FRIESEN: Blue Bombers signal they are looking for a new OC

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Published Nov 24, 2025 • 4 minute read

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Jason Hogan was the Winnipeg Blue Bombers’ offensive coordinator in the 2025 season. Photo by Kevin King /Winnipeg SunArticle content

There’s a kink showing in Mike O’Shea’s armour. Fortunately for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, it should pay off.

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I’m talking about O’Shea’s rigid loyalty, a trait the head coach has shown to a fault over his 12 years in Winnipeg.

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We’ve both praised and questioned that loyalty in this space, sometimes on the same day.

That loyalty can come back to bite a guy in the behind, like it did with O’Shea in the 2023 Grey Cup, when he played linebacker Adam Bighill and receiver Dalton Schoen despite their injuries.

Those two weren’t the same, and the Bombers lost a close one to Montreal.

This year’s decision to promote Jason Hogan to the offensive coordinator job wasn’t as sudden a bite. More of a slow nibble.

But it still ate away at the Bombers’ chances of reaching their home-turf Grey Cup.

Nobody came out and said it, but you could tell game plans and play calls didn’t always sit well with the top-end players who expected better.

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Still, it wouldn’t have shocked me if O’Shea had decided to run it back with Hogan calling the plays again next year.

It seems he won’t.

Bombers fans will be happy to hear he’s looking to make a change.

For starters, Winnipeg has asked for permission from Toronto to talk to Argonauts quarterbacks coach Mike Miller about the gig.

TSN’s Dave Naylor was the first to break that news on Monday, and we can confirm it.

Another candidate: Ottawa OC Tommy Condell (first reported by TSN’s Farhan Lalji). The Bombers asked the Redblacks for permission to speak with Condell last week.

It’s still early in the process, but it’s a signal that all the talk from O’Shea and GM Kyle Walters last week wasn’t just hot air. They see their team in decline and plan to do something about it – before it falls right off the cliff.

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They should take a similar approach to their roster, but first things first.

Hogan’s problem wasn’t his worth ethic or attitude. It was his inexperience.

One glance at the resumes of Miller and Condell addresses that gap in spades.

Miller could sing his own version of I’ve Been Everywhere, with nods to NFL stops in Pittsburgh, Buffalo and Arizona, where he rose to the OC job.

He first came to the CFL with Montreal a dozen years ago, spent the next several years at American universities and made a stop in the XFL before joining the Argonauts as quarterbacks coach in 2022.

Over to Condell, who’s my pick as the favourite to replace Hogan.

Condell’s nomadic CFL coaching career started in Winnipeg way back in 1997, when he was running the special teams under head man Jeff Reinebold, of all people.

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He’s held virtually every offensive position since, in both U.S. college football and in the CFL, with Hamilton (twice), Toronto and Ottawa, building a reputation as a passing game whiz.

Condell and Winnipeg quarterback Zach Collaros are tight, having worked together in Hamilton, where Condell was the OC and receivers coach in 2014 and ’15.

More recently, Condell was Hamilton’s OC from 2019-23. Two of those seasons, ’19 and ’21, ended with heartbreaking Grey Cup losses to Collaros and the Bombers.

Few people know season-ending heartbreak better than Condell. In his 15 CFL seasons, he has won just one Grey Cup – with the Argos in 2017.

He ran Ottawa’s offence the last two years, with mixed results.

The Redblacks, with former Bomber Dru Brown at quarterback, had the league’s No. 2 passing attack and No. 4 offence in ’24, but scored the fewest touchdowns.

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This past season saw Brown continuously get hurt behind an offence that was in the middle of the pack.

Condell is expendable in Ottawa because new head coach/GM Ryan Dinwiddie is bringing in much of his own staff.

In Winnipeg, he would try to revive the falling fortunes of Collaros, who at 37 has been putting up average numbers the last two years and who was knocked out of games repeatedly this past season.

In his season-ending media address last week, Walters said Collaros needs more help.

“He led us to all those Grey Cups playing at a high level,” the GM said. “You saw it last year and again this year, he’s still a guy that can get it done out there. We just need to surround him with better support.”

Replacing Hogan would be the first step towards that.

Comparing his resume to Condell’s and Miller’s, it’s night and day.

Hogan had never been in charge of a pro offence before taking the reins of Winnipeg’s this year.

Prior to joining O’Shea’s staff in 2022, he coached at the University of Montreal. That came after two seasons with relatively limited responsibilities with the Montreal Alouettes.

The Bombers had the worst passing attack in the CFL this year, for a few reasons.

Loyalty may have ruled O’Shea’s decision on Hogan 12 months ago, but it can’t now.

paul.friesen@kleinmedia.ca

X: @friesensunmedia

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FRIESEN: Blue Bombers signal they are looking for a new OC

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