Courtesy Edmonton Sun:

EDMONTON - Matt Dunigan felt the heat and heard the footsteps during his brief stint as a CFL head coach in Calgary back in 2004.

So, perhaps more than most football people, he empathizes with the current plight of head man Danny Maciocia and the beleaguered coaching staff of the Eskimos.

He knows how impatient fans and the media can be, particularly in Edmonton, where Dunigan spent the first five years of his 14-year CFL career.

And after two straight non-playoff seasons, many local fans are mighty upset and want someone to answer for the two-year slump, preferably Maciocia, who also is the Eskimos’ Director of Football Operations.

“What do you do?’ ” Dunigan asked rhetorically about the future of the Eskimos coaching staff.

“Well, you hired these people, you hired them for a reason. When you hired them they were good enough. What makes ‘em not good enough now?

“A lot of things. In football, there’s a fine line between winning and losing. It could be just a couple of pieces here or there. The reason for the Eskimos’ success for 34 years in a row and being in the playoffs was being consistent. They didn’t panic, push the button and lose sight of what makes a family and an organization strong, and that’s consistency.

“I think you stay the course and you give these people an opportunity to continue to build. I would have liked to have had that opportunity in Calgary. That wasn’t afforded to me. But the Edmonton Eskimos is an entirely different organization.”

Dunigan was GM and coach of the Stampeders in 2004, when Calgary went 4-14 and missed the playoffs under the at-once chaotic, tight-fisted administration of then-owner Michael Feterik.

Dunigan, in Edmonton to promote his new book, touched briefly on his one and only foray into coaching in the league he starred in with six teams. The one-time swashbuckling QB with the rifle arm and linebacker toughness looks back fondly on a career ended by concussion. Well, mostly.

“It wasn’t such a blessing when I was down there in Calgary in ‘04 — and I talk about that in the book,” Dunigan told journalists at a midday book launch held in the Jackie Parker Room at Commonwealth Stadium. “I didn’t talk about it after I got shit-canned back in ‘04.

“I didn’t talk about it at all for six or seven months, because I thought that anything that came out of my mouth at that point would have been bad. Mom always said, ‘if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.’ ”

Accordingly, Dunigan, now a TSN football analyst, referred people to his book, Goin’ Deep, The Life and Times of a CFL Quarterback, for more details about his Calgary experience that still leaves a sour taste.

On the subject of the Eskimos, though, Dunigan, mindful of not getting the chance he believed he deserved in Calgary, wasn’t about to be part of the gnarly chorus calling for an Eskimos housecleaning.

“(It is) Tough times here being two years out of the playoffs, but you know what, that will only make you stronger if you stay together, and I think that’s what necessary,” Dunigan said.

“I feel sorry for some of those individuals who are going through the same gauntlet that I did.”