Mike O’Shea has spent a lot of time under the hood of the 2025 Winnipeg Blue Bombers, and he’s come up with some important fixes he hopes will get the engine purring again next season.

The Blue Bombers confirmed Monday that veteran Canadian Football League assistant coach Tommy Condell will replace Jason Hogan as the team’s offensive coordinator — Hogan will return to his previous role as the running backs tutor — while long-time defensive tackle Jake Thomas is retiring and transitioning to become the defensive line coach, replacing a retiring Darrell Patterson.

Condell returns to the Blue Bombers after landing his first CFL gig under head coach Jeff Reinebold in 1997 and after spending the last two years as the offensive coordinator with the Ottawa Redblacks. He has 15 years of CFL experience with five different teams, also including the Ottawa Renegades (2004-05), Saskatchewan Roughriders (2006), Hamilton Tiger-Cats (2014-15; 2020-23), Toronto Argonauts (2017-18) and Redblacks (2024-25).

Important to note: Condell also worked with Zach Collaros during his time with the Ticats (2014-15), although O’Shea said that he did not consult the Blue Bombers quarterback in making this hire. Stating the club needed to make a change at the offensive coordinator position, the Blue Bombers head coach added, “We weren’t good enough last year for a variety of reasons, and we needed to seek someone with more experience.”

And as for the decision to add Thomas to his staff, O’Shea said this about one of the most-respected people in the building — not just on the roster:

“Love the guy. Can sit here right now and picture him hoisting the Cup in 2019. Extremely smart, passionate, good leader. A guy that just loved being around. There was a time where because of a contract issue he came late to training camp by I don’t know how many days, not much. But the whole practice stopped and everybody went nuts that he walked onto the field.

“That right there speaks volumes about what everybody thinks about him. Not just from the players’ perspective, but in the entire organization.”

FYI: O’Shea said there may be further changes to the coaching staff, indicating he would like to add one more piece while also adding that the status of quarterbacks coach Jarious Jackson is still to be determined.

O’Shea’s conference call today was done only in an audio format and can be found here:

What follows are some other key talking points about the coaching moves…

WHAT MAKE CONDELL STAND OUT AMONG THE OTHER CANDIDATES…

Tommy Condell during his days with Hamilton

O’Shea spoke of Condell’s extensive experience in the league and the fact they’ve crossed paths over the years at various CFL events, at coaches’ conferences or even in discussions on the field before games.

“…And over the course of time as you’re watching film or looking at the CFL things come up about his creativity and you like how he manages a game — those types of things. So, over a long period of time it’s just always been there that, yeah, I like Tommy Condell.

“You sort of gather information about a lot of people over the course of a career in the CFL and that’s the way a lot of coaches do it; they just have multiple interactions with people around the league over a long period of time and that forms the picture you have of coaches.”

THE RUSHING NUMBERS…

Brady Oliveira

Ottawa finished sixth in rushing yards per game last year (93.6) — Winnipeg was second at 124.1 — and last in 2024 at 83.7 yards per game. That said, Condell certainly didn’t have a Brady Oliveira as an option, either, with William Stanback Ottawa’s tailback in 2025 and Ryquell Armstead and Khalan Laborn the primary ball carriers in 2024.

O’Shea when asked about meshing Condell’s pass-heavy attacks with the Blue Bombers DNA of pounding the football:

“I don’t think that’s going to be a problem. I do believe our coaching staff as a whole understands on any given week, whatever it’s going take that week to win a game, that part of our DNA is not going to change.”

THERE IS NO MAGIC POTION…

Jason Hogan

Hiring Condell and moving Hogan back to coaching the running backs isn’t a simple magic potion for an offence that finished last in passing yardage in 2025 (235.0 yards per game), second in rushing (124.1), fifth in net yardage (345.7) and seventh in offensive points per game (23.1).

Let’s also remember that Collaros missed five starts and didn’t finish three other games while the receiving corps not only lost Kenny Lawler in free agency, also saw Dalton Schoen limited to just five games.

To that end, O’Shea spoke of the fix needing to be a collaborative effort while also falling on the sword for some bigger picture issues he mentioned in general without getting into specifics.

“First and foremost, it starts with me and making sure I’m holding everybody accountable to a higher standard. We just didn’t play up to our standard last year, especially on offence. It’s pretty easy to say that.

“There were certain things that were out of character for us last year that we need to come in this year and fix. I don’t think that, as you alluded to, making a change or a couple changes doesn’t fix everything. Everybody’s got to come in with a commitment to getting back to playing football the right way, playing good football and resetting the culture and that starts with me.”

Further to that, O’Shea spoke of Hogan’s reaction to the news — he was “obviously disappointed” — and in his decision to remain on the staff in his old role.

“He certainly wanted to have more production in his first year as an OC, so he’s disappointed in how it’s turned out. But I think if you were to ask him, he’s probably more disappointed for the team, not for him personally.

“Returning back as a running back coach, that’s something that I think he’s thankful for. He’s been in that position before, he knows the room. I think he’s going to be excited for that. But also from my standpoint, he’s a really good coach. And I think the timing was just maybe a little too soon for him. Most importantly, I don’t know that I did a good enough job. In fact, I know I didn’t do a good enough job supporting him and making sure I was giving him what he needed. But certainly, for a guy to take a step back and continue with the same team, that’s a rarity. So, I like that about his character. He’s certainly able to drop his ego and say, ‘Yeah, this is a job I want.’”

THOMAS MOVES FROM TRENCHES TO SIDELINES…

Jake Thomas

O’Shea raved about Thomas’ intelligence — not just his football smarts — and suggested he could one day end up as a GM in this league, adding, “he’s the type of guy that he could probably do whatever he wants.”

He said the recent transition and success of Mike Miller from playing to becoming the special teams coordinator did not play into the decision. Instead, he saw in Thomas what he has seen in other players over his career who have made quick moves from playing to coaching.

“I’ve got a lot of faith in a lot of players and then you’re just around guys for an extended period of time and you just know that they’re going to be successful in whatever they do. And they’ve been in football for so long it would be a shame for them not to use that knowledge. It’s like they have multiple degrees in football. They spend so much time in the game that, to me, it’s just natural that they continue. Now, it may not be for them — and it’s certainly not for everybody — but pretty quickly on you determine who in that locker room would be cut out for the next step. Now, whether or not they want to or whether or not they want to continue as they go along after they see what’s involved… a lot of these guys have a pretty good understanding of what it’s like to be a coach.

“We try to make sure that transition is fairly smooth for them because there are some surprises but Mike’s success, I don’t think that really had a bearing on the idea with Jake.

“Looking back a pile of years, Mike and Jake and other guys would be guys that in my head it would be like, ‘Yeah, this could be a natural fit if they choose to do it.’”