Bye to Buck: Pierce bolts Bombers to take over rival Lions

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You knew it would happen eventually, and after five consecutive trips to the Grey Cup, two of them victories, it has.

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The Winnipeg Blue Bombers are losing one of their longest-serving and successful coaches to a division rival, as the B.C. Lions have hired Buck Pierce as their new head coach.

“Buck was a candidate we identified early in this process as someone ready to step in and lead our franchise,” Lions GM Ryan Rigmaiden said in a Tuesday afternoon news release. “His track record in the Canadian Football League as both a player and a coach says it all.”

Pierce, 43, was a finalist for the head coaching job in Saskatchewan a year ago, but took his name out of the running, citing the roots he’s put down in Winnipeg: He met his wife and started a family here.

“It’s an aspiration of mine,” he told me then of a head coaching job. “Ultimately it comes back to where you are in your life … the best thing for your family and your career. We’re extremely happy here. That’s really hard to replace something like that.”

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The lure of Vancouver?

Mostly the job, of course. But it’s also where he first broke into the CFL as a quarterback in 2005.

“I’m extremely excited and honoured to take this next step in my coaching career with the organization that originally brought me here nearly 20 years ago,” Pierce said in a Tuesday statement. “My sincere thanks go out to … the entire organization for instilling their belief that I can lead this great franchise. The building blocks are in place here and we look forward to getting to work as we strive to bring the Grey Cup back to British Columbia.”

Pierce spent the last 10 seasons with the Bombers, working with the running backs to start, then coaching the quarterbacks and finally taking over as the offensive coordinator for the last four.

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Winnipeg has employed one of the CFL’s most balanced attacks over that period, Brady Oliveira leading the league in rushing the last two seasons, Zach Collaros one of its top quarterbacks.

The Bombers finished first in offensive touchdowns in 2021, ’22 and ’23, but this past season saw the offence struggle, injuries and new players playing a significant role.

Winnipeg tied for eighth in touchdowns, ranked sixth in yardage this year, eighth in points.

Still, the Bombers reached another Grey Cup with a sparkling offensive outburst in a Western Final win over Saskatchewan.

Pierce’s final calls in the Grey Cup loss to Toronto, though, will always be part of his legacy, particularly his decision to put the game on the shoulders of Collaros, injured finger and all, instead of calling more often on Oliveira and the league’s best ground game.

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His finger numb from a stitched-up gash, Collaros tossed three fourth-quarter interceptions, turning a close game into a 41-24 Toronto rout.

Nobody can take this away, though: under Pierce, Collaros won back-to-back Most Outstanding Player Awards in ’21 and ’22, while Oliveira grabbed that honour this year, as well as the last two trophies as the top Canadian.

Pierce also coached the quarterbacks through the challenging and rewarding 2019 season, when starter Matt Nichols suffered a season-ending injury, Chris Streveler played on a fractured ankle in the playoffs and Collaros joined the team at the trade deadline to engineer a stirring run to the franchise’s first Grey Cup title in 29 years.

Following a missed pandemic season, the Bombers dominated the league for the next three years, winning another championship then losing the last three.

“Some day I’ll look back and say, ‘Wow, I’ve been able to accomplish a lot of things,’” Pierce told me in that chat 12 months ago.

Today, he’s looking forward.

Not all coordinators make successful head coaches.

Pierce has earned the chance to try.

paul.friesen@kleinmedia.ca
X: @friesensunmedia

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