Buck Pierce embraces pressure, process as Lions build for 2026

BC Lions head coach Buck Pierce entered the 2025 season with perhaps more pressure than is expected from a first-year coach.

Despite the Lions finishing .500 in 2024, expectations were high in Pierce’s rookie season, with Nathan Rourke fully back in the fold and benefiting from a full off-season after returning to the CFL late the previous summer.

The results spoke for themselves. While the Lions ultimately fell short of their Grey Cup goal, 2025 was a successful year for both the coach and the team. BC won 11 games, defeated the Calgary Stampeders in the Western Semi-Final and pushed the eventual 112th Grey Cup champion Saskatchewan Roughriders to the wire in the Western Final.

I recently had a chance to speak with coach Pierce on a wide variety of topics while he attended the 2026 CFL Winter Meetings earlier this month. Here are the highlights.

On the experience of being a first-year coach in the CFL, Pierce said the biggest adjustments centred around “finding your rhythm” and “finding a process that best worked for his fellow coaches and players on the team.”

The head coach also said that 2025 was a “great experience,” and you could sense how much he enjoyed being in a new environment.

“This is the first time doing it,” said Pierce. “That’s the challenge I’ve always been drawn to. I knew that there were going to be things that I didn’t know.”

Despite those challenges, Buck did not lose his cool early on, as the Lions started the year 3-5 before ripping off eight wins in their final 10 games.

Emotionally, just what did it feel like on the day of his first regular season game?

“The emotions of being able to run out on the field with our team, with the guys, taking a minute to look around and give thanks and gratitude for the opportunity I had,” said Pierce. “Twenty years earlier, being a player running out of that same tunnel. A sense of gratitude. After that, it’s football.”

What a full-circle moment for the new coach, whose career began as a quarterback for the Lions.

Coach Pierce started laughing when I asked what traits or skills Nathan Rourke possesses that Buck wished he had during his playing days.

“I think just his approach to the game,” said the bench boss. “His mindset, how he is always able to stay poised and calm. He doesn’t get down on himself. Nathan holds himself to an extremely high standard, but he is able to continue to learn from his mistakes, grow and get better. At times when I was playing, I would not have been able to bounce back as fast as I needed to after those types of plays. It’s great for him. The work that he puts in gives him that. His ability to process information, if he trusts something and he sees it, he throws it. There is no hesitation. He is decisive. He is accurate.”

I expected his answer to be all about arm talent. Instead, the first thing Buck pointed out was the mental side of the game. That is an element of playing quarterback that we often overlook. The ability to learn from and immediately move past mistakes is a skill that all the great ones have.

What was one of Rourke’s top moments that stood out from 2025?

“I think we came into Calgary for a big divisional game,” said Pierce. “A game that both teams needed. Calgary was coming off a bye; we were on the road. Just to see the precision of how he operated in that game. As a play caller, when you see your quarterback is seeing the game the right way, he is aggressive when he needs to be aggressive, he is seeing the field well, he is taking the stuff underneath, continuing to move the ball, that is when you get rolling. It almost felt like he was in a zone that game. He was seeing the field so well. His ability to make plays with his legs as well. I thought that overall it was an amazing performance for him.”

The game in question was a critical one back in Week 16. BC was 6-7, looking up at Calgary in the standings. Nathan was just about flawless. He threw for 331 yards with two touchdowns and only four incompletions. The Lions starter also accounted for three more scores on the ground, and on this night he broke Russ Jackson’s record for most passing yards by a Canadian quarterback. The Lions would win 52-23, and this victory played a big part in BC overtaking Calgary for second in the West, leading to a home playoff game in the Western Semi-Final.

It’s fair to say the top two West Division contenders will again be the Lions and Roughriders. Saskatchewan was clearly the better team, posting a 3-1 record against the Lions, but the gap between these teams shrank as the season progressed. When I tried to ask the coach just what the gap between these two teams is, he gently pushed back on this concept.

“I really don’t think in those terms. I’m more about looking at ourselves,” said Pierce. “Our goal is to win the Grey Cup all the time, but you look at yourselves and where you need to improve to make the plays in those games. I know how the game ended and all those things, but we didn’t make enough plays early in the game. We didn’t put ourselves in a position to win that game. When you are playing a good team on the road, the team that won the Grey Cup, you can’t afford to make those mistakes. We’re looking at those things more so than anything.”

Finally, how excited are he and the entire team feeling about the upcoming season?

“We’re very excited,” Pierce said. “When we broke back in November and sat back with the guys, having a lot of positive conversations, emotional conversations, there was this feeling of guys not wanting the season to end. Unfortunately, we didn’t win the last game. Those emotions continue to carry through in the off-season. We’re excited to get back. We like our group. I like the idea of the type of team we are building and the understanding of what it is going to take this year.”

When you look at the talent on paper, some of the new additions on defence and Rourke entering his prime, I think we all are excited to see what the ceiling is for this team and this coach in 2026.

Buck Pierce embraces pressure, process as Lions build for 2026

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