MONTREAL — Marc Trestman seems to be getting used to it. Speaking over the phone a little more than two weeks after his Montreal Alouettes captured a second-straight Grey Cup with a victory, once again, over the Saskatchewan Roughriders, 21-18, the 55-year-old head coach sounded downright blasé about having turned his team into something already being likened to a dynasty.
Marc Trestman holds the Grey Cup after the victory over Saskatchewan in 2009.
Under Trestman’s leadership, the Als have racked up the winningest record in the franchise’s history.
The Als’ second Jewish head coach after Marv Levy (who also led the team to two Grey Cups, in 1974 and 1977), Trestman was his laconic self, modest to a fault and not given to complex analysis.
“It was a great game, and a well-played game by both teams,” Trestman told The CJN. “We did the things offensively we needed to do: we moved the football at the end, controlled the game, controlled the clock.
“I thought it was a great team win.”
Trestman said it “didn’t matter” to him who took the most valuable player title. (The contenders were slotback Jamel Richardson – who actually won it – for his eight catches and 109 yards, and star quarterback Antony Calvillo, who completed 29 of 42 passes for 336 yards.)
Way more important was the win.
“Defensively, I think, we played terrific football,” Trestman said. “We contained a great offence and eliminated the big play, so it was a great team win.”
But did the winning coach feel any pressure going in?
“I don’t feel any pressure,” Trestman replied. “There’s plenty of that to go around. I mean, everybody’s working hard, trying to pull everything the same way. I love to coach football and I enjoy the day-to-day challenges that it brings, but I don’t feel there’s any pressure.”
Is it fun, though?
“Oh, it’s a blast!”
But Trestman, who spent 17 years coaching college-level football and in the National Football League before arriving in Montreal, offered only a terse “no comment” when asked about rampant rumours that the Miami Hurricanes – the first team he ever coached for in 1981 – was trying to lure him back.
According to the Alouettes’ website, Trestman’s contract has been extended until the end of the 2012 season.
