With Rick Campbell gone, what's next for the B.C. Lions? (2024)

The football fans and media that surround the B.C. Lions had long ago made their decision. But the CFL team itself hadn’t yet come to the conclusion about the fate of its head coach — not until about 5 p.m. on Monday.

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And Rick Campbell didn’t get the news until Tuesday morning, when the team made it official: they were parting ways with the coach, who had one year left on his contract.

He had 12-6 seasons, back-to-back West Final appearances and made three straight trips to the playoffs after his first year in B.C.

This year, they went 9-9 and lost in the West semifinals, another good season. But good isn’t great. And greatness is what these Lions pursue.

After falling to Saskatchewan in the playoffs, team president Duane Vienneau began the post-mortem. He talked to his football operations staff, his coaches, and his owner.

“It was still a good year. We made the playoffs,” he said.

“I really just wanted to understand what went wrong. Not what went wrong (per say), but what got us to the point where we had a decrease at the end of the day. We were 12-6, 12-6, then 9-9. That’s a 30 per cent change. In business, a 30 per cent change is massive.

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“We didn’t perform to our potential like we should have, and we asked ourselves the reasons why. When you’re not performing the way you should be, when you feel you have the right players in the room, you need to make a change to get to that next level.”

Campbell’s final record as Lions head coach: 38-30 in the regular season and 2-3 in the playoffs — both wins coming over the Calgary Stampeders.

“It was a hard conversation,” Vienneau added, saying he informed Campbell on Tuesday.

“Rick’s a friend. I’ve known him for many, many years.

I worked with him here, I worked with him in Edmonton. I know his dad well. I know his entire family — I truly consider Rick a friend of mine. So when you have to go through this with a friend, it’s hard. But this is a business decision for us. It’s an opportunity to look at our entire football club and say, What are we doing and how are we building it?”

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The keystone in the bridge to the new era: Ryan Rigmaiden. The assistant general manager and director of U.S. scouting was officially elevated to GM’s seat on Wednesday.

But that decision was one made quickly in the wake of the team’s disappointing exit from the playoffs.

Early on in Vienneau’s process, it became clear that retaining Rigmaiden was top of their list. He’d been a target of CFL teams in the past, with Montreal trying to woo him in 2019, then Edmonton in 2021 and again a few weeks ago.

He declined all those offers.

Montreal at the time was wracked with instability and needed an owner. Edmonton’s operations cap was “a mess,” in 2021 which played out with Chris Jones’ millstone contract and subsequent nosedive by the franchise. And their last call was also rebuffed, as the Lions had already made their appreciation known.

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“It’s always nice to be wanted, but my heart’s always been here,” Rigmaiden laughed, adding he bumped into Elks president Chris Morris at the Grey Cup last week, and made sure to let him know the decision was one based on family and fit.

“Every scout has this dream of one day becoming a GM, and today’s that day for me. It’s a dream come true. This is the club that I entered the league with 14 years ago. My relationship with (Neil McEvoy) has been special; he’s been here the entire time. Can’t thank him enough for being a just a tremendous person for me to lean on over the years, and I’m going to continue to do that over the next, hopefully, many years.”

The team announced some further restructuring, as McEvoy — a 29-year member of the Lions front office — was named vice-president of football operations.

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The titles have changed, but the duties haven’t. McEvoy is in charge of the operations and contract side of things, and will serve as the man on the ground in B.C. in the six months when Rigmaiden returns home or is on scouting trips. The ability to uncover U.S. talent is one of his strengths, example being Vernon Adams Jr., whom he added to the Leos list in 2016.

Now they just need a new coach to complete the Lions’ triumvirate with Campbell gone.

Rigmaiden and McEvoy have 8-10 coaches in mind, with names like Buck Pierce, Paul LaPolice and Orlondo Steinauer all in the mix, as well as their own internal candidates. Rigmaiden stressed there was no timeline for a new coach to be found, but the internal conversations start Wednesday night, and the calls start on Monday.

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Only one Lions coach is under contract for next season, and no decisions on their fate has been made, with the new head coach getting the opportunity to form his own staff.

At that point, the process of fleshing out the roster begins. The Lions have between 25-30 free agents, but that list can be quickly whittled to the 10-15 players they see as crucial for the future.

Among big names who are pending FAs: Defensive backs TJ Lee and Garry Peters, defensive end Mathieu Betts, CFL receiving champ Justin McInnis and running back Will Stanback.

Adams is under contract, but Rigmaiden definitely said he’d be traded sooner than later, a decision he said was best for both parties. Nathan Rourke will be the No. 1 in 2025, along with the reported $750,000 contract that come with him.

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Building the team for 2026 will have to be done with those budget constraints in mind.

“The biggest thing is physical toughness, or maybe the second biggest thing. The biggest is going to be metal toughness,” said Rigmaiden. “That starts with your head coach. I do think that’s going to solve a lot of the problems.

“But across the board, we’ve got to get better. We’ve got work to do in personnel as well. That toughness factor, I think that’s going to be the biggest step that we need to take in order to take the next step for the franchise.”

The next step for Campbell isn’t clear. The natural fit would be a move to Edmonton, where Ed Hervey — who tabbed him for the Lions job in 2019 —has just been hired as GM. Other connections: former Lions president Rick LeLacheur, who just gave way to Morris as Elks president and CEO, was lured out of retirement to run the club and fired head coach Chris Jones earlier this year. Lastly, his father —Hugh (Gluey Hughey) Campbell —is an Edmonton legend. He won a nine Grey Cups with Edmonton, including an unmatched five straight from 1978-1982.

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That’s the kind of greatness the Lions are striving for. They have just six CFL titles in their history, and haven’t won since 2011. It’s the fewest Grey Cups beside Saskatchewan (4) and longest drought aside from Hamilton (1999).

“Across the board in this building, we all have to chase greatness harder,” said Rigmaiden. “From the equipment staff on up, everybody in this building, we all have to raise the bar. So I believe that starts with the head coach … but also we’ve got a tremendous owner, and it starts with him as well. He’s done everything possible to give us a shot at winning. We fell short this year, so there’s work to be done, but the head coach is going to be a huge part of that.”

jadams@postmedia.com

jjadams.bsky.social

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