Bob Dyce Brings Head Coaching Experience to His Special Teams Role

Bob Dyce considers Special Teams exactly that. Special.

“It’s funny, special teams are very dear to my heart but I’d never planned to be a special teams coordinator,” said the former Ottawa Redblacks head coach, who was officially announced as the Ticats’ new special teams coordinator on Monday, replacing Dennis McKnight. He also holds the portfolio of assistant head coach.

“I’d worked on offence for the first 10 years of my career and when I made the transition it was something that really grabbed hold of me; the opportunity to work with the whole team and for me, being Canadian, working with what I consider the glue guys on your roster, guys who are fighting and playing because they love the game and want to be part of something. And that’s what special teams is about: you’re not successful unless all 12 guys are working together and that’s what I really love about it, bringing offensive guys and defensive guys in to work together for one common goal.”

Dyce, the 60-year-old Winnipeg native, returned a few kicks when he was a receiver at the University of Manitoba during the late 1980s, worked as an offensive coach and coordinator in the Canadian Junior League and at Manitoba before graduating to the CFL as the longtime receivers coach in Winnipeg, then Saskatchewan where he was offensive coordinator in 2012 before switching to special teams coordinator with the Riders for three years, and also filling in as interim head coach in 2015. He moved to Ottawa for six years running the Redblacks special teams, then was elevated to four years of head coaching.

He says he chose to come to Hamilton “because you can tell from afar it’s an organization that has done things right over the years. You saw the growth in the team last season. When you’re in this business you want to be around great people. We all want to win and it was a fantastic opportunity to join an organization that is on the upswing and has the opportunity to win the Grey Cup. That Scott (Milanovich) and Orlondo (Steinauer) were interested in me is a little humbling and I thought it would be a fantastic fit.”

“Special teams was a big part of that.”

The Ticats have re-signed some players like long snapper Gordon Whyte and Tyler Ternowski, Johnny Augustine and Stavros Katsantonis, who are critical to their special teams—which generally had a solid 2025 season. But they also released punter Nik Constantinou, dynamic returner Isaiah Wooden, rookie linebacker Devin Veresuk to permit them to pursue NFL opportunities. So only two-thirds of the “operation”—inside talk for the snapper, place-kicker, and punter/holder—are back. After being able to rely heavily upon kicker Lewis Ward in Ottawa, it’s energizing for Dyce to have Whyte and place-kicker Marc Liegghio, who has become as close to Mr. Automatic as you can get and is coming off the fourth-longest successful field goal streak in CFL history.

“We’re blessed to have a long snapper as talented and professional as Gordon; Leggs had an outstanding season and he’s continued to grow throughout his career,” Dyce says. “Nik had an outstanding season last year and you’re always happy when these guys get an opportunity to possibly move up to the next level. I have complete trust in the personnel department that we’ll bring people in, and working with Gordon and Leggs, we’ll have a strong unit again.”

He’ll be assisted by linebackers coach Elijah Sandweiss and primarily former fullback James Tuck—now the Co-Special Teams Coordinator—who enters his second season on the coaching staff, after ending his decade-long playing career with the 2024 Ticats.

“That’s another thing that appealed to me,” Dyce says. “Obviously I’ve coached against James for numerous years in his career and having the opportunity to work with him on special teams is fantastic.”

With the addition of Dyce, the Ticats now have four Canadians on the coaching staff as he joins Tuck, newly promoted offensive coordinator Jarryd Baines and defensive coordinator Brent Monson.

“Those are excellent coaches,” he says. “When I was interim head coach in Saskatchewan, it was Jarryd’s first year in the league and we forged a friendship there. I’ve seen him grow throughout his career and Brent has done a great job as defensive coordinator for a long time in this league. It’s a bunch of great coaches and the fact that they’re Canadian does have a special meaning for me but it’s more that they’re just outstanding coaches.”

Dyce and his wife Amanda maintain their family home base in Winnipeg because when he left the Bombers for Saskatchewan, 11 years ago, their eldest child, daughter Brooklyn, was on soccer scholarship to the University of North Dakota, and it was easier for Amanda to travel to her games from Winnipeg. Their son Trysten, now a CFL coach, played football for the University of Manitoba and their daughter Ava was still in high school until she started university in Ottawa four months ago.

Dyce will begin discussing he move to Hamilton in a few weeks but meanwhile communicates regularly with Milanovich and the rest of the coaches as the staff sculpts the club’s approach to the 2026 season.

“Your special teams are always keys,” he says. “One of the biggest things we want to do is be extremely physical. Play with great confidence and know that we’re going to dictate our success, it’s not going to be decided by whom we’re playing against. It’s what we do that’s going to allow us to be successful. We have to be an extremely tough and physical group.

“When you have a bunch of people who are working toward a common goal and have complete trust in one another to achieve that goal, that’s when you have successful special teams. I’m a big believer in giving players a lot of ownership in what we do. It’s going to take all of us. We have to be tough, nasty and play fast.”