Ottawa Redblacks general manager Shawn Burke told reporters over the weekend that it was a difficult decision to fire head coach Bob Dyce after four seasons.
The Redblacks closed out their year Friday night with a 35-15 loss to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats to finish 4-14 on the season, the worst record in the CFL.
Burke said Ottawa’s season did not meet expectations.
“Obviously a tough decision when you’re replacing your head coach, someone that you’ve worked with and believed in. And just the relationship you have with them and the relationship he has with the organization and the amount of time he’s put in here. It doesn’t go lightly into the decision. But felt a change was needed and felt this was the best way to move forward,” he said, adding that he finalized the coaching change this week.
“I think we all know we’re a performance based business and we didn’t perform up to the standards, right? So we expect more. Our ownership expects more, our fanbase expects more and you’re always evaluating each and every week. You don’t take a decision like this lightly.”
Dyce joined the Redblacks in 2016 as a special teams coordinator and became head coach in 2022. He led the team to their first playoff appearance since 2018 last year and signed a contract extension through 2026 earlier this year.
“Life is a journey, right?” Dyce said after his team’s loss in Hamilton Friday night.
“It’s kind of like a river, a lot of bends here, there and the next, and you just fight through the challenging times. You don’t know where it’s going to end [or] when it’s going to end, so you just be thankful for the time that you have and that’s about it.”
As for the coaches on Dyce’s staff, Burke said he’s leaving it up to the next head coach to pick and choose what direction they want to go in.
“My philosophy on the coaching staff is a head coach is in charge of his staff. So that’s being communicated to our coaching staff. The new hire will have full control of the staff he wants to bring on. The reality of our league is that most coaches are on one-year contracts but no matter what that is the head coach will have dictated who his staff is.”
Burke had high praise for how Dyce handled receiving the news that he would not be back next year.
“Professional. Gets it. It’s always a difficult discussion. It’s one person receiving feedback and then the other person communicating back, right? So nothing short of what I expected out of Bob with the relationship that we have and who he is as a person and he showed a lot of gratitude for the opportunity he got. Still has a ton of belief in the people within this organization and wished us all well,” the GM said.
Burke also did not shy of taking responsibility for the Redblacks’ play in 2025.
“Definitely. It starts with me, right? At the end of the day I’m the GM that runs the football operations side. You have to take responsibility or that’s not leadership in my eyes.”
TSN 1200’s AJ Jakubec reported that he spoke with Redblacks president Adrian Sciarra after Friday’s game and he confirmed Burke will return as GM for 2026.
“I rely on feedback from our management team, our ownership team, self reflection, people I trust in the business. We’ll sit there and have the exit interviews with a lot of the players today and tomorrow and evaluate and take lessons learned and go from there,” Burke said over the weekend.
