Naylor’s Kickoff: Jones firing was predictable, if not inevitable

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The Montreal Alouettes resume their season tonight against Edmonton, fresh off a bye week and with a new man on the sideline.

General manager Danny Maciocia’s decision to replace Khari Jones was predictable (yes, many predicted it), if not inevitable.

It’s a scenario that illustrates a few of the cold, hard truths in the Canadian Football League that reveal themselves whenever coaches are fired.

In the case of Maciocia taking over for Jones, there are at least four of them.

The first is that it’s almost always more difficult for a coach to be working for a general manager who didn’t hire him than for one who did.

Jones became head coach early in the 2019 season, roughly seven months before Maciocia was hired by the team’s new owners.

Most GMs have an idea of who they want to coach for them long before they ever get the job, and it’s usually only a matter of time until they get what they want. In these instances, firing a coach doesn’t go down as a negative for the GM, because the GM bears no responsibility for the head coach being there in the first place.

A second truism is that it’s undoubtedly more difficult to work for a general manger with a background in coaching.

Maciocia has been a head coach in both the CFL and at the U Sports level. He sees the game – no matter which title he holds – like he’s still on the sideline. Watching someone coach a team differently than you would is inevitably going to frustrate a general manager who thinks like a coach.

There’s a decent list of former head coaches who moved upstairs and struggled watching someone else do it. The great Wally Buono is one. Ron Lancaster is another. Jim Popp developed a reputation for replacing head coaches with