Ticats name new coach
HAMILTON — Tiger-Cats vice-president of football operations Kent Austin removed himself as head coach of the winless CFL team Thursday and appointed assistant coach June Jones to take over.
The announcement came during a bye week for Hamilton, which has struggled to an 0-8 start this season.
“I really believe that this is the best decision right now for the organization,” Austin said. “We’ll all harness our different skills and aptitude to right the ship.”
Jones, who was hired by the club three weeks ago, has 34 years of coaching experience at the NCAA, CFL and NFL levels, though this is his first headcoaching job in the CFL.
Austin was in his fifth season as Hamilton’s head coach. Since guiding the Tiger-Cats to a second straight Grey Cup appearance in 2014, he had gone 17-27. Austin signed a new deal in January 2016 with Hamilton to remain the team’s head coach, general manager and vice-president of football operations through the 2019 season.
He said he’d been seriously considering stepping down as coach for the last two or three weeks, and made the final decision on Wednesday.
“This was a decision that wasn’t made lightly and was under a lot of deliberation, and trying to be as self-aware as possible to do the right thing for the organization,” Austin said. “I will always make those decisions with that as the backdrop.”
The Tiger-Cats are last in the league with 148 points scored and 310 points against.
A low point came last month in a 60-1 blowout loss to Calgary.