THE CANADIAN PRESS
The ground more stable under the Toronto Argonauts than it was a year ago, the CFL club wants to make strides on the field.
The Argos had a new owner, new coach, no starting quarterback and were coming off a dismal 3-15 season at this time last year.
Jim Barker navigated the Boatmen to a 9-9 record and a berth in the Eastern Division final, where they lost 48-17 to eventual Grey Cup champion Montreal.
Barker earned the CFL’s coaching award for his efforts and was also handed the general manager’s job in December. The Argos retained their entire coaching staff from last season.
“Our whole key in the off-season was continuity and getting our key people back,” Barker said Wednesday during a media conference call.
CFL rookie camps open June 1 and main camps start five days later. The Argos host Hamilton on June 18 and are in Winnipeg on June 23 in pre-season games. Toronto opens the regular season July 1 in Calgary.
Job one for Toronto this season is to get the lowest-scoring offence in the league firing. Under unfamiliar coaches last season, Barker felt his team played too much by the numbers and with not enough instinct.
“It’s kind of like playing in your back yard,” Barker explained. “In order to play at the highest level, they have to know what the timing of the quarterback is going to be and the area they need to be in. It may be go around a trash can, but they have to do it in unison with the quarterback with his timing.
“I felt like we played the game on paper in that everybody was in exactly the right spot, but we weren’t getting open and doing the things we had to do to get open. Towards the end of the year, I thought we did a better job of that.”
The quarterback position is still somewhat unsettled, although the top three candidates competing for the job all have CFL experience now.
Last season was trial by fire for rookie Cleo Lemon, who started 16 games for Toronto and ranked sixth in passing among league quarterbacks. Toronto relied heavily on its running game, specifically all-star running back Cory Boyd, to gain territory.
The Argonauts acquired Steven Jyles from Winnipeg for a draft pick in the off-season. Jyles has five years of CFL experience with Edmonton, Saskatchewan and Winnipeg. Dalton Bell started a pair of games for Toronto last season.
“I feel like we have three experienced guys now who are going to be battling for this spot,” Barker said. “To me, that’s a huge difference,”
Lemon had surgery on his throwing-hand pinkie in the off-season and Jyles had off-season shoulder surgery. Lemon didn’t take any reps at a mini-camp in Florida last month because of a hamstring injury. Jyles was able to participate.
“He’s now at a point where he should report to training camp 100 per cent and have no issues in terms of throwing,” Barker said of Jyles. “His velocity was good, his ability to throw on the run was good.”
Lemon still has the inside track on the starting job. With a season under his belt, Barker feels the 30-year-old will make smarter decisions and protect the ball better. Toronto will also have quarterbacks Matt Grothe, B.J. Hall and former Queen’s University star Danny Brannagan at training camp.
The intrigue at quarterback overshadows another competition brewing at defensive tackle with the retirement of Adriano Belli and Eric Taylor signing as a free agent with B.C.
Imports Nate Robinson, Matthias Askew and Claude Wroten will battle Canadian Adrian Davis for employment at defensive tackle.
“Don’t bother with the quarterback competition,” Barker joked. “You watch that one. I expect the competition there to be as fierce as it is at quarterback.”
Auto parts manufacturer David Braley bought the Argonauts from David Cynamon and Howard Sokolowski in February 2010. Braley also owns the B.C. Lions.
Club CEO Bob Nicholson would not give hard numbers on Wednesday’s conference call, but said both season-ticket renewals are higher than they were at this time last year and that new sales had increased over 50 per cent.
The Argonauts will measure their progress this season by their performance in games against two-time Grey Cup champion Montreal. The first meeting between the two clubs is July 15 in Montreal.
“The Als are where we want to be,” Barker said. “They’re the team we have to beat to get to the Grey Cup. We have to establish that every time we play them.
“In the Eastern final, they showed their dominance and showed how far away we are. There’s a lot of fire to get there.”
