We here at Boatmenblog feel a little badly for Greg Marshall. He seemed like a pleasant enough fellow when we met him, he was one of the architects in turning the Hamilton franchise around, and his rise from the OUA to the CFL was a nice story. Let’s face it: If Sandro DeAngelis shanks a field goal a few weeks ago, Marshall probably still has his job.

But I suppose when you have the chance to make the basketball play by play guy from the 1988 Olympics your Interim Head Coach, you have to take it. How Chuck Swirsky didn't get this job is beyond me.

In any case, we're always up for helping our friends from down the highway. So in that spirit, allow us to present our picks for the permanent head coach spot in Hamilton.

Options 1, 2 and 3: Jeff Reinebold, Matt Dunigan, Ron Meyer

Under the old rule that CFL coaches with poor records never die, they just come back in different jobs, we offer these three candidates.

Reinebold is my personal favourite of the three, if only because I’ll almost certainly inadvertently refer to him as Judge Reinhold at least 100 times a season. Let the Fast Times at Ridgemont High jokes featuring OL Wayne Smith as Phoebe Cates begin!

At the very least you can no longer claim that Dunigan has no coaching experience above NCAA Division II.

Meyer was at least somewhat successful in the NFL… aw, screw it. I can’t advocate for the man who single handedly destroyed any chance of a Grey Cup week in Las Vegas. Screw you, Ron Meyer.

Option 4: John Huard

I cannot recommend the John Huard experience enough.  The inexplicable red outfits, the skipping ropes, the popsicles for the players... actually, let's sweeten the pot here.  If the Ticats hire Mr. Huard, Boatmenblog will purchase a popsicle for all Hamilton fans before the Labour Day game.  It's an offer you cannot refuse.

Option 5: This Guy

We know that the good city of Hamilton is amongst the leaders in donut shops per capita, and this season appears to be going nowhere, so management may as well give the fans something they’d like to look at. The added bonus is that he currently shows the exact number of wins that the Ti-Cats have. If Saskatchewan screws up the 'Cats “perfect season” again by letting Hamiton get a "1" in the win column, this guy can easily be replaced by a chocolate éclair.

Option 6: Glen Constantin

Finally, a guy who we think could actually do a good job in the CFL. What Constantin has done at Laval is remarkable, and we are perfectly happy to recommend him because we know there is absolutely no way that he is getting this job.

So many questions surrounding the Ticats' turfing of Greg Marshall in favour of Ron Lancaster. (What does this say about Paopao? How long until the Lil' General tries to trade for Danny McManus?) But since we're bloggers, not Ticats fans, the more relevant question is whether online chatter had anything to do with this.

 The consensus in recent weeks from folks in the know seemed to be that Marshall deserved more time, but pressure from fans and media in Hamilton might force management's hand. Now, with all respect to our friends in Steeltown, it ain't exactly the media capital of the world. There's one newspaper, one TV station and no sports radio. So where exactly were all these voices of dissent being heard?

On the Ticats' official website, naturally. To its credit, the team provides fans with a forum to vent as they see fit. And so we start getting discussions like this one, wherein somebody named "Garthman" proclaims that the Ticats "stink like the sulpher blowing off the steel mills." Considering that Bob Young is apparently fond of perusing these forums, it's entirely possible that the likes of Garthman helped pull the trigger.

That's unfortunate for Marshall, but potentially fortuitous for us. Not to overestimate our powers, but if Garthman is able to help dictate his team's personnel decisions, then we'd like to think we can do likewise.

So let's start in the most obvious place: with this guy.

Having had season tickets to the Argos for an alarmingly long time, I've seen Scully shoot water from his ears, which was at least unique (if a little gross). I've seen that weird Bounce family introduced a couple of years ago, which (as you'll note from the photo at left) was at least good for molesting the Ticats' T.C. while other mascots looked on in delight. I've seen mascot football - far and away the world's greatest halftime sport. And most memorably, I was there when some sort of a large dog representing a previous incarnation of AM 640 was decked by a drunken fan - then insisted on being carted off the field in full costume, because taking off his canine head would "scare the kids."

In other words, I know from mascots. And unless Jason is at least prepared to use his size to shore up the O-line, it's time for him to go.