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News June 17, 2025

Hogan: “Great first opportunity. I thought the guys delivered.”

Blue Bombers offensive coordinator Jason Hogan at practice on Tuesday; photos by Cameron Bartlett

@EdTaitWFC

Jason Hogan has been around football long enough to know full well it’s not always going to be like this. Guaran-damn-teed there will be frustrating nights and learning moments. And there will undoubtedly be games where he wants to rifle his headset through the spotter’s booth glass.

All that said, as debuts go his first effort in calling plays as the Winnipeg Blue Bombers offensive coordinator earned rave reviews and the proverbial bouquets from anyone who watched the attack crank out 438 yards net offence, including 201 yards along the ground, and throw up 34 points in the season-opening 34-20 win over the B.C. Lions last week.

And, oh yeah, they did all that with QB1 Zach Collaros idle and with CFL Most Outstanding Player/Most Outstanding Canadian Player/rushing champ Brady Oliveira out for all but the first drive.

So… gold stars all round.

“It was exciting. Great first opportunity. I thought the guys delivered,” began Hogan after practice Tuesday. “First one at home. Sold-out crowd, my folks were in town, so it was pretty memorable.

“(The offence) delivered. Strev (Chris Streveler) went in and did his thing. A newcomer, Matt (Peterson) came in there and did his thing. We leaned on the big guys up front and all and all it was a great performance.”

That’s as good a summation of the Blue Bombers opening night performance as you’ll get anywhere. It’s also very much fading in the rear-view mirror now as the club continues preparations for Saturday’s rematch in Vancouver against the Lions.

And Hogan also knows this about his gig and the business of pro football: that first taste will have fans wanting more. A band pumps out a solid debut album, a writer cranks out a riveting page-turner in his/her debut and everyone wants the follow-up to be just as mesmerizing, if not more so.

Asked if the first experience was both fun and stressful, he added: “All of the above. It’s good to be stressed. You want to have that stress. It’s got to be good stress knowing that you prepared your butt off and you know all the plays you have in and how to execute them. It’s how do we adapt to what the defence is going to bring us.

“It was great. A good experience.”

There’s a underlying confidence already in all of Hogan’s interviews that speak of a couple of things: first, he’s clearly ready for the OC gig and, second, he puts in the sweat equity to get the results. Clearly, head coach Mike O’Shea saw something in the man when he was tapped on the shoulder to be Pierce’s replacement after the latter headed to the Lions to become the head coach.

“It’s like anything else — the more work you put into writing the test the easier the test seems,” said O’Shea. “He puts in a ton of work. He’s highly organized. He’s got a structure in his head that he really follows, a process that he follows. He gets the work done so then — I’m not saying the game-calling is easy — but that’s why you go through practice. That’s why you script practice and call things in practice, that’s how you study the opponent’s film and all those things. It all adds up to this call sheet and how you call the game.

“Once again the easiest answer goes back to anybody that’s writing a test — if you put a ton of work in, you’re usually not too nervous when you have to sit down and write the exam.”

A cool side stat to the Blue Bombers offensive performance brought up by Paul Friesen and Gord Anderson of The Sun — the game also featured a 108-yard drive, capped up by a Keric Wheatfall touchdown that is unofficially the longest in franchise history. (UPDATE: from our CFL friends — the club had a pair of 109-yard drives in 2007, both led by Kevin Glenn and against Montreal and Saskatchewan).

“Didn’t know about that stat — that’s awesome you guys looked that stuff up,” said Hogan. “It’s exciting. It’s exciting to know that you can lean on your fellas and they can just go out there and execute being backed up on the doorstep and just march down the field, flip the field.

“We would have been happy just to end with points, just flipping the field on them. It just so happens we were able to dial up a touchdown.”

TAKE A BOW: Blue Bombers Nic Demski, Streveler, Peterson and Trey Vaval were all named to the Pro Football Focus Honour Roll for Week 2 on Tuesday:

Honour Roll, Week 2: Nic Demski, Adrian Greene head of class

INJURY UPDATES: This from Bomberland on Tuesday:

Meanwhile, in B.C. quarterback Nathan Rourke was limited in practice with a core injury according to the Lions daily injury report, with TSN’s Farhan Lalji reporting veteran Jeremiah Masoli getting the majority of first-team reps.

ICYMI: We had a great sit down interview with defensive end James Vaughters in our latest edition of The Huddle in which he touched on several topics, including his interests in fashion, art and architecture. Check it out here:

And one more… we’ve received great feedback already on our latest Handled Internally episode with Zach Collaros, who is scheduled now to be a regular guest on the podcast. It can be found here: