Calgary Stampeders head coach John Hufnagel would have preferred his locker-room comments not be on television for all to hear after last week’s win over the B.C. Lions.
His message to his football team was their execution wasn’t nearly good enough to win another Grey Cup.
Hufnagel was heard opening with "I don’t want to rain on your party. You’ve got to be better than that" and ending with "this type of performance ain’t getting it done" after a 35-23 victory over the Lions.
Although Hufnagel also praised his team for the win, his closing remark was a buzzkill.
"I wish it was something that wasn’t televised," Hufnagel said Tuesday after practice at McMahon. "I did congratulate them on winning the game first. The TV didn’t come in until I was halfway through.
"We didn’t play to the level that you need to win big football games. I wanted them to understand we can’t play bad football and expect to be a championship football team."
Calgary takes their league-topping 9-3 record into Winnipeg on Friday against the Blue Bombers (4-8). The Stampeders can get to double-digit wins for the eighth straight year since Hufnagel took over as head coach and general manager.
The plan is for Hufnagel to step aside as head coach after this season to make way for offensive co-ordinator Dave Dickenson in 2016. Hufnagel will continue on as GM in the final year of his contract.
But before that transition occurs, the Stampeders are still his team and the 64-year-old wants them to defend their Grey Cup title.
The Montreal Alouettes (2009-10) and the Toronto Argonauts (1996-97) are the only two teams to win back-to-back CFL championships in the last 31 years.
With the regular season down to its final third, Hufnagel believes his team should be peaking towards a return to the Grey Cup game Nov. 29 in Winnipeg.
He considers it backsliding to give up two 103-yard returns for touchdowns and to allow Lions third-string quarterback Jonathan Jennings the chance in the fourth quarter to pull off an upset.
"The players know how much I appreciate them playing winning football," Hufnagel said.
"They also understand the little things that makes the difference between winning and losing. We survived the other night. I just want us to make sure we try not to put ourselves in that position again."
Quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell insists there wasn’t any eye-rolling in the locker-room after Hufnagel’s admonishment.
"What we love about Huf is he’s going to walk in and going to tell us ‘don’t let a win sugarcoat what actually happened,"’ Mitchell said.
"There was some bad football played out there. We know that. We had a big lead and we let a team come back and tie the game."
The Stampeders have made the playoffs every year, won two Grey Cups and played in another during Hufnagel’s tenure.
Running back Rob Cote has been a Stampeder through it all. He says that success comes from establishing a culture in which sometimes winning isn’t good enough.
"The culture is getting better every week," Cote explained. "No matter where you start, you need to finish better than you were last week. That’s where he’s coming from.
"A guy like that who achieves his level of success and excellence, it doesn’t happen by accident and it doesn’t happen overnight. We don’t celebrate small victories.
"We’re working towards a goal that was the exact same as last year. We have a goal we want to accomplish this season and he goes about it the only way he knows how to try and accomplish that."
A day after acquiring return specialist Skye Dawson from the Edmonton Eskimos, the Stampeders released rookie receiver Nathan Slaughter on Tuesday.
Veteran returner Tim Brown is on the six-game injured list with a knee injury suffered Sept. 7. He ran on the sidelines during Tuesday’s practice and Hufnagel said Brown was ahead of schedule in his recovery.
