Mike O'Shea, Bombers relying on veteran leadership for 2026

Mike O’Shea touched down in Calgary last week in the midst of a chinook — a warm wind blowing down the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains that sent the temperature soaring to 17 C.

“It’s hard to explain to people who don’t come out here often,” O’Shea said during the 2026 CFL Winter Meetings. “When you show up in town and there’s a chinook coming through, it’s amazing. It’s unbelievable.”

The last time many CFL fans saw the Winnipeg head coach was back on Nov. 1 when Montreal quarterback Davis Alexander dashed to the sideline to shake O’Shea’s hand after the Alouettes eliminated the Blue Bombers in the Eastern Semi-Final.

The defeat snapped Winnipeg’s streak of five straight Grey Cup appearances and denied the Bombers the chance to compete for a title in front of their home fans at Princess Auto Stadium.

In the weeks that followed, O’Shea, general manager Kyle Walters and the rest of the staff conducted an exhaustive post-mortem on a team that came up short when it mattered most.

“Unfortunately, we started slow,” O’Shea said of falling behind 25-6 by halftime in the Eastern Semi-Final. “What sticks with me most is coming out after the half and giving ourselves a real opportunity. In sports, when you sort of crap the bed like that in a game, it does take some guts and some resiliency to come out and try to change it.

And we did that.

“I’m not trying to just look at it through rose-coloured glasses. We weren’t good enough, but I certainly appreciated the work the guys did in the second half.”

The game, in many ways, mirrored the 2025 season for the 10-8 Bombers — flashes of brilliance marred by inconsistency and stretches of mediocrity.

Mediocrity is not a word many would use to describe the Bombers since O’Shea arrived in town in late 2013. And stretches of mediocrity, after so many years of the opposite, do not go over well in football-mad Manitoba.

“It’s awesome to have expectations,” O’Shea said. “Early on, when we first started, expectations were pretty low among the fan base. In our first news conference, many years ago, we tried to change those expectations — it just took us longer than we probably expected.

“Now, the expectations are super high, and that’s where they should be.”

In hopes of meeting and even exceeding those expectations, the Bombers hired Tommy Condell last month as offensive coordinator. Condell moves to Winnipeg after spending the last two seasons as the offensive coordinator in Ottawa with the REDBLACKS.

Jason Hogan, Winnipeg’s offensive coordinator in 2025, stays on with the team as running backs coach, and Jake Thomas shifts from player on the defensive line to the club’s defensive line coach.

“He has a great work ethic,” O’Shea said of Thomas. “He had longevity in this game. He’s seen a lot. He’s experienced a tonne. He’s an excellent communicator. He reads the room.

“If he wants, if he chooses to, he can be a football lifer — and I don’t think it’s all going to be in coaching. I think he’s going to, at some point, move somewhere further up the chain.”

Condell arrives in Winnipeg with experience coaching quarterback Zach Collaros. At 37, Collaros is definitely on the back end of his storied career, but O’Shea scoffs at the suggestion his starter might be too old to get the job done.

“Zach has everything it takes to win a championship,” he said. “Age has never been an issue for me. Age is always the thing that comes up, and I never really understood it. I think it’s pretty obvious that I like a core group of veterans who know what it takes to win and can impart their wisdom to the younger guys.”

That core group of veterans is one of the main reasons why Winnipeg is now regarded by many as a compelling destination for CFL free agents — contrary to many of those dark years before O’Shea arrived on the scene.

“It’s the guys in the locker-room,” O’Shea said. “We’ve got a great core of guys in the locker-room who know what it takes to win.”

Mike O’Shea, Bombers relying on veteran leadership for 2026

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