Courtesy Calgary Herald:

It’s called a fighting chance. Every football coach wants it. The opportunity to undo a season of misery with one final flourish in the playoffs.

To rewrite the history of your tenure with a club by snatching the proverbial victory from the jaws of defeat. To tell your critics, “Gotcha” as you roll along in the Grey Cup parade.

No one would relish that opportunity more than Tom Higgins, Calgary Stampeders head coach and vice-president for football operation, who has seen a promising team decline to the point where it enters Sunday’s West Division semifinal in Regina as a prohibitive underdog.

An upset before the green mob at Mosaic Stadium would be sweet revenge indeed.

But league sources are telling the Herald former Stampeders quarterback and assistant coach John Hufnagel has already agreed to become the next head coach of the team in 2008. Higgins, the third-year head coach, will be replaced at the conclusion of the season, whether that comes this Sunday or on Nov. 25 — also known as Grey Cup Sunday.

With the 7-10-1 Stamps headed toward what looks like a third consecutive elimination in the opening game of the postseason, management of the team has reportedly decided to put the succession in place ahead of time for Hufnagel, who has worked with Peyton Manning, Doug Flutie, Jeff Garcia and Mark Brunell in his career.

Which speaks volumes about management’s optimism for the 2007 version of the Stamps in the postseason. When contacted Tuesday about a switch in head coaches for 2008, Stamps president and co-owner Ted Hellard told the Herald he would have no comment on anything to do with the coaching position at this time. Asked if he thought speculation over Higgins’ job was causing a distraction for Sunday’s game, Hellard again declined to answer.

Higgins was similarly unforthcoming Tuesday when asked about how the swirling speculation over his job was affecting his football team.

“I have no comment,” said Higgins, “except that we’re getting ready to face the Saskatchewan Roughriders on Sunday and then look forward to strapping on our chin straps against the B.C. Lions in the Western final.”

Coming off six losses in their past seven games and turmoil within the coaching staff, the decision to bring in Hufnagel is hardly surprising to those following the club. After the two crushing home defeats the past two years in the West semifinals, there was a feeling this edition of the team had to make vast improvements for Higgins to be granted a fourth season at the helm of the club.

With four fewer wins, the team’s record in 2007 was obviously not even a minor improvement for the owners of the team and the fans.

Armed with a high-octane offence under QB Henry Burris and some promising players on defence, it was thought the Stamps would battle for the top spot in the West. But a chronic lack of discipline over penalties (Calgary took 19 flags in their season finale at B.C.) and the CFL’s worst turnover ratio hobbled them all season.

Along the way, Higgins relieved defensive co-ordinator Denny Creehan of his job midway through the campaign, and the lineup saw endless change and injury. An indifferent record at McMahon Stadium didn’t help Higgins’s chances, either. Only the ineptitude of Edmonton and Hamilton allowed the Stamps to grab a playoff spot.

The Stamps will hope that Hufnagel, who was most recently the New York Giants offensive co-ordinator from 2004-06, can emulate what Kent Austin has done in Saskatchewan, instilling discipline into an underachieving team. Certainly, Hufnagel knows Calgary, having played here from 1976-79 and being the offensive co-ordinator for the glory years of Doug Flutie and Jeff Garcia in the ’90s. Upon his induction into the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame last month, Flutie praised Hufnagel as “the guy who brought it all together on offence in those days with the Stampeders.”

There would be great irony if somehow the staggering Stamps rallied to win the Grey Cup later this month — and Higgins is let go. But it will not be a new sensation to Higgins, who, as the head coach in Edmonton, came first three times in the Western Conference, came second once, made two Grey Cup appearances and carried off the Cup once. But as Higgins remarked earlier this season, it wasn’t enough for some people in the Eskimos organization.

Apparently, there isn’t anything Higgins can do to change minds four years later here in Calgary, either.