The Hamilton Tiger-Cats will still have to figure out how to break the longest active Grey Cup drought in the CFL, but at least it doesn’t appear that they’ll have to find a new head coach while doing so.
The University of Washington rounded out it’s coaching staff on Saturday night and finally filled its vacant defensive coordinator position, long rumoured to be a landing spot for current Hamilton head coach Orlondo Steinauer. Instead, the role will be jointly filled by William Inge and Chuck Morrell, both brought over with head coach Kalen DeBoer from Fresno State.
Steinauer himself spent a season at Fresno State under head coach Jeff Tedford, where he and DeBoer served on the same staff. That led many to tie the two together, but DeBoer has instead chosen to go with pieces of his last coaching staff to round out the new one.
While leading the Ticats, Steinauer has produced a 23-9 record (.719 win percentage) with a 3-3 playoff mark and helped Hamilton reach two consecutive CFL championship games, but twice failed to capture his first ring as a head coach in the three-down league.Â
Ahead of his most recent defeat, an overtime loss to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in front of a hometown Hamilton crowd, it was speculated that the Canadian Football Hall of Famer might be eyeing a return to the rising NCAA trajectory he was on before returning to the Hammer in 2018.
Steinauer routinely denied those rumours and for now he appears to be staying put, as his home state’s largest school moves forward without him.
