POPP TO RETURN AS ALOUETTES COACH

Montreal Alouettes President and CEO Mark Weightman announced during the team’s annual post-mortem on Monday that Jim Popp will return as Head Coach of the Club in 2016.  Coordinators Anthony Calvillo, Noel Thorpe and Kavis Reed were also confirmed to be returning to the team’s coaching staff for next season.

“Following a thorough and structured review and decision making process that included Jim Popp, Bob Wetenhall and Andrew Wetenhall, and myself, we came to a unanimous conclusion that the right personnel was already in place and the missing ingredient was stability. Jim and his coaching staff showed some real progress in the latter stages of the 2015 season, and we are confident this progression will continue into next year. Our defense under Noel Thorpe has been consistently strong, our special teams have excelled under Kavis Reed, and our offense also made some significant progress late in the season under the guidance of Anthony Calvillo. The multiple changes we have experienced on our coaching staff in recent years have created additional challenges for our team, and have limited our ability to progress and to have the success that is synonymous with Alouettes football,” said Alouettes President and CEO Mark Weightman.

“I am humbled and thankful for being offered the position of head coach. We need to continue on the path of stability and harmony,” declared Alouettes General Manager and Head Coach, Jim Popp. “Securing our coordinators and building with this talented team is the step in the right direction.”

“Since losing Marc Trestman to the NFL and Anthony Calvillo to retirement, we have not established consistency in our leadership or offensive identity. The organization is partly responsible, having initiated too much change in too short a time. We’ve had 3 head coaches and 6 offensive coordinators in 3 years. Adding our unfortunate injury experience at the QB position, we haven’t delivered consistency to our players or on the field.  We are confident that with this decision, 2016 will return the Alouettes to the top of the league,” added Weightman.

Fans Didn’t Miss A Beat
Even though the team did not perform up to expectations on the field in 2015, the fans showed their unconditional support for their team as the Alouettes had one of the highest attendance increases in the CFL, with a 3.5% increase over 2014. The organization’s Fan Centric strategy enhanced the game-day experience at Percival Molson Memorial Stadium with new initiatives such as tailgates, pre-game parties, the Fan Zone, happy hour and new in-stadium entertainment, to which fans responded very favourably.