefeuille’s mantra. His fallback position. The phrase he uses when he doesn’t want to answer questions about his team’s past record, their game plan, or the growing expectations. Like much of coach-speak, it’s a touch cliche, an over-simplification of the complex challenge of building a winning football team.
It also appears to be working.
The Hamilton Tiger-Cats have a 3-2 record through the first five games of the season, good enough for second place in the East Division. But, more significantly for long-suffering Ticat Nation, the three wins equals the total the team earned through the entire 18-game schedule the last two years.
That dubious history is just one of the reasons Bellefeuille has decided to narrow his squad’s focus to near microscopic levels.
“The goal isn’t the end of the road, it is the road. That’s just the reality in this sport. You get what you focus on, and we’re trying to focus on improving day-to-day, play-to-play.
” Yes, it does keep our focus on the here and now. It also allows us to play with more poise, because there’s no time to dwell positively or negatively,” Bellefeuille said.
The in-game manifestation of this approach was evident Friday against the Lions, when B.C. rattled off 10 straight points to turn a nine-point deficit into a one-point lead in a bit more than a 150 seconds. Imminent collapse seemed possible.
Earlier this season – in both pre-season games and the opener against Toronto – a tiny strand of misfortune unravelled the entire set of Ticat jerseys. But not this time.
“I think the players understand that when things don’t go your way in a game, the most important thing you can do is to do your job. Maybe in the past, people have pressed, but that’s not the case now. People are just trying to do their jobs and the scoreboard takes care of itself,” Bellefeuille said.
One of the benefits of the utilitarian nature of the day-by-day philosophy is that’s adaptable to almost any situation. Bellefeuille has used it effectively to help his team distance itself from the recent past and work through in-game issues. And he’ll stick with it.
“Ii doesn’t shift or change. We’ve learned how to play fast. We’ve learned how to have poise. Now our execution has to continue to improve for our team to improve, while keeping those other things in place,” he said.
Despite having faced perennial powerhouses B.C. and Montreal early in the season, things don’t get much easier for Hamilton. Saturday sees the 3-2 Edmonton Eskimos come to town before the Ticats head to Saskatchewan to take on the Roughriders.
Like most head coaches, Bellefeuille rarely professes happiness – “I’d like to be 5-0 right now, but that’s not the reality for anyone in this league” – but allows he is seeing improvement from his squad,
“I’m pleased that we’re making progress. We’re continuing to inch forward, so I’m pleased with that. And I’m pleased by the commitment of the players, I really am,” Bellefeuille said
But that moment of sunshine passes quickly and Bellefeuille is quickly back on message, talking about “getting better every day,” in response to a question of game planning for Eskimo quarterback Ricky Ray.
“It’s fair to say that’s my mantra and the players have bought into it. I believe that’s what they are focused on,” he said. “If we’re getting better every day, the wins take care of themselves.”
