New Season, Same Old Hamilton Tigercats

Since Hamilton fans are adopting a wait-and-see attitude for their team, they may be kept waiting for a long time.

The team's performance against the Toronto Argonauts, arguably the second worst team last year, left fans with little hope for this year.

In no area were the Ti-Cats dominant in anything.

Toronto scored its first 20 points so easily that the Ti-Cats were in a hole before they ever woke up.

Their performance was that of an expansion team.

Hamilton spent the offseason supposedly making major improvements. If there were any, I didn't see them.

The failure to improve points to two things: either bad management, bad coaching, or both.

The removal of Casey Printers' large contract should have provided money for areas that needed upgrading. Either there were too many holes to plug, or Bob O'Billovich did a poor job targeting his team's most pressing needs by finding adequate players for the job.

The other scenario is that O'Billovich provided better personnel and that the team is being poorly coached. Marcel Bellefeuille describes his defensive line as a "work-in-progress."

That's hardly a ringing endorsement for O'Billovich's recruiting or his own coaching.

By the way things are, the only smart things the team did in the offseason were to drop Printers' large contract and let the too-frequently injured Jesse Lumsden go. 

One game is not enough to predict a whole season, but, unless there are significant improvements shown against B.C. in the next game, the Ti-Cats may end up resembling another feline, last year's Detroit Lions.