There is tinkering and fine tuning, and then there is the Edmonton Elks.
Boy, talk about a complete engine overhaul.
From the very top of the new private ownership hierarchy with the one behind the wheel (and steering things straight into the Calgary Stampeders bench, no less), to a new president, to a new general manager, it’s an entirely new driving force behind this team.
And sure, the engine’s output will only be as good as the sum of its parts when it comes to the makeup of the roster.
But Monday at Commonwealth Stadium, it was all about the transmission, with the introduction of new head coach Mark Kilam, who is hands down the most integral part of it all.
He is, after all, where the rubber meets the road. And it doesn’t matter how fancy an engine you have if it fails to get turned into positive traction in the standings.
Up to this point in Edmonton’s rebranding, the wheels have all but fallen off as time and time again, this team continues to fall well short of reaching victory lane on the perennial path to playoffs.
Vote of confidence
The thing is, the Elks’ latest hire already has the grandstands packed full of support from former players as word got out he was making the leap to the head-coaching ranks after spending the past 20 years with the Calgary Stampeders, where he left off as special-teams co-ordinator and assistant head coach.
And Kilam was quick off the starting pistol to acknowledge his appreciation for their vote of confidence.
“It was incredible. I don’t have social media, but my mom would screenshot things to me, my wife would show me things and it just really reinforced that I did things the right way growing up and working with these guys,” Kilam said. “And that’s what I really took from it. Those relationships were real, those connections were real.
“Me, I value people. I value what they can bring in whatever position group or whatever area they’re involved in in this organization.”
He said the fact he comes from a special-teams background only bolstered his case for the head-coaching job.
“We’re all the sum of our experiences, so all my roles there helped me prepare for this opportunity,” said Kilam, who left Calgary as the CFL’s longest-serving coach. “I’ve got 20 years in a great organization, and that’s a lot of experience in different things, highs and lows. A lot of different experiences with players.
“Special-teams guys are prepared for these jobs. We’re the only ones that talk to the whole team, other than the head coach. Good special-teams co-ordinators have a presence in the room, you have to if you want your guys to play. You’re game managers, constantly thinking ahead. What’s the next situation? What are we anticipating here? All those experiences have prepared me and I can’t wait to hit the ground running.”
That’s good, because he will have to. His Elks have plenty of ground to make up if they hope to make the leap from obscuring to playoff contention. It’s the exact opposite step the Stampeders took this past year, missing playoffs for the first time since 2004 — the year before Kilam first came onto the CFL scene as their strength and conditioning coach.
But all that time spent on the south side of the provincial rivalry didn’t dim his vision of what pro football can become once again in Edmonton, where he spent his playing days as a linebacker and team captain for the University of Alberta Golden Bears.
“This team’s going to take on an identity that the people of this city can resonate with,” Kilam said. “This is a city that is not afraid to work hard. This is a city that has grit, and a city that has a chip on its shoulder to succeed. And that’s what we’re going to be about.
‘Built tough’
“We’re going to be a team that’s built tough. That’s built for the cold. We’re going to be a team that doesn’t back down and doesn’t turn it down. We’re going to commit to playing a style of winning football, and that’s going to look like whatever it takes each and every week.
Give Kilam credit. He has been around Edmonton enough to know the one thing the fans here want most is for the future of this club to start looking more like the past.
“We’re going to commit to playing a certain type of football that the people in this city can believe in. And that’s important,” he said. “We’re going to be a group that’s accountable, not only to each other but to everybody that came here before us.
“We’re going to stand on the shoulders of the people who built this place and represent the double-E the right way.”
E-mail: [email protected]
On Twitter: @GerryModdejonge
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