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December 8, 2016

Q&A: Mark Washington Breaks Down Defence in ’16

Thanks in large part to the return of Most Outstanding Defensive Player Solomon Elimimian and a strong presence at the line of scrimmage; the Lions defence had a bit more bite in 2016. Elimimian led the CFL in with 129 defensive tackles, while he and Adam Bighill became the first teammates ever to record over 100 in the same season. Despite being hit hard in the secondary with season-ending injuries to TJ Lee, Steven Clarke and Ronnie Yell, that part of the unit faired well thanks to young up and comers like Anthony Gaitor and Chandler Fenner stepping in and learning the Canadian game quickly. The defensive line proved to be stout with the likes of Alex Bazzie, Mich’hael Brooks and Craig Roh leading the way and making life difficult for opposing quarterbacks.

Guiding the unit was Mark Washington, a fixture on Wally Buono’s coaching staff since he retired as a player in 2007. Matt Baker of BCLions.com sits down with Washington to get a breakdown of the defence in 2016.

 MB: This just dawned on me: It’s crazy how you just wrapped up your ninth year of coaching in this organization. Where has the time gone?

MW: I’ve been trying to figure that out myself! It does go by very quickly and I’ve enjoyed it, it’s awesome. This was my third year as a coordinator so time is really flying by. It’s hard to believe number ten is coming up in 2017.

MB: How would you describe your evolvement as a head coach since your first training camp in 2008, which I believe was in Abbotsford?

MW: Yeah, it was! I’m still evolving. You think you know something and you really don’t. You don’t know what you don’t know until you get there. I’ve learned there is so many aspects to the game: learning how to coach, how to deal with different personalities, how to game plan, how to prepare for a team, how to self scout and see what the other team sees in you and how to counter that, learning how to change things at the drop of a time. There is changing your scheme and technique when the league implements rule changes. A lot of things go through your brain, especially as you prepare.

Washington 01

2016 in Kamloops was Washington’s ninth training camp as a member of the Lions’ coaching staff and 14th overall.

MB: I remember seeing an interview with Joe Gibbs when he returned to coach the Washington Redskins after retiring I think 13 years earlier. He was asked if it was a concern how much the game had changed in that time and he said no because he felt football changed drastically from week to week, never mind a decade and a half. Is that your mindset as well?

MW: Absolutely, it is. You play a different opponent every week, they have different strengths, they’re going to attack you differently, you want to attack them differently, so it does change every week. Having said that, it still comes down to running, blocking, tackling and catching. The fundamentals of the game never change. How you may do those things and practice those things may change but essentially it still comes down to the fact there is a guy standing in front of you who wants to keep you from doing your job and it’s your job to do your job.

MB: Let’s talk about 2016. When it comes to your defence, what are you most proud of?

MW: Generally speaking, they bought in to the scheme and everything we were trying to implement. More importantly, they bought into how we wanted to play. I stress two things in coaching and in life: what you do is important; how you do it is more important. How they played, how they practiced, how they bought into things and how hard they played every week, that’s what I am most proud of with this team. They executed well and there were times we didn’t execute well at all. But the men, generally speaking, played hard. When you play hard, fast and physical then you can make up for a multitude of mistakes and with so many young guys coming in, the scheme being somewhat new you’re going to make mistakes but the fact that they played hard helped.

MB: How much of your success had to do with Solomon returning to the player he was before he suffered the injury last year?

MW: When you get a MVP-type player back on your defence, that’s going to help. How could it not? When you pair him up with another outstanding player beside him (Bighill), you’re looking at two outstanding players side-by-side, they’re going to make a lot of plays for you, and they did. Nothing against the guys who played while Solly was out, but anytime you get a guy of his calibre coming back it’s going to be a shot in the arm for you.

B.C. Lions' Adam Bighill (44) and Solomon Elimimian (56) tackle Edmonton Eskimos' Chris Getzlaf (89) during first half CFL action in Edmonton, Alta., on Friday September 23, 2016. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson.

The Team 100 duo of Elimimian and Bighill was as dominant as ever in 2016. Both recorded over 100 defensive tackles, while Elimimian won another CFL Most Outstanding Player award.

MB: Bo Lokombo is one of the guys who stepped up big time when Solly was out. How would you rate his development this year? You used him in certain packages, plus he probably made the defensive play of the year when he leaped over Brandon Whitaker to help force an interception by Solly in Toronto August 31st.

MW: That was an unbelievable play. Bo is a good football player and he’s still learning the game. He reminds me of a kid in puberty (laughs), you’re just getting used to his voice, he sort of clumsy sometimes, but he’s still learning and getting better. You can see the talent coming out of that kid and he’s still learning the game and going through his growth and maturation. He’s putting it all together.

MB: Let’s talk about some of the guys who made their CFL debuts. Right from the start of camp I got the sense Loucheiz Purifoy could be a game breaker. It wasn’t an easy task to learn the nickel position, but he had great start to the season and didn’t show much rust. What did he bring to the defence?

MW: Even in OTA in April I saw that this guy was a talented player. I knew who he was at the University of Florida. I remembered him. I saw a guy that can be an impact player because of his athleticism; he’s a very sudden player. Everything he does, he does suddenly and he can catch the offence off guard. He’s very physical, has a good football IQ where he can figure things out on the field and he plays with tenacity. He’s got a little nasty in him. These are things you want in a good football player.

MB: You had some adversity in the secondary with Lee, Clarke and Yell all going down in the first half of the year. Many teams would crumble after injuries like that but you had the likes of Gaitor, Fenner, Parker and Thompson all step in and play well. Ryan Rigmaiden (Director of US Scouting) told me in camp he felt this defence was the deepest you’ve had. Although you never want injuries, how happy were you to see that statement hold true?

MW: It really showed. When you lose those guys, there is going to be a drop off but we had guys that could step in and we could continue to grow and get better as a defence. All of a sudden, the drop off wasn’t there. You were seeing guys make plays just like that guys we had in there were making plays. Riggs was right in that we do have a lot of depth defensively. It’s good for competition and it forces guys to not rest on their laurels. If you do, there is another young guy sitting back there, ready to come and take it. Unfortunately we had the injuries but we didn’t miss a beat and just kept going.

B.C. Lions' Anthony Gaitor, left, reaches for a pass intended for Winnipeg Blue Bombers' Tori Gurley that fell incomplete during the first half of a CFL football game in Vancouver, B.C., on Friday October 14, 2016. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

Anthony Gaitor helps break up a pass intended for Tori Gurley during the Lions’ thirlling victory over Winnipeg in the Western Semi-Final.

MB: For those young guys who were forced to step in, it must help having a guy like Ryan Phillips to lean on. What was your assessment of how RP looked in year 12 and would you be stunned if he was in Kamloops to start year 13? He says he is going to train and plan as if he is coming back.

MW: I don’t blame him. Train and let’s go! Ryan is such an asset both on and off the field. He’s tremendous and he has the respect of everyone in the league. He’s like having a coach out there on the field and he can see things from two points of view: the point of view from the player who is actually playing and also a bird’s eye view because he has seen it before. He has understood the schemes and the way offences have tried to attack over the years. There is not much he hasn’t seen. To their credit, the young players that we have listen to him. We don’t have too many hotheads that don’t listen. If we do have those guys then we make sure that they listen.

MB: We’ve touched on pretty much everything except the defensive line. Guys like Bazzie, Roh and Brooks led the way and depth also paid off when you were able to plus Bryant Turner into the rotation when you had injuries. What would say about the defensive line in 2016?

MW: We asked those guys to have different roles this year. It’s amazing how people look at production and they say things like “production was down.” Yet, we tied for the league lead in sacks again. We were at the top of a lot of different categories and our defensive line was the key to that. We asked those guys, in some of the schematic things that we did, to take some for the team and they did. What every defensive lineman wants to do is just rush the passer unabated and when we asked them to do that they were able to put pressure on the quarterback the way we needed them to. I give those guys a lot of credit. They hung in there, they played hard, and they played together. When it was time to set them free they went and did their jobs.

MB: The one area you probably want to improve is the amount of turnovers you created. Will that be a big discussion in camp next year?

MW: Always. It was a discussion throughout the season. Guys just need to be in a better position, they’ve got to anticipate things and see when the ball is coming. You need to have that “go get it” attitude. We didn’t have enough of that. We increased our forced fumbles from the year before and we got a lot of balls on the ground. We’ve just got to recover them. I was very disappointed in the lack of turnovers this year.

Jeremiah Johnson #24 of the BC Lions runs the ball in for a touchdown during the first half of CFL action against the Saskatchewan Roughriders in Regina on Saturday, October 29, 2016. (CFL PHOTO - MATT SMITH)

Jeremiah Johnson’s touchdown to open the scoring in Saskatchewan October 29th came on the heels of a Chandler Fenner forced fumble in Riders’ territory. The Lions will look to create more turnovers in 2017.

MB: Let’s have some fun to finish things off. Christmas plans? Heading home to the east coast I presume?

MW: Yes, back to DC to see the family. My whole family is coming, the wife and the kids. They will get to see their grandparents and everyone, so that will be good. My wife and the kids have also earned it.

MB: I had a similar sit down with Khari Jones to wrap up the offence and he said he was looking forward to catching up on some reading. On our in season plane trips I have seen how much work you have to do breaking down film on the iPad. When you’re on holiday, how do you pass time in the air?

MW: I’m taking some work with me. I will probably do that while my wife is sleeping. While she is awake, we’re going to watch movies and read books. I have a bunch of C.S. Lewis books lined up that I am going to read this offseason. Mere Christianity, The Great Divorce and Screwtape Letters are ones of his I am going to read. None of those Narnia books though, my kids are reading those!

MB: Baseball free agency is underway and we know you’re a big Red Sox guy. How happy were you with their bounce back year and what does 2017 have in store for them? I presume our schedule has not allowed you to visit Fenway Park too often?

MW: I still need to get to Fenway. One day I will. It is just too tough from when our training camp starts to when the season ends. I am predicting right now that we’re going to win the AL East again. The Chris Sale trade gives us the best rotation, bar none.  I am not worried about the Yankees anymore. Nothing against the Blue Jays, but we’ll finish ahead of them too and their bats will be no match. So we’ll win the pennant, the Nationals will come out of the National League and that will give me my dream World Series matchup between my favourite team and my hometown team. One can only hope!

Matt Baker: mbaker@bclions.com