Chapdelaine replaces Popp as Alouettes head coach

Jacques Chapdelaine hopes to restore order and get the offence moving as the new head coach of the struggling, dissension-riddled Montreal Alouettes.

The Canadian Football League club announced Monday that Popp will give up coaching duties to concentrate on his other job as general manager and that Chapdelaine, the receivers coach and special adviser to the offensive co-ordinator, will take over as interim head coach for at least the rest of the season.

The 55-year-old Chapdelaine, a CFL head coach for the first time in his 13-year career, said he has "strong opinions" on what is needed to get the offence moving but won't discuss them until he's spoken to his players and coaching staff, including co-ordinator Anthony Calvillo.

The Alouettes are on a bye week so he won't coach his first game until the Toronto Argonauts visit Percival Molson Stadium on Oct. 2.

"I can only say there will be changes, not only to the structure of the team but to the offence," Chapdelaine said.

The move came after the Alouettes fell to 3-9 with a fourth straight loss in Hamilton on Friday. Afterwards, Popp was given the game ball, leading to speculation that he had worked his last game.

By naming Chapdelaine, who joined the Alouettes in the off-season, the team owners avoided choosing between two on staff who have been vying for the head coaching job — defensive co-ordinator Noel Thorpe and special teams co-ordinator Kavis Reed.

Al's 1st French-speaking head coach

It was also a smart public relations move as Chapdelaine, a Sherbrooke, Que., native, became the first of 22 head coaches in Alouettes history who is French-speaking.

Andrew Wetenhall, the team governor and son of owner Bob Wetenhall, said that giving the job to Chapdelaine also allowed the team to concentrate on fixing an offence that has been held to fewer than 20 points in eight of 12 games this season without disrupting the defence or special teams, which have been working well.

Wetenhall said the search for a permanent coach will begin in October and that Chapdelaine, Thorpe and Reed, and perhaps outside candidates, would be given a shot at the job.

"We felt making a change was the best way to win games right away," said Wetenhall, adding that the move had been considered for several weeks. "The bye week was the optimal time to allow Jacques to prepare for our next game."

He also said that while Popp and team president Mark Weightman are part of the search team, it is the owners who have final say on who the next coach will be.

That approach has not worked out well since Marc Trestman's five-year run ended in 2012. The following season, Dan Hawkins was fired after five games and in 2015, Tom Higgins lasted only eight games. Each time, Popp stepped in, but the team's only general manager since the franchise was revived in 1996 has a weak 22-36 record in a the four times he has acted as head coach.

Popp said he was in on the talks that led to the change and supported the decision.

Chapdelaine called the job "an honour" and "an opportunity I couldn't pass up." He hopes to keep the job next season and said he didn't want to consider himself an interim coach because he wants to give the job his full effort.

'We are still in it'

"I'll do everything I can not only to be the head coach in 2016 but also for years ahead," he said. "This team has a lot of talent; we have six games left, and we are still in it.

"When I was coaching in B.C. in 2011, we made a run like this and ended up winning the Grey Cup. That's possible for this group of players."

Chapdelaine, a former CFL slotback, has been either an assistant coach or an offensive co-ordinator for 13 years with Calgary, B.C., Edmonton and Saskatchewan, winning three Grey Cups. He coached Laval University to a Vanier Cup title in 1999 and was also head coach at Simon Fraser University in 2014.

One of his first tasks will be to restore order among his squabbling players.

Some players have openly questioned coaching and management decisions, like the one to trade veteran quarterback Kevin Glenn two weeks and to promote sophomore Rekeem Cato to the starting job. At a practice last week, Cato blew up at Duron Carter and Kenny Stafford because he felt he wasn't getting respect from the veteran receivers.

Chapdelaine said he will talk to the players concerned and put in structures that will foster discipline and unity and on the team.

Popp went 3-7 after taking over last season as the Alouettes missed the playoffs. He stayed on to start this season because the team wanted continuity on the coaching staff.