The 2019 free agency period landed the Toronto Argonauts more than a handful of high-profile players. The attention was primarily focused on offensive stars like Derel Walker and Chris Rainey, but the Argos also landed the man they most wanted on the defensive side of the ball.
Micah Awe joined the Double Blue after two seasons with the B.C. Lions, where he quickly developed a reputation as an extremely physical defender who played on the edge. He’s found a home here as the team’s middle linebacker and is exactly the type of player that Head Coach/Defensive Coordinator Corey Chamblin wants to see in that spot.
“He’s aggressive, he’s a big hitter,” said Chamblin of Awe. “He’s very intellectual, he understands the game. He’s working on moving from intellectual to more instinctual. He’s a guy that’s learning the system and improving every day. He’s meeting with the coaches after hours just trying to get an understanding of the scheme and understanding of opposing offences.”
That’s one area that Awe – born in Nigeria but raised in Arlington, Texas from the age of three – is working hard to improve. He’s comfortable with his assignments, but under Chamblin he’s learned to ask himself something before each play.
“Other than what I know, what is the offense doing?” Awe explained to Argonauts.ca. “I know exactly what I’m doing, I’ve always known that, but now I know ‘what is the offence trying to do on this play?’ and that helps me to play the player and to make more plays.”
That’s the part of the game he’s learned the most so far from his new coach.
“It’s not even really about the Xs and Os, it’s about the mentality,” he continued. “How much I’ve learned as a football player and where I should be with my play.”
His play has impressed the man who lines up beside him. Ian Wild, another free agent, plays the weak-side linebacker spot. He’s liked what he’s seen both on and off the field from his teammate
“It’s fun playing with him,” explained Wild. “It’s nice having an aggressive linebacker who runs to the ball and knows where he’s supposed to be. We’re starting to play well together and know what each other is going to do in certain situations which makes it easier.”
Wild is also appreciative of the off-field chemistry he’s developing with Awe, who is his roommate on the road.
“We’re both pretty similar so we kind of connected outside of the field,” said Wild. “I think that helps, whenever you’re playing with your buddy out there.”
Chamblin likes the way that Awe and Wild are gelling, not only as athletes, but the way they’re mentally working in tandem to call defensive signals.
“They both do it together,” said Chamblin. “He’s (Awe) taken that role as well. They’re the glue to that defence. They each have different characteristics that I think is going to make us a strong unit.”
There’s no sugarcoating the rough start the defence had to the season, but there’s been steady improvement. Growing pains were expected with the group, featuring a handful of new starters, which was working for a coach that most had not been with before, so the system was brand new to them.
Awe is philosophical about the way things began.
“It’s just a matter of when we lose, are we learning and am I getting better?” said the Texas Tech product. “I thought I had an okay game (against B.C.), but then I looked at the film and I missed a lot. There probably could have been three sacks and an interception. This is the part of football that’s so great, and what Coach Chamblin is really trying to instill in us it that these losses are only truly losses if you don’t learn anything, because the same moment in football is going to try you again. I’m going to look at these experiences and the next game, and every game down the line, I’m trying to improve on what I made mistakes on before.”
That’s the kind of thing coaches love to hear, and it’s that combination of physical ability, intelligence and off-field dedication that has Chamblin so excited.
“We’re not even close to seeing the things that he can do,” said the coach. “Right now, we have him at the Mike (middle) backer and we’re sending him on some inside pressures. Before it’s over we’ll be to the point where we’re rushing him from the outside as an end and just doing different things to use all of his speed and power.”
As the players become more comfortable with the defence and more is installed, the group will become a lot more like the team that Chamblin had here in 2017, and we all know how that season ended.