HAMILTON, ONTARIO - SEPTEMBER 25: 2021 Canadian Premier League game between Hamilton Forge FC and Pacific FC at Tim Hortons Field on September 25, 2021 in Hamilton, Ontario. (Photo by Ryan McCullough/Hamilton Forge FC)
He’s been with the Tiger-Cats for nearly a decade—the longest current consecutive tenure of anyone on the franchise’s football side—but only the most observant Cat fans know much about him.
If you attend Cat games, you’d recognize Jarryd Baines from his barrel chest, confident gait and his authoritative pre-game warm-up drills with attentive quarterbacks the past two seasons and before that, with receivers and running backs. Baines, 36, has repeatedly proven his worth to the Ticats and particularly to head coach and offensive coordinator Scott Milanovich, who has mentored him diligently the past three seasons and delegated to him ever-increasing slices of responsibility. This week, Baines’ work ethic, stay-in-the-moment focus, and painfully long hours of studying the game from all angles were publicly acknowledged when he was named the Ticats’ offensive coordinator.
Milanovich, one of the best offensive minds on the continent, will still call the plays with Baines’ input continuing from on high; likely from the spotters’ booth where he’s perched during games for years. Both Milanovich and Bo Levi Mitchell have given Baines regular shoutouts as the Ticats offence has evolved and improved every season. As quarterbacks coach, Baines oversaw Mitchell’s spectacular last couple of seasons, two of the best three of his historic career.
“I’m very excited,” said the Ottawa native, who was a star defensive back and linebacker for the Guelph Gryphons before joining the CFL’s football personnel intern program in 2013, and launching his climb toward one of the top portfolios in the three-down game. “It’s definitely been a long process, but I never wanted to rush it. I was always understanding of my role, trying to be where my feet were. I think having Scott pushing me to become a better coach really helped me realize that I was ready to do this. It’s unique in that I’m not really calling the plays as a traditional play-caller, but I’ve got more responsibilities and am really getting my feet wet in that next step before taking over my own offence.
“Scott and I have a real good working arrangement; during games, I have input on our offence, the opposing defences and on (coach’s) challenges where needed. Scott’s still going to call the plays and have the final say on everything; I’m his right-hand man. I’ll install (plays) and do some of the daily work for him with the players, which allows him to do more film study.”
Installing plays is footballese for the introduction of the season’s—and a specific week’s—playbook—to the quarterbacks in their intense pivots-only meetings and in the full-offence meetings and also during the first practice of the week, when X’s and O’s and film study are translated into 3-dimensional reality with detailed run-throughs on the field.
Baines says he’ll spend most of his time on installing passing and pass-protection aspects, while Myer Spitulnik, promoted from quality control, does the same with the running backs. Baines and Spitulnik are consulting on their collaboration a lot this off-season.
Baines is one of four sons of highly-respected sports writer Tim Baines, who’s written people-first stories and columns about the Redblacks since their inception for both Ottawa Sun and Ottawa Citizen, as well as covering a wide variety of other sports for decades. His brother Mitchell was a Ticat receiver in 2017; when Baines was in offensive quality control, expanding the family’s football Venn diagram.
“My dad played at Laurier and Sheridan College and my first memory was going to watch Ottawa U games that my uncle was playing in,” Baines said. “I never got to see my dad play but having him in sports made me a sports devotee, to this day. I love competition…in all sports.”
After starting his off-field career in 2013 with the CFL as a football ops and officiating intern, he took an internship with the Saskatchewan Roughrider in 2014, then was promoted to defensive quality control coach. Quality control involves long hours splicing and dicing game and practice films and servicing whatever technical needs the coordinator requires.
After a coaching regime change in Saskatchewan, Baines interviewed for an intern spot in his hometown Ottawa but then Shawn Burke, current Redblacks GM but then the Cats’ assistant GM, called him about a vacancy as a quality control position in Hamilton prior to the 2016 season. He added assistant receivers coach to his portfolio in 2018, while still handling quality control, then was promoted to receivers coach in 2020, switched over to running backs coach in 2022, then back to wide receivers again in 2023. Milanovich made him quarterback coach the next season—the year a physically-strengthened Mitchell surged back to prominence and was the MOP finalist—and this year, he’s offensive coordinator.
“I never tried to rush it,” he says. “I always had an end goal that I wanted to be the best running backs coach, receivers coach, quarterbacks coach I could be, and it would all work itself out. The more time you spend perfecting your craft, the better the result. I had long-term goals, but those would be at the end of the season.
“I learned from a lot of coaches at a speed which was great for me. I was really lucky. Obviously, Scott was a giant resource. He played quarterback professionally, and as a coach, that’s his specialty. That was a huge help. Scott really put an emphasis on that part of his knowledge. He always took me aside and showed me his drills, showed me the intent of them and walked me through the details you’d get in quarterback meetings. Quarterback meetings are always the ‘Secret Society’ of football meetings, and he brought me into those. Without that, I wouldn’t have been able to do this.”
Bob Dyce, himself named a Ticat coordinator (special teams) this week, has maintained a friendship with Baines since they were together on the prairies in 2015 and says, “I was ecstatic when I heard about his promotion.” They’re among four Cat coaches, two of them coordinators, who are Canadian-born and trained, which is important to both men. Baines’ franchise longevity usually falls below the public radar. While President of football ops Orlondo Steinauer and linebacker Simoni Lawrence were here when Baines arrived, Steinauer spent a year at Fresno State, and Lawrence left the playing field two years ago and is now the club’s game colour commentator and lead community ambassador. All-everything guard Brandon Revenberg has been a Cat nearly as long as Baines. They met before the 2016 draft when head coach Kent Austin conscripted Baines to hold arm pads while the Ticats worked Revenberg out on blocking drills. “I was thinking, ‘Kent, when are you going to call the dogs off?’ I was getting thrown back violently every time,” Baines laughs. “I was strong, but Rev proved to be quite the physical specimen. That he’s still the best in the league doesn’t surprise me.”
While Revenberg returns and several others on offence are under contract, the Ticats are still in the process of building their playing personnel. They’ve made some positive changes every year—think Bo Levi Mitchell’s lower-body strength and the arrival of Kenny Lawler— and expect to be as good as last season, or even better, on that side of the ball.
“There’s always something added every year,” Baines says. “And it’s made us stronger. I see a similar foundation, but building off it. I think we do a great job of mixing our play-action game with our run game and making them look similar to each other. I think our drop-back passing game will continue to evolve as well.
“For the staff in the off-season, improvement is us trying to stay ahead of the curve in terms of what concepts we use and for the players, it’s to continue personal skill improvement and continuing to improve with (strength and conditioning coach) Marcellus Bowman.
“I don’t think our general philosophy will change. There’s a huge focus on ball security, a focus on keeping Bo upright, and keeping Bo in a clean pocket. If we can stay locked into those, I think our offence is going to be great again. It’s a matter of how we evolve to stay one step ahead of the curve.”
