BC Lions head coach Buck Pierce entered the 2025 season with perhaps more pressure than is expected from a first-year coach.<\/p>\n
Despite the Lions finishing .500 in 2024, expectations were high in Pierce\u2019s rookie season, with Nathan Rourke<\/a> fully back in the fold and benefiting from a full off-season after returning to the CFL late the previous summer.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n RELATED \u00a0<\/p>\n On the experience of being a first-year coach in the CFL, Pierce said the biggest adjustments centred around \u201cfinding your rhythm\u201d and \u201cfinding a process that best worked for his fellow coaches and players on the team.\u201d<\/p>\n The head coach also said that 2025 was a \u201cgreat experience,\u201d and you could sense how much he enjoyed being in a new environment.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is the first time doing it,\u201d said Pierce. \u201cThat\u2019s the challenge I\u2019ve always been drawn to. I knew that there were going to be things that I didn\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Emotionally, just what did it feel like on the day of his first regular season game?<\/p>\n \u201cThe 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,\u201d said Pierce. \u201cTwenty years earlier, being a player running out of that same tunnel. A sense of gratitude. After that, it\u2019s football.\u201d<\/p>\n What a full-circle moment for the new coach, whose career began as a quarterback for the Lions.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Coach Pierce started laughing when I asked what traits or skills Nathan Rourke possesses that Buck wished he had during his playing days.<\/p>\n \u201cI think just his approach to the game,\u201d said the bench boss. \u201cHis mindset, how he is always able to stay poised and calm. He doesn\u2019t 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\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n What was one of Rourke\u2019s top moments that stood out from 2025?<\/p>\n \u201cI think we came into Calgary for a big divisional game,\u201d said Pierce. \u201cA 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.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n
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