Mark Kilam feels he’s where he’s supposed to be as Edmonton Elks head coach

CALGARY — A year after receiving some friendly advice from Cody Fajardo, Mark Kilam is preparing for his first Grey Cup as a CFL head coach.

Edmonton will chase its first CFL title since 2015 when it faces the Montreal Alouettes at McMahon Stadium on Sunday. That comes after the Elks were fifth in the West Division last year with a 7-11 record.

The 2025 campaign was Kilam’s first as Edmonton’s head coach. During his exit interview with Fajardo, the veteran quarterback told Kilam he was too focused on the Elks’ special teams and needed to spend more time with the remainder of the team.

Kilam came by his special-teams concentration honestly. Before becoming the Elks’ head coach, Kilam, an Edmonton native, spent 20 seasons as an assistant coach with the Calgary Stampeders, the bulk of which was spent coaching special teams.

“When you get feedback from your veteran players, you always take it to heart,” Kilam said Wednesday during the Grey Cup coaches news conference. “I was co-ordinating special teams last year … because I wanted to set the standard for that phase on a new team.

“Part of my growth as a second-year head coach is that when I gave those duties up, I was able to spend more time in other areas on the team and for me, personally, it was awesome just to be more involved in the other sides of the ball. One of the reasons it’s helped our team be stronger is we’ve been more streamlined in all three phases.”

A fact not lost upon Fajardo, who threw for a career-high 4,788 yards in helping Edmonton (13-5) finish atop the West and earn its first playoff berth since 2019.

“I just said, ‘The guys love you, they love hearing from you,” Fajardo said of his meeting last year with Kilam. “We just want you to be offensively, defensively, special teams, and not just solely focused on special teams.

“He has been a true head coach, a true leader of men. There’s no way we’re in this Grey Cup without Mark Kilam as our head coach.”

Edmonton finished last season by winning six of its final 11 games and hasn’t really looked back. The Elks were 8-1 at Commonwealth Stadium and last weekend defeated the B.C. Lions 28-16 there in the West Division final before over 40,000 spectators.

Kilam admits to feeling somewhat sentimental to be making his first Grey Cup appearance as a head coach in a city he called home for 20 years. But it pales in comparison to the pride he’s feeling with Edmonton’s resurgence.

“It means more that we brought back some pride in the Double E,” he said. “Going back a week and seeing 40,000 people screaming in that stadium and driving through the city seeing flags of the team and seeing people wearing the colours again.

“You walk into Safeway (a supermarket chain) and get stopped 10 different times because people are so excited about the football team again. That’s what you take pride in, that’s what you draw the emotion from, that we’ve inspired belief in the football team again.”

Heady stuff considering Kilam was fired as Calgary’s assistant head coach/special-teams co-ordinator in October 2024 with defensive co-ordinator Brent Monson and defensive-line coach Juwan Simpson. It came after the Stampeders missed the playoffs for the first time in 18 years.

“I was very, very fortunate to be in the same place for 20 years,” Kilam said. “I’d never gone through the coaching roulette and that kind of situation, so I felt all of the emotions, truthfully.

“But I wasn’t going to let it define me; I knew I was going to land on my feet and find my way through it. As it worked out, within five minutes of (Elks GM Ed Hervey), (Elks president Chris Morris) and I talking, I felt like we just aligned. I feel like I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be.”

Montreal head coach Jason Maas will make his third Grey Cup appearance as a CFL head coach Sunday, all coming with Montreal. But Maas won two Grey Cups as a quarterback with Edmonton (2003, 2005) and later served as the Elks head coach (39-33 record from 2016-19).

Maas is happy to see the Elks relevant again in Edmonton.

“I think it’s amazing,” Maas said. “To see them being successful again and the pride come back to the city to support the Elks the way I see it, I think it’s tremendous.

“I think the league is stronger when all the teams are this way, and certainly when they’re supported that way by the community.”

Kilam, Maas and B.C.’s Buck Pierce are the finalists for the CFL’s 2026 coach of the year award.

Kilam was part of three Grey Cup-winning teams with the Stampeders. But he doesn’t believe earning his first as a head coach in Calgary would mean more to him.

“It’s the Grey Cup,” he said. “It’s the ultimate; it’s why we start competing, it’s why we sacrifice so much.

“We could play it anywhere. Obviously, being back here there’s some sentimentality to it, but I want to win for our guys, and I want to win for the city of Edmonton.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 11, 2026.

Dan Ralph, The Canadian Press