In his first year back as head coach, Wally Buono has already taken the BC Lions farther than the team has gone in the last three seasons.

The Lions will play the Calgary Stampeders in the CFL Western Final at McMahon Stadium Sunday. It will be BC’s first appearance in the Western Final since losing the 2012 game to the Stampeders.

Good, but not good enough for Buono.

“This is not a big deal,” said the man who has won more games than any other CFL coach. “When you can think it’s a big deal then your expectations are quite low and your goals are not high enough.

“Your goals should be higher than what you think you should achieve, otherwise you will never achieve them. Am I happy here? No. I would rather be hosting the first-place game than playing in the first-place game.”

The winner of Sunday’s game advances to the Grey Cup in Toronto.

The Lions won last week’s Western Semi-Final with a nail-biting 32-31 win over the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. BC trailed that game by 16 points early in the third quarter.

Recent editions of the Lions probably would have folded under that deficit. Buono didn’t want to point any fingers at past coaches when asked why this year’s team showed more resiliency.

“I don’t know,” he said. “When you’re not in the locker room, when you’re not in the meeting rooms, when you’re not in the coaches’ meetings, you can’t answer that. It’s hard for me to comment on something I was not part of.

“Being resilient is also something the players and the coaches see in the person that is supposed to be leading them. Believe me, sometimes it’s difficult for me to be resilient.”

Buono, 66, put away his coaching whistle after BC won the 2011 Grey Cup at BC Place Stadium. It looked like he had written the perfect final chapter to a storybook career as a player and coach.

Over the next four years Buono served as general manager and vice-president of football operations. It was a period where the Lions’ franchise began to list.

During the three years Mike Benevides served as head coach, and with Jeff Tedford at the helm for one season, the Lions never won a playoff game. During that span the team had a combined regular-season record of 40-32. They never finished higher than third place.

With the Lions sailing into dangerous waters, Buono decided to take the wheel again. With him on deck BC finished the regular season 12-6 and hosted a Western Semi-Final for the first time since 1986.

Returning as coach was a gamble. If the team had continued to struggled Buono’s reputation would have been tarnished.

“I didn’t give any thought as to what it was going to be like,” said the CFL Hall of Famer. “Nothing is guaranteed in this business. What you did last week, last year, 10 years ago has no relevance.

“The only thing that was consistent for me was the coaches bought into what we were trying to create. They went to training camp, we sold the players on what our vision was to improve this football team. The players gave us what we wanted. They worked extremely hard.”

Several pieces of the winning puzzle also fell into place for Buono this year.

First, he had the services of a dynamic and exciting quarterback in Jonathon Jennings, who became just the fourth Lion to throw for over 5,000 yards in a season. It gave the team stability after Travis Lulay struggled with injuries the last three years.

When running back Andrew Harris signed as a free agent with Winnipeg, BC signed both Jeremiah Johnson and Anthony Allen. Buono convinced and cajoled the two to share the running back position. They combined for 1,245 rushing yards and 10 touchdowns.

Slotback Emmanuel Arceneaux enjoyed the best year of his career, with 1,566 yards and 13 touchdowns.

On defence, middle linebackers Solomon Elimimian and Adam Bighill became the first players on the same CFL team to have over 100 tackles each. First-year defensive back Loucheiz Purifoy stepped up with 43 tackles, five sacks and an interception.

“You have to emotionally, physically, mentally be ready to play. If you’re not, you are probably going to lose.” Wally Buono

Past Lion teams also had plenty of talent. Buono brought some intangibles.

Earlier this year veteran defensive back Ryan Phillips tried to explain what Buono’s return meant to the Lions.

“You can’t teach experience,” Phillips told The Canadian Press. “Wally knows the game, how to execute and get the most from his players.

“It’s also about accountability and discipline. Wally holds a standard week in and week out.”

The Lions will face a Stampeder team that finished 15-2-1 this season. BC beat Calgary 20-18 in the opening game of the season, then lost the next two matches 44-41 and 37-9.

“It’s a very good Calgary team,” said Buono. “When you review the season they were the class of the league.

“They played by far the best football of anybody in the league.”

The Stampeders had a bye in the final week of the season, meaning they won’t have played a game in four weeks before facing the Lions.

Buono shrugged when asked how that long layoff might affect the Stamps come Sunday.

“I’ve been on both sides,” he said. “There is no magic formula, no reason why.

“It’s just the way it is. You have to emotionally, physically, mentally be ready to play. If you’re not, you are probably going to lose.”