Marcel Bellefeuille (born March 19, 1966) is a Canadian football coach who is the head coach of the University of Ottawa Gee-Gees and the wide receivers coach for the Philadelphia Stars of the

United States Football League The United States Football League (USFL) was a professional American football league that played for three seasons, 1983 through 1985. The league played a spring/summer schedule in each of its active seasons. The 1986 season was scheduled to be ...

(USFL). He originally began his coaching career with Ottawa in 1995 and won the program's second

Vanier Cup The Vanier Cup (french: Coupe Vanier) is the championship of Canadian university football. It is organized by U Sports football and is currently played between the winners of the Uteck Bowl and the Mitchell Bowl. It is named after Georges Vanie ...

championship in

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

. He then spent 16 years coaching in the

Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a ...

(CFL), including a stint as the head coach of the

Hamilton Tiger-Cats The Hamilton Tiger-Cats are a professional Canadian football team based in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. They are currently members of the East Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL). The Tiger-Cats play their home games at Tim Hortons Fiel ...

from to . Bellefeuille returned as head coach of the Gee-Gees in 2020.

Coaching career

Ottawa Gee-Gees

Bellefeuille was hired by the

Ottawa Gee-Gees The Ottawa Gee-Gees are the athletic teams that represent the University of Ottawa in Ottawa, Ontario. The Gee-Gees won the national football championship, the Vanier Cup, in 1975 and 2000, while also appearing in the game in the 1970, 1980, an ...

as their assistant head-coach in 1995. He spent the next three seasons at the same position before being promoted to

head coach A head coach, senior coach or manager is a professional at training and developing athletes. They typically hold a more public profile and are paid more than other Coach (sport), coaches. In some sports, the head coach is instead called the "manage ...

in 1998. In 1999, he was named

OQIFC The Quebec University Football League was the Canadian football conference for Quebec universities who participate in CIS football until the completion of the 2010 football season. It has since been renamed Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec foot ...

Coach of the Year and then, in

, he led the Gee-Gees to a

victory.

Saskatchewan Roughriders

After the win in the Vanier Cup, Bellefeuille was hired by the

Saskatchewan Roughriders The Saskatchewan Roughriders are a professional Canadian football team based in Regina, Saskatchewan. The Roughriders compete in the Canadian Football League (CFL) as a member club of the league's West Division. The Roughriders were founded i ...

as an assistant. In 2003, he was named the offensive coordinator. In three seasons, he helped the Roughriders

running back A running back (RB) is a member of the offensive backfield in gridiron football. The primary roles of a running back are to receive handoffs from the quarterback to rush the ball, to line up as a receiver to catch the ball, and block. The ...

s total 7,000 rushing yards.

Montreal Alouettes

After leaving Saskatchewan, Bellefeuille joined the

Montreal Alouettes The Montreal Alouettes (Canadian French, French: Les Alouettes de Montréal) are a professional Canadian football team based in Montreal, Quebec. Founded in 1946, the team has folded and been revived twice. The Alouettes compete in the Canadian F ...

in 2006 as their running backs and wide receivers coach. In 2007, he was promoted to Offensive Coordinator and running backs coach. In his 1st season in Montreal, he helped Robert Edwards lead the CFL in

touchdown A touchdown (abbreviated as TD) is a scoring play in gridiron football. Whether running, passing, returning a kickoff or punt, or recovering a turnover, a team scores a touchdown by advancing the ball into the opponent's end zone. In Americ ...

s with 17. Bellefeuille also helped the Alouettes be the only team with two 1,000 yard receivers in Kerry Watkins and

Ben Cahoon Ben Cahoon (born July 16, 1972) is a former professional Canadian football slotback who spent his entire career with the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League. He won the award for the Most Outstanding Canadian in the CFL two years i ...

Hamilton Tiger-Cats

In 2008, Bellefeuille was hired by the

to be their offensive coordinator and Quarterbacks coach. In September 2008, following

Charlie Taaffe Charlie Taaffe (April 20, 1950 – October 29, 2019) was an American gridiron football coach. After retiring in 2014, he was hired by a company called Quarterback Country to run a year-round quarterback training and development program. He serve ...

's firing, he was named the interim

. On October 27, he was officially named Taaffe's replacement. His record as the Ti-Cats interim coach was 1-7-0. On January 15, 2009, Bellefeuille completed his staff shake-up by hiring Greg Marshall as his

defensive coordinator A defensive coordinator is a coach responsible for a gridiron football (American football) team's defense. Generally, the defensive coordinator, the offensive coordinator and the special teams coordinator represent the second level of a team's c ...

and Mike Gibson as his offensive coordinator. Before the Tiger-Cats final 2009 preseason game against the

Toronto Argonauts The Toronto Argonauts (officially the Toronto Argonaut Football Club and colloquially known as the Argos) are a professional Canadian football team competing in the East Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL), based in Toronto, Ontario ...

, Bellefeuille said that, "The only thing we know for certain as a coaching staff and as an organization is that Nick Setta will be our kicker." In three full seasons as the head coach of the Ti-Cats, Bellefeuille posted a 26-28 record, making the playoffs every season and going to the East Final in 2011. While the team had made an East Final appearance, they had a losing record in 2011 and he was relieved of his duties after season's end.

Omaha Nighthawks

Prior to the 2012 UFL season, Bellefeuille was announced as offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach for the United Football League's

Omaha Nighthawks The Omaha Nighthawks were a professional American football team based in Omaha, Nebraska, which played in the United Football League, joining the league as an expansion team in 2010. During their first season, the Nighthawks played their home gam ...

. Like Bellefeuille, Omaha head coach

Bart Andrus Bart Andrus (born March 30, 1958) is an American football coach and a former collegiate player who is the head coach and general manager for the Philadelphia Stars of the United States Football League (USFL). He has served as head coach for the ...

was also a former CFL head coach, having coached the

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

Winnipeg Blue Bombers

On August 12, 2013, Bellefeuille signed on with the

Winnipeg Blue Bombers The Winnipeg Blue Bombers are a professional Canadian football team based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The Blue Bombers compete in the Canadian Football League (CFL) as a member club of the league's West Division (CFL), West division. They play their h ...

of the CFL as a member of the team's offensive coaching staff. Six days later, he was promoted to offensive coordinator following the dismissal of Gary Crowton and remained with the team through to the 2015 season.

BC Lions

Bellefeuille joined the

BC Lions The BC Lions are a professional Canadian football team based in Vancouver, British Columbia. The Lions compete in the West Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL), and play their home games at BC Place. The Lions played their first season ...

for the 2016 season and spent two years with the club.

Queen's Gaels

In 2018, Bellefeuille served as offensive coordinator for the

Queen's Gaels football The Queen's Gaels football team represents Queen's University in the sport of Canadian football. The Gaels compete at the U Sports football level, within the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) conference. Queen's began competing in intercollegiat ...

team of

U Sports U Sports (stylized as U SPORTS) is the national sport governing body of university sport in Canada, comprising the majority of degree-granting universities in the country. Its equivalent body for organized sports at colleges in Canada is the Ca ...

Edmonton Eskimos

Bellefeuille was hired as a scout for the

Edmonton Eskimos The Edmonton Elks are a professional Canadian football team based in Edmonton, Alberta. The club competes in the Canadian Football League (CFL) as a member of the league's West Division and plays their home games at the Brick Field at Comm ...

in 2019.

Montreal Alouettes

On January 9, 2020, it was announced that Bellefeuille had re-joined the

as the team's

offensive line coach In American football, a position coach is a team official in charge of coaching a specific position group. Position coaches have more specialized duties than the head coach, assistant coach, and the offensive and defensive coordinators. Common ...

. However, following the resignation of

Jamie Barresi Jamie Barresi is a Canadian football coach who was most recently the head coach of the University of Ottawa's football team, the Ottawa Gee-Gees. He was hired as the team's head coach on January 15, 2013 and coached the team for seven years wi ...

at the

University of Ottawa The University of Ottawa (french: Université d'Ottawa), often referred to as uOttawa or U of O, is a bilingual public research university in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on directly to the northeast of Downtown Ottaw ...

, there was speculation that Bellefueille could return as the program's head coach there.

Ottawa Gee-Gees (II)

On May 21, 2020, Bellefeuille was officially announced as the head coach of the Ottawa Gee-Gees.

Philadelphia Stars

On January 28, 2022, Stars Head coach

announced that Bellefueille would be a part of the Stars coaching staff at an unknown position, presumably offensive coordinator.

CFL coaching record

Personal

Bellefeuille was born in

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

, attended Ridgemont High School, and played both

and

defensive back In gridiron football, defensive backs (DBs), also called the secondary, are the players on the defensive side of the ball who play farthest back from the line of scrimmage. They are distinguished from the other two sets of defensive players, the ...

with the Ottawa Gee-Gees. He lives with his wife Julie and their four children (Ymilie Bellefeuille, Alexandra Bellefeuille, Mathias Bellefeuille and Cedric Bellefeuille).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bellefeuille, Marcel 1960s births Living people Sportspeople from Ottawa Saskatchewan Roughriders coaches Montreal Alouettes coaches Hamilton Tiger-Cats coaches Winnipeg Blue Bombers coaches Ottawa Gee-Gees football coaches Omaha Nighthawks coaches BC Lions coaches Philadelphia Stars (2022) coaches