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Phillip Lolley, then Auburn's director of external football relations, talks to the press Thursday, March 27, 2014, at the Auburn Athletic Complex in Auburn, Ala. (Julie Bennett/jbennett@al.com)

AUBURN, Alabama -- The first thing Phillip Lolley noticed when he got back from Canada was how slow the American game looks now.

Only one man in motion? 11 men on the field, nobody running full speed at the line of scrimmage before the snap?

After a season spent helping turn around the Edmonton Eskimos in the CFL, Lolley had gotten so used to the Canadian game's speed that the game he'd coached in Alabama for most of his career was a lot easier to digest.

"The game expounds your mind," Lolley said. "You have to think faster, the play-clock is faster. It's a built-in speed. ... And then the running that takes place from sideline to sideline, 65 yards, you're trying to chase that speed down."

Lolley left Auburn 15 years ago to join Chris Jones, Lolley's old protege and now the Eskimos head coach, in the CFL as Edmonton's linebackers coach.

He had to adjust to the cold -- temperatures at the end of the season sometimes dropped deep into the negatives -- and a little bit of culture.

But the fan bases surprised him. For a league that runs second-fiddle to Canada's national sport, the CFL has a rabid following.

"The No. 1 sport up there is hockey," Lolley said. "We're kind of like basketball here in the states, we're No. 2, but the CFL's got some lively fans. In towns like Saskatchewan, that's all they've got."

With 15 extra yards to cover, another man and receivers racing to the line of scrimmage before the snap, Lolley had a lot to learn about the Canadian game.

"All of that motion, all those guys in motion, they can be attacking that line of scrimmage from 15, 20 yards deep, they can go sideways," Lolley said. "And really, if they're not a yard offsides, those guys can clearly be offsides, but they don't call it."

But Jones didn't bring in Lolley because of his expertise in the Canadian game; a three-time Grey Cup winner as a defensive coordinator, Jones knows how to handle all of that.

Jones needed somebody who could teach his team to hit opponents in the mouth.

"The inside game is basically the same," Lolley said. "My job was basically to control the inside game. ... The game is still run, sight, contact."

The new staff turned Edmonton around.

After going 4-14 in 2013, the Eskimos went 12-6 and made it to the semifinals, one game away from a Grey Cup appearance.

"By about midseason, everybody was like, 'that Edmonton defense is something,'" Lolley said. "That's an attitude, regardless of what the X's and O's are."

And Lolley has always known how to teach the game.