The Gryphons won their first Yates Cup OUA championship since 1996, but that was last year.
There’ll be the usual turnover among the players, but the Gryphon coaching staff has also undergone some changes.
“There’s been a few changes, but the core of the group is all back,” offensive coordinator Todd Galloway said.
He and special forces coordinator Bill Brown are back in the same roles, but head coach Stu Lang stepped down and Kevin MacNeill moved over from defensive coordinator to replace Lang. Adam Grandy, the assistant defensive coordinator last year, is the defensive coordinator this year.
“Continuity and staff continuity has been huge in our success in the past four years,” Grandy said. “With the few changes with our staff, I think it’ll be fine because we’ve all for the most part been together here.”
“Even though Adam and myself are in different positions this year, we were already kind of looking toward, even in the last couple of years, taking those next steps,” MacNeill said. “My stray thoughts or my daydreams were always ‘What kind of things would I like to do with the program if I had the opportunity.’”
With this year’s top coaching positions all being held by members of last year’s coaching staff, the transition was a smooth one.
“It was all hiring from within so everyone’s got a very comfortable feel and working relationship and that’s important,” MacNeill said. “It’s been a tremendous transition and it hasn’t been that unusual.”
Other members of last year’s coaching staff have departed, too, including running backs coach Neil Lumsden, defensive backs coach Devin Kavanagh and defensive assistant coach and video coordinator Mike Aloisio. Lumsden’s now the Athletic Director at Brock University, Kavanagh’s pursuing a career with the RCMP and Aloisio’s working at the head office of the Canadian Football League.
Among the staff’s newcomers this year are former Windsor Lancers defensive coordinator Donnavan Carter as defensive backs coach and long-time OUA coach Gary Jeffries as a defensive assistant.
“From a camaraderie standpoint, it’s been awesome,” MacNeill said. “The really nice thing is that we’ve been able to bring some great people into the program that really fit together well and that kind of reinforced what we’ve been trying to accomplish here in terms of our brotherhood over the years and our closeness. That’s been fantastic.”
When the players take to the field Sunday for the start of training camp, the coaches will be anxious to see which players separate themselves from their competition.
“Our guys are so focused and so competitive that I’m really looking forward to seeing who steps up, who rises to the challenge and who really emerges from the pack in terms of their competitive nature,” MacNeill said. “That’s the thing we’re really going to focus on, trying to make the camp as competitive as possible and really try to take the next step and raising the bar.”
Due to graduation, players moving up the football ladder and injuries, there will be openings on the Gryphon dress lineup.
“You could easily sit there and say that there’s going to be a lot of competition at receiver,” Galloway said. “Offensive line is a big one as well. I think it’s something like five of our seven dressers from last year all graduated, but we’re excited. We’ve recruited well over the last few years and there should be good competition. If we’re doing our jobs right, there should be competition at every spot.”
“Any time you lose a President’s Trophy winner in John Rush and Curtis Newton sticking with the Toronto Argos, I think at middle linebacker and O linebacker, there’ll be some great competition,” Grandy said. “Obviously every spot is up for competition, but I think seeing who kind of fits in there and fills in those shoes will be very important to our success there.”
Receiver Jacob Scarfone and defensive back Orion Edwards are both expected to miss the entire season due to torn ACLs while the group of players gone due to graduation includes defensive back Iain Hutchison, linebackers John Rush and Mac Myers, long snapper Dan MacDonald, receiver James Ingram and offensive linemen Zach Badar-Shamai, Matt Toppan and Matt Nesbitt.
As the defending Yates Cup champions, the Gryphons will be firmly in the sites of all their fellow OUA league mates, but they’re not concerned.
“We’ve always kind of approached it like our biggest opponent is ourselves,” MacNeill said. “We try not to look external, we like to look internally to what we have to do to be great. That’s the way we’ve always kind of approached our success.”
“We’ve kind of played the underdog role for a few years now, but there’s no bones about it, teams are going to want to come after us,” Galloway said. “That just means that we’re going to have to prepare more and execute at a higher level.”
“I think there’s always the expectations that we want to be the Vanier Cup champs and not just the Yates Cup champs,” Grandy said. “Is there a target on our backs? Sure, but you know at the end of the day you have to beat everyone to be the champs so I think there’s the same level of expectations that we have ourselves as a staff and as a football team that we want to be the best program in the country. That doesn’t change whether you’re the defending champs or not.”
While the Gryphs will have two weeks from the start of their training camp until their OUA season begins with a home game against the Toronto Varsity Blues Aug. 28 at 1 p.m., those two weeks will not be used strictly as a training camp.
“Times have changed,” Galloway said. “It’s basically a one-week training camp now. You see who’s mentally strong enough and you see who’s physically tough enough and you evaluate players and then you’ve got one week to get ready for your first opponent. Toronto’s our first opponent and we’re going to spend that whole second week getting ready for them. We didn’t play them last year so we need to do some extra work and make sure we’re prepared.”

Written by Rob Massey