Former Ottawa Redblacks coach William Fields rebuts claim he ignored schematic suggestions

Photo: Ottawa Redblacks. Photo edit: 3DownNation.

William Fields was let go as the defensive coordinator of the Ottawa Redblacks mere hours after the team’s 34-13 loss to Montreal on July 31. He indicated that head coach and general manager Ryan Dinwiddie came into his office around 1:15 a.m. to give him the news.

“I wasn’t defensive or anything. I just said, ‘OK.’ If that’s what it’s going to be, that’s what it’s going to be,” Fields told 3DownNation via telephone.

“You can’t complain too much when you’re losing, so for me, I saw it as we weren’t winning, they needed to do something, and I was the something that they wanted to do.”

In the days after Fields was fired, Dinwiddie told the media he’d made suggestions regarding the defensive scheme that had fallen on “deaf ears.”

According to Fields, he’d incorporated some schematic concepts he knew Dinwiddie liked from the start of the season, and relented when Dinwiddie asked for more dramatic changes during the team’s bye week in Week 8.

“After the Winnipeg game (on July 19), I was asked to change a lot, so going into that Montreal game (on July 31), I was asked to do all these things,” he said.

“(Dinwiddie) said, ‘Hey, I would like these things put in,’ and I said, ‘OK, no problem.’ There wasn’t any pushback, so we added these things. There was even times in practice where he said, ‘Hey, I like when you guys did this and this and this.’ He wanted more of a four-man rush.

“People won’t go back and watch the film. In (Dinwiddie’s) interview, he said, ‘I wanted more stunts, I wanted more four-man rush,’ and he wanted us to blitz more. Well, if you go back to that game, you’ll see I blitzed more than I’ve ever blitzed, and I didn’t want to blitz as much because I didn’t feel like we had the cover guys.

“We were more of a zone-match team, so I’ve always approached defence this way. If anyone ever asked me, ‘Hey, what type of defence do you run?’ My answer would always be, ‘Well, what type of players do I have?’ You build the defence around the roster.

“For me, our roster wasn’t built to be stuck in man-to-man a lot because we didn’t have those type of players, so I didn’t run a lot of man early in the season, but if you look at that Montreal game, I ran a ton of man, and I blitzed more than I ever blitzed. That’s probably my highest blitz percentage game of the year and it hurt us.”

Alouettes receivers Tyson Philpot and Tyler Snead dominated Ottawa’s defence, making a combined 17 catches for 358 yards and one touchdown. It was a bloodbath.

According to Pro Football Focus, the Redblacks ran man coverage on 57.6 percent of their defensive snaps, which was a season-high. They also blitzed 20 times, which was an increase from the previous game, but not the most they’d done in a game this year.

Being fired is never a pleasant experience, but Fields doesn’t seem upset about being let go. Coaches get paid to win, and there hasn’t been any winning in Ottawa this season.

With that said, he wasn’t happy with Dinwiddie’s claim that he ignored schematic suggestions.

“What bothered me about that whole situation is when I read that Ryan said that he asked me to do things and it fell on deaf ears,” said Fields.

“That’s the only thing that bothered me because I would consider myself a good assistant coach. I’m gonna always be loyal, I’ll always respect the head coach, respect the players, respect the game, and put my hat down and just work, do what I’m asked to do, so I did make changes going into the Montreal game, and those changes didn’t work.”

This year wasn’t the first time that Fields and Dinwiddie worked together.

Fields was a co-defensive coordinator with the Argonauts in 2024 alongside Kevin Eiben. The defence was at its best come playoff time, forcing 11 takeaways over three playoffs games. Toronto intercepted Zach Collaros four times in the 111th Grey Cup to win 41-24 despite entering the game as almost 10-point underdogs.

Shortly following the victory, the relationship between Fields and Dinwiddie changed.

Nine days after winning the Grey Cup in Vancouver, Fields learned through the media that Toronto planned to hire Brent Monson as its new defensive coordinator. The veteran coach had been let go by the Calgary Stampeders weeks earlier.

Monson didn’t end up joining the Argonauts due to a contractual snag, and was instead hired by the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. After things fell through with Monson, Dinwiddie offered the job to Fields, but he didn’t take it.

“I think that was the point where we lost a little bit of trust in each other,” said Fields. “I just didn’t feel like it was a fit between me and R.D. because I just didn’t feel the trust.”

Not knowing where he stood in Toronto, Fields had been interviewing for other jobs and ended up accepting the defensive coordinator position with Ottawa under then-head coach Bob Dyce.

The following offseason, Dyce was fired and Dinwiddie took over the Redblacks as head coach and general manager.

Ottawa signed several free agents on the defensive side of the ball in February, including four day-one starters in Habakkuk Baldonado, A.J. Allen, C.J. Reavis, and Demerio Houston.

Though the injury bug bit the club’s secondary early-on in the season, Fields believes his unit was talented enough to play well. It just needed more time to gel.

“I thought we started off with the talent and cohesiveness to get it done, but remember, we lost one of our best players who was the boundary half, Bennett (Williams). We lost him early for the season. We ended up losing (Adrian) Frye at corner. (Alonzo) Addae had went down early, so he missed a couple games early on,” he said.

“I thought that we had some good, talented guys on the practice roster that we couldn’t get on (the active roster). They are playing now, but I think we had enough (talent) to possibly do well. I just knew it would take some time.”

“The issue when you’re trying to build is you’re gonna take your lumps and bruises early on, but you’re hoping you can steal a few wins while you’re learning, and then things will hit a peak. I think we were going that direction besides that drop in that Montreal game, but I think we were building in the right direction.

“We had the same issue in 2024 with Toronto when we had lost Chad (Kelly) for nine games, and we knew we were gonna take our bumps and bruises. The point was to try to steal a few wins while we’re trying to figure it out, which we did. I think we ended up 4-5 or 5-4 or something like that by time Chad got back, and we ended up figuring it out, and we started to roll.

“The problem in Ottawa was we weren’t stealing those wins. We had a few close losses early on, which we didn’t capitalize on, so that kind of made everything a little worse.”

In the weeks since he was let go, Fields has kept close tabs on the Redblacks, and he’s hoping to see them win plenty of games before the year is out.

“I had a hand in hiring some of the defensive (coaches), and it’s a lot of love,” he said. “We’ve still got a lot of history in that building. A lot of those guys I coached with in Toronto. The defensive staff, and even the players, some of those guys. I’m still rooting for them.”

His time away from the game is allowing Fields to focus on a much more important battle: his health.

When he returned to his offseason home in Houston last fall, Fields sought medical treatment for some unusual health symptoms he was experiencing.

In March, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer, and had surgery the following month. He lost 65 pounds.

Two weeks after undergoing surgery, he left for training camp in Ottawa.

“I’m still healing now, so this actually was a blessing in disguise because I’m able to come home and finally heal,” said Fields. “It’s been a lot going on. I don’t even know if I should have been coaching this year, but I don’t think it had anything to do with how the season was going.”

Fields informed Ottawa’s coaching staff of his diagnosis after undergoing surgery, and told the players during training camp.

The 48-year-old did not have to undergo chemotherapy and his prognosis is good. He’ll have to get tested every six months for the next two years, but is expected to make a full recovery.

“I went to MD Anderson. It’s one of the best cancer hospitals in North America, so it’s good care,” said Fields.

“I definitely needed more time, so (the firing) actually wasn’t a bad thing. I don’t think it should have happened because I think we were probably going to trend better. I don’t know how good we would have been, but I think defensively we would have trended upward.”

The Redblacks fell to 0-10 on Thursday night following a 46-16 loss to the Alouettes. The team has lost 16 consecutive games dating back to 2025, which is the longest streak in the modern history of the CFL.

“This year, it’s a lot of problems. It was more problems than just defensive problems, but I know sometimes people feel like you have to do something, and I don’t know if you always have to do something, but hopefully, the thing that you do works, and you continue to get better,” said Fields.

“If they had to do something, I’d rather it had been me than anybody else, so that’s why I didn’t push back on anything when I did get let go. I’m OK with it as long as everybody else is good.”

John Hodge is a longtime Canadian football reporter, insider, and podcaster for 3DownNation. Based in Winnipeg, Hodge is also a freelance television and radio broadcaster.