REGINA — While Mark’s CFL Week continues to put the league’s brightest stars in the spotlight, coaches and general managers got their turn on Thursday afternoon.

One head coach/general manager from every team took the stage in Regina to answer questions from the media in two half-hour sessions. First it was Jacques Chapdelaine, Rick Campbell, Jim Popp and Kent Austin from the East; then Mike O’Shea, Chris Jones, Dave Dickenson, Jason Maas and Wally Buono from the West.

The result, as you’d expect, was some compelling and inspired conversation.

Here are some of the highlights:

1. The coaches and general managers agree: Mark’s CFL Week is good for the league.

The coaches and GMs didn’t agree on everything on Thursday but this was the consensus: Mark’s CFL Week has benefited fans, media and players by celebrating some of the game’s most talented athletes and biggest personalities.

“I think it should be about the players,” said Dickenson. “The game is about the players. The best way to get to know the players is to have a fan experience with them, something that’s unique.”

Buono quickly echoed such sentiment, adding that the player response has been encouraging — players see it as a tribute to who they are and what they do.

“The CFL cannot just exist from the months of June to November,” said Buono. “We’ve got to keep the focus on the CFL all year round. Things like this will go a long, long way to help that.

“Hopefully this is helping to engage the younger generation which we definitely need.”

2. New Mosaic Stadium is encouraging.

Many of those in town this week are getting their first look at the new Mosaic Stadium. The coaches and GMs’ reactions varied but the consensus is clear: new, state of the art facilities are a boon for the Canadian Football League.

“The new stadium is remarkable if you ask me,” said Maas. “Just seeing it from afar and seeing the pictures online, I’m excited and I think it’s a good thing for our league.”

Chris Jones, of course, was one of the first to praise the Riders’ new digs — the same ones he’ll coach in through 10 or more games in 2017.

“Our stadium is unbelievable,” said the team’s head coach and general manager. “The guys really did a great job — Jeremy O’Day and Craig Reynolds and the development committee.

“When you look across the CFL and see how the public has invested in the CFL, it’s encouraging.”

Dave Dickenson wasn’t as quick to comment, adding that the Stampeders are working on getting their own state of the art facility.

3. Buono: ‘We also have to entertain’

Wally Buono and Mike O’Shea offered slightly differing opinions on what’s most important for the fans. For O’Shea, winning is first and foremost when it comes to bringing fans back to the stadium week in and week out.

“Win,” said O’Shea. “Get out on the field, put a highly-competitive product out there. Have your guys play with passion and win. It’s our job to win.”

For Buono, winning on its own isn’t enough. The Lions’ head coach and general manager says the product has to be entertaining. That, he adds, includes evolving the game through rule changes and modification of the way it’s played.

“We have to make people want to come to our games,” said Buono. “One of the ways we’ve done that is being flexible, not being selfish and trying to modify the game.

“By making the rule changes we have the last couple of years, offences are scoring more, games are entertaining. That’s what people want to come to.”

4. Jones: ‘I feel we’ve got a very good football team’

After his second off-season in charge of the Riders, Chris Jones believes his team is in a good spot. Then again, he said he felt the same thing last season.

“A year ago we felt we had a very good football team,” said Jones. “Unfortunately we didn’t perform as well. You always make the decisions and you feel like you’ve got a good football team.

“I feel we’ve got a very good football team,” he added. “Certainly quarterback is something that’s going to be interesting to see how it transpires. I’m looking forward to getting to mini-camp and seeing who we can bring to vet camp when we start up here in May.”

The Riders were a five-win team a year ago but have since made a number of high-profile acquisitions. Plus, they enter 2017 with some continuity in the coaching staff and defence.

5. The Argos don’t feel disadvantaged.

Despite a tighter than usual window for Jim Popp and Marc Trestman, the Argos don’t believe they’re behind.

“I don’t look at it that way,” said Popp. “Obviously our time is crunched…but there’s a foundation in Toronto. I believe there’s a great crew of Canadians sitting there, there’s the foundation of a team, we’ve got a Hall of Fame quarterback.

“We’re going to take that group and we’re going to try to mold it and get it to speed to where we can be competitive week in and week out. Going into this, I don’t feel any different than these men here and the Western teams that we have a shot to win a Grey Cup and that’s the way we’ll approach it.”

6. Popp: ‘I think there have always been great coaches’.

The CFL’s crop of coaches is as strong as it’s ever been, but if you ask Jim Popp, that’s never been an issue in the Canadian Football League.

“I think there have always been great coaches,” said Popp. “There have been characters, but great coaches. As we go along and watch this league grow as high as 13 teams and down to eight teams, the founders of this league thought it out well.

“To be part of it and the uniqueness of it; to understand it and come in and have success — you’ve got to be a real student to achieve that feat,” he added. “I think there have been tremendous owners and tremendous coaches along the way that have kept this going for a long, long time.”

Rick Campbell believes the quality of both players and coaches is well-known on both sides of the border.

“I have friends that coached down in the U.S. and they know the CFL has a high level of play, “said Campbell. “You better be on your game in order to succeed in this league and that’s because the bar keeps getting raised by the players and the coaches.”

Kent Austin said the greatest reflection of coaches in the league is the year-to-year parity.

“The guys on this stage are outstanding coaches and the other ones that are going to be in here,” said Austin. “I’ve said before, it’s hard to win and it’s hard to win consistently because of parity, overall talent and excellent coaching.

“It makes each week a unique challenge.”

7. The CFL must continue taking chances.

Revisiting the rules discussion, some coaches agree that the league’s aggressive approach to rule changes is necessary to grow.

“I think the CFL is taking chances,” said Campbell. “It’s being much more aggressive. If you’re really safe and you don’t take chances then you’re not going to take as much heat — but at the same time, when you take chances, you get an opportunity to make things better.”

Buono agreed, adding that the CFL has always been an innovator.

“When you are a pioneer, you’re going to sometimes have to find your way,” he said. “The thing about the CFL is we’re not afraid to go where nobody else has gone. One of the things I heard today is the NFL is looking at challenging all penalties. I wonder where they got that from.

“The media is praising the NFL for when they moved the extra point back to the 25, well, guess who did it first? We did. We didn’t get the credit as much as they did.

“The CFL is doing a lot of things, our brothers to the south are looking at us, they’re letting us fumble through and picking the things they like.”

8. Sometimes you can be the victim of your own success.

In the salary cap world, the only real constant across CFL rosters is change. That’s been a challenge for coaches and GMs across the league but for some teams it’s a byproduct of success.

“It’s gonna be a challenge every year but you just keep in mind exactly what you have to work within the salary cap,” said Jones. “That’s why we have a salary cap and if guys don’t want to adhere to that then they won’t be in the organization.

“You have to pick and choose who’s going to be here and who’s going home, it’s a simple process. That’s how we’re going to approach it.”

For Buono, that means GMs must change the way they build their team: the focus on ‘today’ is greater than ever.

“You don’t know what tomorrow’s going to hold,” said Buono. “You have to keep your focus on building and we all know you have to build an entertaining product today.

“The pieces are there; everyone knows the cap and you have to fit it all in. Unfortunately there are times you have to sacrifice people. People and the media understand the choices we have to make today weren’t being made four, five years ago.

“Players are being put on the market because when you want to build your team, you have to fit everybody in the cap and you have to choose who you pay and who you don’t pay. Sometimes that affects high-profile people.”

9. The West is getting… stronger?

After another highly-competitive season in the CFL West Division last season, coaches and GMs feel it’ll be more of the same this year.

“To be honest, the West was the best I’ve ever seen it,” said Dickenson. “It was so challenging.”

And this year?

“All the Western teams have gotten stronger,” said Buono, even with all of the changes. “I can’t control players who leave, but I’m excited about the team we have. We’ve kept a good nucleus, we’ve brought in some free agents.

“Now it’s our job to go into training camp and build a team. Last time I checked it’s 0-0, 0-0, 0-0. So you go into camp and build your team.

“I look around here and none of our teams won the Grey Cup. So none of our teams were good enough.”