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Clan calls alumnus back home, offer head football post to veteran CFL coach Jacques Chapdelaine

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BURNABY — Simon Fraser University has reached back into its own rich athletic history to find the man entrusted with leading Clan football to success in the NCAA Div. 2’s Great Northwest Athletic Conference.

Sources confirmed Thursday that former SFU slotback and longtime B.C. Lions offensive coordinator Jacques Chapdelaine has been offered the position as the Clan’s new head coach, although full details of a contract have yet to be finalized. Neither side was willing to comment on the news when contacted by The Province, although it is believed that a press conference would be held to make the announcement official early next week.

Chapdelaine replaces Dave Johnson, who was fired by the school Nov. 19 on the heels of a 3-7 season in the GNAC. Johnson had been the Clan’s head coach for the past seven seasons, a span in which he shepherded the program from Canadian Interuniversity Sport into the NCAA, an historic transition in which Simon Fraser became the U.S. athletic giant’s first international member school.

Johnson, 20-44-1 over his career atop Burnaby Mountain, looked on solid ground after getting the Clan to 4-6 in 2012, its third NCAA season, but a step back this past season was enough for SFU athletic director Milt Richards to lower the boom.

Chapdelaine, whose long and varied resume as both a player and coach, includes national titles both as a CIS head coach (1999 Vanier Cup at Laval), and CFL offensive coordinator (2006 Grey Cup, B.C. Lions), has been exclusively involved within the three-down Canadian game since beginning his CFL playing career with the B.C. Lions in 1983.

The job posting at Simon Fraser officially closed on Jan. 3 and the school whittled down a long list of prospective candidates to two men, Chapdelaine and former Saskatchewan Roughriders head coach Greg Marshall, who this past season was employed as the defensive coordinator of the Edmonton Eskimos.

Although he has not been involved in the four-down U.S. game since capping his NAIA playing career with the Clan as an All-Northwest Conference selection in 1982, Chapdelaine has spent 30 seasons in the game as a player and coach, including the last 20 as a coach in either the CIS or CFL. He has coached at Bishops and Laval in the CIS, and Toronto, Calgary, Edmonton and B.C. in the CFL.

Chapdelaine joins the Clan at a precarious juncture in its offseason.

NCAA National Letter of Intent Day, when U.S. high school athletes announce the university of their choice, is this Wednesday, and thus far in its NCAA existence, the team has leaned on U.S. players to fill a sizeable portion of its depth chart at the skill positions, including its past two starting quarterbacks, Trey Wheeler, and current redshirt junior-to-be Ryan Stanford. In the midst of the SFU coaching search, rival UBC was able to sign prize transfer recruit Terrell Davis, a running back from Victoria-Mt. Douglas who had been with the Arizona State Sun Devils.

However Simon Fraser has continued its tradition of recruiting and developing top Canadian talent under Johnson’s watch, including graduating seniors Casey Chin (linebacker) and Matthias Goossen (offensive lineman). Standout wide receiver Lemar Durant, a Nevada transfer from Coquitlam’s Centennial Secondary, will be one of the GNAC’s top returning players in 2014.

SFU’s 2014 GNAC schedule has not yet been finalized but The Province has learned that the Clan will play a non-conference game at Div. 1 Idaho State on Oct. 11.

 



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