4 things you may have missed from Head Coaches Conference
11/12/2024 02:30 PM
VANCOUVER — This is the second time in three years that Ryan Dinwiddie and Mike O’Shea sit beside each other a few days before a very important game.
The head coach for the Toronto Argonauts and Winnipeg Blue Bombers answered questions in a press conference on Tuesday in Vancouver, two years after doing the same in Regina ahead of the 109th Grey Cup.
Dinwiddie talked about his faith in quarterback Nick Arbuckle and his previous matchups with the Bombers, while O’Shea spoke about defensive coordinator Jordan Younger, playing in his fifth straight Grey Cup and more.
CFL.ca brings you four things you may have missed from the Head Coaches Conference.
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ONE PIECE OF THE PUZZLE
Arbuckle has played in plenty of games in his six seasons in the CFL, but none bigger than the one on Sunday.
Dinwiddie knows that there’s no reason to add any more pressure to his pivot, especially given that the Argonauts boast a defence and special teams unit that have shown they are more than capable of winning games on their own. Add to that a receiver group led by rookie Makai Polk alongside veterans Damonte Coxie and DaVaris Daniels and you have a team that doesn’t need the quarterback to do it all by himself.
“They just have to manage the game. You know, make the right throws,” said Dinwiddie. “Doesn’t have to be a hero. We don’t have to force throws. You can’t manufacture big plays, right? They have to come as far as manage the game.
“Like I told him, it’s not about him, it’s about the football club. He’s got to be one piece of a puzzle and do his thing and not to put too much added pressure on him.”
FIGURED OUT THE BOMBERS?
Winnipeg’s five straight Grey Cup appearances are a testament to how effective the franchise has been over the last six years. However, if there is one team that can claim they have found a chink is the Bombers’ armour that team is Toronto.
The Argonauts have won both their regular season matchups against the Bombers in 2024, while also defeating Winnipeg in the 109th Grey Cup at Mosaic Stadium.
Not that you would find anyone in Toronto actually submitting that claim.
“I wouldn’t say that,” said the Argos head coach about finding the secret to defeat Winnipeg. “I’m telling Mike (O’Shea), five years in a row for the organization to get here, that doesn’t happen overnight. Obviously, Mike’s built that there, and their whole locker adapted each year to get to where they’re at. I think we’ve had some success towards them, and they’ve had success towards us as well, right? They’ve all been close games, hard fought games, physical games.”
HC Mike O’Shea spoke about his trust in defensive coordinator Jordan Younger (Thomas Skrlj/CFL.ca)
VERY SHORT CONVERSATION
Winnipeg installed a new defensive coordinator in 2024 in former defensive backs coach Jordan Younger and the results were more than positive. The Bombers once again led the league in fewer points allowed (20.3), net yards of offence (328.6) and passing yards allowed (234.8).
The decision to install Younger was the product of a long process that started back when O’Shea was teammates with him, but the conversation about his thoughts for what the defence should look like showed the two were aligned from the start.
“It was a very, very short conversation. He talked about his vision for the defense. I think I probably had one or two questions. One would’ve been ‘at what point do you continue moving forward with it, or do you go back a different direction?’ Once again a very short answer and away we go.
“That moment, that conversation happens several years prior to that, it’s just building to that, right? That’s why the conversation can be so quick.”
MEANS EVERYTHING
O’Shea has been to multiple Grey Cups as coach and as a player, but it’ll never diminish his feelings about the biggest game on the CFL calendar.
“Yeah, absolutely,” said the Bombers head coach about if the Grey Cup still means the same after multiple appearances. “I’ve said this before, prior to being a coach or a player I was a fan. I like what it does to our country. I like the opportunity it gives our young football players.”
