![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1792980995_703_indicator-big.gif\")
<\/p>\nNumerous players talked about it being a season like nothing previously experienced. And yet, there remains optimism for what\u2019s ahead.<\/p>\n
\t<\/p>\n
\u201cNo one wants to feel this feeling ever again,\u201d said linebacker Nyles Morgan. \u201cWith this type of season the upside is it\u2019s only up from here, truly. And obviously, we want to be more than just up. We want to be in a championship one day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Morgan is set to become a free agent but said he would be interested in returning to Ottawa.<\/p>\n
Earlier this week, the Redblacks announced the hiring of Mike Morreale as president. Morreale has plenty of work ahead, not the least of which is considering his head coach and general manager.<\/p>\n
Ryan Dinwiddie was signed to a three-year contract last season to the dual roles, in addition to being the offensive co-ordinator. <\/p>\n
Dinwiddie was supposed to be the one to help kick-start the rebuild, but now Morreale needs to decide if he\u2019s the right man to lead the charge.<\/p>\n
While it\u2019s early for self-reflection, Dinwiddie admitted there\u2019s lots to look at including his play calling and management of the team and games.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt starts today,\u201d he said of his evaluation. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to focus on things we can correct to get better.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dinwiddie said he and Morreale had lunch but it was more of an introduction for the two, and understands that when you go 1-17 everything will be evaluated.<\/p>\n
\u201cI plan on being here,\u201d said Dinwiddie. \u201cI want to turn this thing around, right? I don\u2019t want to be out of here and not have the opportunity to get one more shot at it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dinwiddie bristled when asked if he felt he took on too many roles.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been a co-ordinator and head for years, and I\u2019ve been pretty darn good at it, right?\u201d, said Dinwiddie. \u201cSo I believe in that. But the GM title, you know, if they kind of change that, it\u2019s not going to change my workload at all. But you know I get that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Decisions will need to be made on a number of players. In addition to Morgan, linebacker Lucas Cormier, veteran fullback Anthony Gosselin, quarterbacks Jake Maier and MacLeod Bethel-Thompson, and receiver Justin Hardy are just a few set to become free agents, as are offensive linemen Drew Desjarlais, Sean McEwen and Zack Pelehos.<\/p>\n
Hardy is coming off his fourth consecutive 1,000-plus yard season. In his five years with the Redblacks, he\u2019s only played in one playoff game.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not saying no to anything,\u201d admitted Hardy. \u201cI\u2019ll get with my agent, listen to everybody and see where we go from there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Players believe the addition of Morreale is a good start and have faith the organization will put the work in to turn things around.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe thing about the CFL is in a nine-team league you see teams turn around in a year or two,\u201d said Cormier. <\/p>\n
Cormier added that Dinwiddie\u2019s experience winning two Grey Cups also shouldn\u2019t be overlooked.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose two things alone are two things that I think are pretty convincing to feel like things can change pretty quickly,\u201d Cormier said.<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 25, 2026.<\/p>\n
Lisa Wallace, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Numerous players talked about it being a season like nothing previously experienced. And yet, there remains optimism for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":946403,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[879,49,48,521,522,2467,520,2461,2468,2460,2462,2463,44,2464,2465,2466,82],"class_list":["post-946402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cfl","tag-breaking-news","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canadian-football-league","tag-canadianfootballleague","tag-central-vancouver-island","tag-cfl","tag-nanaimo","tag-nanaimo-breaking-news","tag-nanaimo-news","tag-nanaimo-news-now","tag-nanaimonewsnow","tag-news","tag-oceanside","tag-parksville","tag-qualicum","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/946402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=946402"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/946402\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/946403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=946402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=946402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=946402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}