Concordia adds Ed Philion to staff as defensive coordinator

Head coach Brad Collinson is pleased to announce former Montreal Alouettes star Ed Philion will join the Concordia Stingers football staff as the defensive co-ordinator.

“I’ve known Ed since 2003,” said Collinson. “I’ve followed his career closely as a player and a coach in the CFL, and he’s a winner. I’m really looking forward to working with him.”

Philion, 48, spent five seasons in the NFL with the Buffalo Bills, Carolina Panthers and Jacksonville Jaguars before joining the Montreal Alouettes in 1999 and going on to have an impressive eight-year CFL career.

The defensive tackle played in five Grey Cup games winning the coveted trophy in 2002. He earned four consecutive CFL Eastern Division all-star honours (2003-06).

Since retiring from active play, Philion spent time in the broadcast booth at CJAD and went on to a coach the defensive line with the Toronto Argonauts, Edmonton Eskimos (winning a Grey Cup in 2015) and most recently with the Saskatchewan Roughriders.

After six seasons of leaving his family in Quebec to work with the CFL teams out of the province, Philion is happy to take a job back home.

“It was getting harder and harder to leave my family,” Philion said. “So when the opportunity to be a defensive co-ordinator came up and it meant coming home, it was a no-brainer.”

The native of Essex, Ont., who went on to star at Ferris State University in Big Rapids, Mich., is excited to work at the university level.

“The best years of my life were at university,” he said. “Also, some of the most influential people in my life have been coaches, including my college coach. I’m look forward to having the opportunity to guide these players.

“When you work with the pros, they are already formed and you have very little impact on them as people, but at this level I can share my experience and give then the views of someone who has been where they want to go. It’s appealing to me to have influence and to help develop them at this time in their lives.”

 

source: stingers.ca

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