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“I’ll say this, one thing I can control every week is the work I put in and the belief you instil in your players, the preparedness that you feel like you give your coaches, your plan you put in place and the things that you have to be proud of, the body of work you do, and then it comes down to execution at times,” he said. “Are there things I’d like to be better at? Absolutely, the things that I can get better at being a head coach, and I’m going to look at all those things.

“But, I always say, I think the one thing I can control is how hard I work in the passion I have for this game, this organization. And that’s what I hang my hat on. And I feel good about that body of work. But ultimately do I want to improve? Do I want our team to improve? Absolutely. And you know, we’ll do our part. I’ll do my part and this offseason to make sure of that.”

Sure.

Just not with the Eskimos.

Photo by Ed Kaiser / Postmedia

Hired by then-general manager and former Eskimos teammate Ed Hervey, who now serves in the same capacity with the B.C. Lions, Maas has long been rumoured to end up being reunited there with ex-Eskimos quarterback Mike Reilly, who led the league in passing yards for three straight seasons in Maas’s offensive system.

Reilly’s replacement, Trevor Harris, was following in those very footsteps this year, leading the league in passing yards with MOP-level numbers prior to suffering an arm injury that forced him to miss five games. But despite the Eskimos’ gaudy offensive yards during Maas’s tenure, they never challenged in the West Division. The closest they came to hosting a home playoff game was a third-place finish after a 12-6 record in 2017 – the year of the infamous field-goal call while trailing the rival Calgary Stampeders by seven (3+3+1?) in the last 90 seconds of the West final.