It is a life’s work that will never truly be completed, as ideas and concepts are constantly being added or deleted, subtly tweaked or changed entirely. It’s a project that can change from week to week – heck, from one moment to the next – and can provide instant gratification, frustration, ridicule, and praise all at once.
This is Buck Pierce’s world as the Winnipeg Blue Bombers’ offensive coordinator, with both the club’s playbook and offensive play calling falling under his job description.
And Pierce, once one of the most respected quarterbacks in the Canadian Football League, has since earned the same nods as one of the leading minds in the circuit. He is the architect of an offence that finished first in scoring in 2021, second last season and is currently ranking second in the early stages of this year.
Recently, bluebombers.com sat down with Pierce for the next two segments of our ‘Inside the Game’ series. This piece looks at how he and the offensive coaching staff – including Marty Costello (offensive line), Kevin Bourgoin (receivers) and Jason Hogan (running backs) – work to build and shape their playbook. Part two will detail how an offensive play call works.
“The thing about a playbook is that it is always evolving, just like the game,” Pierce began. “You evolve with your players; you evolve to what you’re seeing CFL trend-wise. It’s a year-to-year thing and if you don’t evolve that’s where you get in trouble as an offence and as a coordinator.”
Inside The Game series:
Pierce retired from the CFL in March of 2014 following a career that spanned from 2005-13 with both the Blue Bombers and B.C. Lions. He immediately stepped into a coaching role with the Blue Bombers, serving first at the running backs coach (2014-15), then quarterbacks coach (2016-19) before becoming the offensive coordinator in 2020 after Paul LaPolice left for the Ottawa RedBlacks.
The Blue Bombers’ offensive playbook has many of the same concepts as most in the CFL, including what the club ran when LaPolice was the coordinator. Pierce also brings his wealth of experience as a quarterback, plus his years as an assistant to an offensive room stacked with veterans. Consider that the offensive roster the club fielded for last week’s win over the Edmonton Elks featured vets at every starting position – including three players honoured by the CFL last year in two-time Most Outstanding Player Zach Collaros at quarterback, future hall-of-famer Stanley Bryant at left tackle, and top rookie Dalton Schoen at receiver – and just one player new to the league in fullback Damian Jackson.
And that’s not a factor to be overlooked when observing the club’s offensive playbook; with that much experience the team entered training camp building on an already established foundation.
“One of the things I wanted to look at was players first instead of scheme,” explained Pierce. “You have all these plays, but what do your players do well? What do they handle? What do they not do well? You want to put them in the best possible situation to succeed.
“There are always discussions about what’s too much and what’s too little. Again, it comes back to the players and what they can handle and what they can’t. I learned this from Coach O’Shea and from being around him for a number of years now – if you have smart players, you ask them to go the extra mile, the extra step and allow them to succeed and see what they can do.
“It starts in training camp where a lot of the coaches come up with ideas and see what works and what sticks.”
Pierce tries not to pigeonhole his receivers into one spot and moves them all around the field to take advantage of matchups and their respective skillsets. It’s why, for example, you’ll see Rasheed Bailey blocking for running back Brady Oliveira on one play, carrying the ball on another, and then running pass routes from all over the field. The same goes for Drew Wolitarsky, Kenny Lawler, Schoen, Nic Demski, Greg McCrae, Carlton Agudosi, Brendan O’Leary-Orange… anyone, in short, who lines up outside of the line of scrimmage.
The key, as Pierce has said often, is for the Blue Bombers attack to be ‘multiple’ – meaning they want to be as difficult a matchup for opposing defences as possible and have a number of methods to attack.
“We have guys who can handle quite a bit,” said Pierce. “When I’m looking at players one of the keys is, can the guy do multiple things? If a player is limited, that affects everyone else on the offence. If a quarterback can only throw certain things, that limits you. You might be really talented at the receiver position, but that limits what you can run because the quarterback can’t run those things. We’re very lucky here.”
“That comes back to my point of guys being able to do multiple things. Look at the receiver position, as an example. Drew Wolitarsky is a guy that does A, B, C, D really well. So, to just put him at one spot and limit what he can do is a disservice to him and to our offence.
“Ultimately, it’s about being multiple and it’s about balance. Just as much as you look at an opponent as an offensive coordinator you look at yourself. You have to put yourself on both sides of the ball. Obviously, you’re game planning against an upcoming opponent, watching opposing defences, but you’re also looking at yourself and what you’ve done and how they’re viewing you. There’s a lot of information, but as an offensive coordinator you also have to sort out what’s important.
“And again, it’s why our playbook is ever evolving,” he added. “You have your base plays and then it’s building off those things and those looks. Everybody runs a certain amount of protections or a certain number of runs and then you build off those foundational pieces. The CFL is great for that because the rules allow you to be creative and as a coordinator, if you’re not taking advantage of those rules then you’re doing yourself a disservice.”
Take a poll of the Blue Bombers offensive players and they’ll all attest to the same thing: Pierce and his staff are workhorses first, but also open to suggestions and to constructive criticism. That flexibility and adaptability from the staff – and the same goes for Richie Hall’s group on defence – has played a massive part in the club’s success over the last few years.
“That’s the benefit to any coaching staff – any corporation – to allow players or employees to have that voice or accountability so it’s not all one person,” said Pierce. “For a coordinator you have to ask, ‘Are you willing to adapt your ways? Are you able to look at things in a different way? Are you able to question things you’ve done in the past?’ It’s constantly evaluating and revaluating what you do. I believe these core things are important to winning.
“You’re constantly thinking of new ways to do things in this job,” he added. “It’s even questioning things when watching another game… why are they doing this or that? And then trying to find the answers by asking more questions. It’s a profession where you’re always learning or always growing.
“And I say it’s a ‘profession’, but for all of our coaches it’s first and foremost a passion. We all love what we do.”
Next: The Art of a Play Call
