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EDMONTON - Mike Benevides stopped dispensing advice about the B.C. Lions roughly a few seconds after Wally Buono didn’t want him coaching his team anymore a few years back.

A little pro bono work? That’s different.

The assistant head coach and defensive coordinator of the Edmonton Eskimos would tell you he is currently in a better place and of no mind to live in the past.

He also might admit to being a tad biased when it comes to the Lions’ choice of quarterbacks. It was under the watch of Benevides as the Lions’ former head coach that Travis Lulay came into his own as a CFL signal-caller.

It’s therefore no surprise Benevides has no reservations as to where Lulay currently finds himself on the depth chart relative to Jon Jennings, who joined the Lions a year after he found himself temporarily without work.

Lulay will be behind centre Friday against Edmonton in a dandy July divisional matchup (6:30 p.m., TSN, 4:30 pre-game, TSN 1040) hoping to produce points in the scheme of Lions offensive coordinator Khari Jones, the assistant coach who got his chance in B.C. thanks to Benevides.

It’s also the first game for Lulay as a healthy Lions quarterback against one of his best friends, Edmonton’s Mike Reilly, since the two squared off in back-to-back games four years ago.

Lulay has the job because Jennings is still nursing his injured throwing shoulder back to health. But there is little doubt in the mind of the coach asked to stop him the Lions have the better option running the show.

“He’s the best B.C. Lions quarterback y’all got,” Benevides said on 3 Down Radio this week. “The young guy’s got a future but right now that guy there (Lulay) is a serious piece of business... Looks what he’s getting done. I’m thrilled for him. Just not this week.”

If the Lions elect to revisit their past and bring Benevides back should he get to sleep a night or two with the Grey Cup this winter and are in need of a new coach, they were words worth remembering.

Benevides, of course, had a hand in the development of several Lions regulars, including Bryan Burnham, Manny Arceneaux and Ronnie Yell, and therefore might have a biased view of all things relating to Lions quarterbacks, which will cease to be a controversy the moment Jennings is ready to return.

His current team, mind you, is doing quite nicely offensively with Reilly, who had to escape Lulay’s shadow in 2013 to set his career in motion, which includes a Grey Cup win in 2015 and a most outstanding player win this season if he continues his current pace.
 
It doesn’t mean Benevides can’t look back at what might have been had Lulay not been able to remain even moderately healthy in the years following his 2011 Grey Cup win. In an instant, Benevides can recall the night at B.C. Place Stadium in 2013 when Lulay reinjured his shoulder on a running play against Montreal and the world of two Lions veterans turned.

“If that fateful night in September under the dome against Montreal never happened we’d be speaking to you under different terms,” Benevides said, fully implying he would still be in charge of the Lions.

Instead, Benevides is in charge of arguably the best defensive line in three-down football and trying to patch together a defence that by his count has already gone through five starters and six linebackers before even reaching the quarter mark on the season.

And Lulay? He gets to recreate the scenario he once thought had been gone forever by facing Reilly again as starters. Reilly didn’t throw for 250 yards in two games combined the last time they met under similar circumstances. Those kinds of numbers are few and far between with Reilly at present.

To the one coach on the field Friday who perhaps knows them best, they are mirror images of each other.

“We used to go to the same church together and sat in the same pews (in the Lower Mainland),” Benevides said. “As long as we got (Reilly) we got a chance and I’m sure they’re saying the same thing. Put (Reilly and Lulay) side by side and you’re saying ‘that’s the guy I want leading my team’.”

If Benevides was still leading the Lions, it sounded like Lulay would be leading them for a lot longer.

LIONS TALES: Smack talk talks fast. Smack talk by a kicker circulates even quicker. No sooner had the Lions landed here Thursday, they became aware of remarks by former Lions kicker Sean Whyte of the Eskimos on TSN Radio-Edmonton, in which he said he looked forward to laying a beat down on his former club. For public consumption, however, most chose to take the high road. “That kind of stuff really doesn’t get to us regardless if its a kicker or any other player,” Burnham said...Arceneaux chose to be coy when asked whether the knee brace he’s been wearing this week and nagging shoulder concerns will keep him out of the game Friday. “Wally can answer the fans that's concerned. I’m here. I prepared as if I'm playing,” said Arceneaux, who had limited participation through the majority of the practice week. Arceneaux and rookie wideout Maurice Morgan will be in uniform if the veteran receiver can’t contribute fully. Anthony Gaitor and Dyshawn Davis will be the scratches off the 46-man roster.