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He gave Mike O’Shea his first job as a CFL coach and watched him become one of the league’s boldest gamblers.

Jim Barker doesn’t expect the Blue Bombers head man to lose any of his nerve despite the decisions that have cost his team in its last two playoff appearances.

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“Every special-teams coach wants the freedom to be able to run fakes and do things that make a difference,” Barker said of O’Shea, his former special-teams coach in Toronto. “I don’t think he’ll ever lose that. And as a head coach, that’s what he does. They get a lot of positives out of it, because teams have to worry about stuff like that with them.

“Knowing Osh, I don’t think that will have one bit of influence on him.”

In last year’s West semifinal in B.C., O’Shea called for a 61-yard field goal instead of going for it on third-and-four, his team down by two points.

Ten days ago, he took responsibility for turning the momentum of a close game Edmonton’s way in another West semifinal, after a fake punt failed early in the second half.

“It surprised me,” Barker said. “And while it changed the momentum, it could have changed the momentum the other way. That’s what makes Osh, Osh. And there’s not one player in that locker-room thinking they did the wrong thing.

“Osh has always had that live-on-the-edge attitude. If he thinks it has a chance, then he’s going to do it.”