Lions' Buono ties CFL record for wins
Wally Buono is one win away from knocking Don Matthews off his perch.
Buono's B.C. Lions rebounded from a humiliating loss to the lowly Winnipeg Blue Bombers their last time out by beating the best team in the league Friday night with a 19-12 victory over the visiting Montreal Alouettes.
Montreal has not won at BC Place since 2000.
The Lions improved to 4-5 on the season, while the Alouettes fell to 7-2, but still lead in CFL's East Division.
With Friday's result, Buono moved into a tie with Matthews as the CFL's all-time leader in wins by a coach. The win was No. 231 for Buono, who began his CFL coaching career with the Calgary Stampeders on July 13, 1990, at BC Place in a game against the Lions.
Game Recap
After a scoreless opening 15 minutes, the Alouettes broke the deadlock at 4:35 of the second quarter. Eric Deslauriers recovered a fumble and returned it for a touchdown after a high snap from Lions long snapper Dan McCullough.
Lions running back Martell Mallett scored on a five-yard touchdown pass from Jarious Jackson three minutes later to tie the score at 7-7.
Sean Whyte booted a 27-yard field goal to give the Lions a 10-7 lead going into halftime.
Montreal kicker Damon Duval recorded two singles — one off a punt, the other off a missed field goal — to bring the Alouettes within a point of the Lions early in the fourth quarter.
Duval made amends for his previous miss when he connected on a 36-yard field goal at 8:26 and the Als took a 12-10 lead.
The Lions tied things up with 4:35 left in regulation when Duval conceded a safety.
B.C. took the lead for good thanks to Emmanuel Arceneaux's five-yard touchdown reception with 2:40 left on the clock.
Mallett finished the game with 21 carries for 213 yards, setting a Lions single-game rushing record.
Matthews, now retired, amassed 231 wins over 22 seasons with six different teams from 1983 to 2006.
Buono can move past Matthews and claim the record for himself next Sunday when the Lions visit the Alouettes in a return match in Montreal.
It's a staggering statistic, 231 wins, but it's even more impressive when you consider that the legendary Frank Clair, a member of the Canadian Football Hall of Fame, ranks third in career coaching wins with a relatively meagre 147 victories.
So what has been the secret to Buono's success? One word springs to mind: consistency.
A solid linebacker and punter during his playing days, Buono appeared in 152 games over 10 seasons with the Montreal Alouettes before moving into coaching, where he's left his greatest imprint on the CFL landscape.
A three-time CFL coach of the year, Buono, born in Italy but raised in Montreal, has won 10 division titles and only failed to make the playoffs once during his 19-season coaching career.
During his 13 years at the helm of the Stampeders, Buono posted three consecutive 15-3 campaigns and only suffered two losing seasons, in 2001 and 2002.
Despite an 8-10 record in 2001, Buono guided the Stampeders to their fifth Grey Cup championship in franchise history that same year.
A four-time Grey Cup winner — three with Calgary, one with B.C. — Buono holds the record for first-place finishes by a coach in the regular season with 11, and has never won fewer than 11 games in his six previous seasons with the Lions.
Wins and titles only tell half the story, though.
Buono is considered one of the best offensive minds in league history, and is credited with developing some of the best CFL quarterbacks of his era, including Doug Flutie, Jeff Garcia, and Dave Dickenson.
And it doesn't appear that Buono plans to walk away from football anytime soon, which means B.C.'s current and future crop of quarterbacks will benefit from his wisdom for years to come.