Parallels, depth headline head coaches conference

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This article was published 12/11/2024 (390 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

If there’s one person who knows what Nick Arbuckle is feeling this week, it’s his head coach.

Ryan Dinwiddie spent most of Tuesday’s 30-minute coaches’ press conference inside the Vancouver Convention Centre answering questions about Arbuckle, who will start at quarterback for the Toronto Argonauts in Sunday’s Grey Cup against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in place of Chad Kelly, who broke his ankle in the fourth quarter of the Eastern final.

Arbuckle finished last week’s contest, going five-for-eight for 73 yards while making a couple of key completions to close out a 30-28 victory over the Montreal Alouettes.

After the game, Dinwiddie didn’t waste any time naming Arbuckle the starter for this weekend, which will mark the sixth-year pro’s first CFL start in the post-season.

“I think it was pretty obvious, but I also wanted to build confidence in Nick,” said Dinwiddie, whose other option was second-year pivot Cameron Dukes. “I’ve seen Nick do it, I understand how he operates, he gets the system and he can adjust.”

It’s a rare situation, to say the least, a player being handed the keys to the car before the biggest race of the season, and Dinwiddie is one of the few to have experienced it.

Bombers fans will remember Dinwiddie replacing an injured Kevin Glenn in the fourth quarter of the 2007 Eastern final against Toronto and holding on for a victory to advance to the Grey Cup. The then-26-year-old would make his first CFL start in the championship game against the Saskatchewan Roughriders the next weekend, which the Bombers would narrowly lose 23-19.

“Nick (Arbuckle’s) more experienced, been in bigger games. That was the first big game I played in, as far as the CFL. I was very eager … unfortunately, a few plays probably changed that game.”– Argonauts head coach Ryan Dinwiddie

There are plenty of parallels between the two situations, but Dinwiddie noted there are also some important differences between his younger self and Arbuckle this week.

“Nick’s more experienced, been in bigger games. That was the first big game I played in, as far as the CFL. I was very eager … unfortunately, a few plays probably changed that game,” Dinwiddie said.

“But I think Nick’s a little more experienced than me, been in those big games, and then we’ve been together for a long time — me calling plays for him, him executing those. We’re more fluid than the situation I was in.”

Bombers head coach Mike O’Shea was in attendance as a fan for that Grey Cup at Rogers Centre in 2007, fresh off the penultimate season of his playing career.

“Section 392,” he recalled.

There are several key storylines this week, but Arbuckle is easily the biggest and the main reason why the Bombers opened as 10.5-point favourites.

O’Shea isn’t interested in what the oddsmakers have to say, though, and he insisted his players aren’t approaching this game as the favourites either.

“I think as competitors, you always want everybody healthy. You really do,” O’Shea began.

“Ryan’s gonna have Nick coached up and ready to go.”– Blue Bomber head coach Mike O’Shea

“After that, you just rely on the veteran presence to lead the group and understand that you’re playing a full team, and you can’t take anybody for granted and take anything lightly.

“Ryan’s gonna have Nick coached up and ready to go, and they have two other phases that are on fire right now. So, we’re not playing one guy, and we’re not going to get ahead of ourselves — we’re going to stick to our process, and that’s never really been about the opposition during the week. It’s always about ourselves.”

Somewhere in the middle of all the talk about Arbuckle, O’Shea talked about his own quarterback situation this season and the decision to stay with Zach Collaros, whose 3/8 touchdown-interception ratio underscored the club’s 2-6 start.

“I don’t know that there would be any coach in our league that would have switched Zach out. He’s just too good. He’s too much of a competitor. His leadership skills, guys follow him,” O’Shea said.

“I’ve said this for eight years now, maybe more, there’s no need for knee-jerk if you know the answers as to why things are happening the way they’re happening, and if everybody has a great understanding of that, then you just work on those items and get them checked off and eventually it turns for you,” he continued.

“That period of time wasn’t easy, but trying to work through the problems was because you knew where the answers lie.”

Arbuckle has had a tumultuous career in starting and backup roles while playing for four different clubs since entering the CFL in 2018. He broke into the league with Calgary, where he worked for two seasons with Dinwiddie, who was coaching quarterbacks at the time.

“Nick’s just got to manage the game, make the right throws, doesn’t have to be hero.”– Argonauts head coach Ryan Dinwiddie

After spending last season as a backup in Ottawa, Arbuckle went unsigned during the initial wave of teams signing free agents and it looked like his time in Canadian pro football had ended, until Dinwiddie called him during training camp in May. The Argos were looking for depth at the position with Kelly set to serve a nine-game suspension for violating the league’s gender-based violence policy.

Dinwiddie’s history with the signal caller was important, but what became even greater, he said, was Arbuckle’s maturity since they had last worked together.

“I think he got a little too ahead of himself a little bit leaving Calgary and didn’t understand, hey, I just got to play the quarterback position. You don’t got to be a franchise deliverer right away, just go play football. I think he’s learned from that, and I think he’s in a better spot right now,” Dinwiddie said.

“When we got in the camp, I thought Cam (Dukes) was having a good camp, but just like any head coach, injuries happen, right? And I just said, ‘Hey, we got to make this phone call. I think at the very least he’s going to make the other quarterbacks better, and our locker room better.’ It was the right decision and, obviously, it played out in what we’re going to see on Sunday.”

While the Argos offence changes drastically without Kelly, the league’s reigning Most Outstanding Player, in the fold, the Argos went 5-4 without their starter during the regular season — something Dinwiddie believes will serve his club well this weekend.

“Nick’s just got to manage the game, make the right throws, doesn’t have to be hero. We don’t have to force throws, you can’t manufacture big plays, they have to come,” he said. “Like I told him, it’s not about him, it’s about the football club, and he’s just got to be one piece of the puzzle and do his thing and not put too much added pressure on him(self).”

joshua.frey-sam@freepress.mb.ca

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