B.C. Lions head coach Wally Buono carries a challenge flag during a pre-season CFL football game against the Calgary Stampeders in Vancouver on June 17, 2016.DARRYL DYCK/The Canadian Press
Defensive back Ryan Phillips calls it the Wally Buono effect.
B.C. is 2-0 following last week's 28-3 road victory over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. Phillips had a fumble recovery and interception in the win, but he feels Buono's return to the sidelines has anchored the Lions' early success.
"You can't teach experience and Wally knows the game, how to execute and get the most from his players," said Phillips, in his 12th season with B.C. "But it's also about accountability and discipline and Wally holds a standard week in and week out.
"I can have two, three interceptions in one game but if I'm not upholding that standard and the role he wants me to play … I know at any time I could be expendable. That accountability is always going to be the standard and at the forefront."
Buono resumed coaching after Jeff Tedford resigned. Tedford, a former CFL quarterback, compiled a 7-11 record in his only season as B.C.'s head coach following a long, successful NCAA coaching tenure.
"Last year, I remember blowing a lot of fourth-quarter leads," Phillips said. "Right now we're learning how to finish games."
Buono, 66, is no stranger to the CFL coaching ranks. He has the most career wins in league history (256 regular-season wins and counting), has captured a record-tying five Grey Cups and four times been named the league's top coach.
He left coaching after B.C.'s 2011 Grey Cup win to concentrate on his front-office duties as Lions' GM and vice-president of football operations. Phillips, 33, has a long, successful association with Buono dating back to 2005.
"He gave me my first opportunity," Phillips said. "This is a guy I've won many games with, I've won Grey Cups with.
"But even for new guys I feel it (having Buono back coaching) is huge because discipline and some other things maybe aren't always at the forefront and I feel like Wally's instilling those in those guys. He makes sure you understand you must be a professional day in and day out, whether it's practice or games on and off the field and it's definitely making us a more cohesive unit."
Phillips now has 45 career interceptions, leaving him four shy of Larry Crawford's club record. Phillips believes he can break the mark this season.
"It's important in the sense you play the game to be successful as a team as well as an individual," he said. "You work hard and sacrifice a lot, whether it's family or anything else, to try to be the best player you can be.
"As long as I play my game and execute the scheme, (defensive co-ordinator) Mark Washington and the rest of the coaches will put me in a position to try to make those plays."
B.C. hosts Toronto (1-1) on Thursday.