The odds of being hit by lightning are about one in a million, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association.
The Montreal Alouettes are hoping the odds of catching lightning in a bottle are a lot better.
On Wednesday, Alouettes general manager Kavis Reed announced the hiring of Mike Sherman as the CFL club’s new head coach.
If the name sounds familiar, it should.
Sherman, 63, was the head coach and general manager of the NFL’s Green Bay Packers from 2000 to 2005 where he compiled a 57-39 record in the regular season and went 2-4 in the playoffs.
He bounced around the National Football League for a couple of years before and after his stint in Titletown and also had a ho-hum tenure as head coach at Texas A&M. The Aggies were 25-25 in three seasons (2008-’11) under Sherman and 0-2 in bowl games.
Most recently, Sherman was coaching a high school football team in Massachusetts, and now he’s making the jump back into the pro circuit.
Montreal is hoping Sherman will inject some life into the CFL’s worst team, a label their fans are not accustomed to hearing after the Al’s dominated the league for years.
The Alouettes have gone down this route before. Hiring a head coach who strictly has four down football experience on his resume.
It worked out tremendously well with Marc Trestman, who guided the Alouettes to two Grey Cup championships in his five seasons in Montreal.
But for every Marc Trestman there is a Dan Hawkins, who was fired by the Al’s in 2013 after just two wins in five games, or a Bart Andrus, who guided the Toronto Argonauts to an abysmal 3-15 record in 2009, his one and only year in the Canadian Football League.
The jury is still out on Hamilton’s June Jones but his 6-4 record since taking over the Tiger-Cats from Kent Austin last summer bodes well.
The Alouettes better hope like heck that Sherman is the second coming of Trestman. But methinks not.
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