November 4, 2022

Hogan: Dinwiddie Recognized for a Second-Straight Season

It’s been a pro head coaching debut like no other.

When Ryan Dinwiddie was hired as the 45th head coach in Toronto Argonauts history, his level of excitement was palpable. After seven seasons as an assistant coach, the Elk Grove, California native couldn’t wait to take over at the helm.

Then Covid-19 hit, cancelling the 2020 season, and making him wait a full 20 months before his first game day.

The season was good, not great; a 9-4 record would allow the Argos to finish first in the East, but that success seemed empty after a loss in the Eastern Final.

His accomplishments were good enough for him to be the East’s Coach of the Year, eventually losing out to Winnipeg’s Mike O’Shea for the league honour.

Dinwiddie was again recognized this week for leading the Argos to an 11-7 record, once again good enough for first place in the East.

“Someone texted me,” he told Argonauts.ca when asked how he received the good news. “We were in the coaches’ office just working away and I could see the guys were excited about something. I didn’t know much about it until it hit the media.”

While admitting that receiving the recognition is rewarding, it’s appropriate that he was with other members of the coaching staff when he found out about this year’s accolade.

“it’s a testament to how good a job my coaches have done this year,” he explained. “You’re only as good as the rest of your staff. You get the credit for it at the end of the day because you’re the head coach, but kudos to the great job they’ve done all year to support me. It’s the players too. There’s a reason why we have so many all-stars this year; we’ve got some good players and without them you’ll never be in a position to get the opportunity to get this recognition.”

For a number of different reasons, this year’s staff is almost completely different than the 2021 group. Linebackers Coach Kevin Eiben returned, as did Defensive Backs Coach Joshua Bell, who came back after missing the last half of last season.

“We’re familiar with each other and there’s a strong loyalty more than anything,” said Dinwiddie. “These guys are loyal to the organization, loyal to me, loyal to the players. When we put this staff together, I knew it was with guys who wanted to be here for the long term. We have two guys who moved here to live year-round, along with myself. That shows you how committed these guys are. They’re great men; leaders and strong family people as well.”

Perhaps the emerging star of the staff is Defensive Coordinator and Defensive Line Coach Corey Mace. His rise to the role has been rapid by CFL standards, spending just five years in Calgary as a positional coach before being asked to take the D.C. job in Toronto.

Dinwiddie took a gamble and it has paid off.

“I know that early on people were upset that I hired Corey, who didn’t have a lot of experience, and with me being a younger coach, people were viewing him as not being ready. Well, look how ready he is. He’s done a great job on defence; kept us in a lot of games. They’ve been really dominant.”

There’s also one aspect of the former Calgary Stampeder and Buffalo Bill’s background that Dinwiddie finds interesting.

“You don’t see too many d-line players become defensive coordinators; normally it’s linebackers and defensive backs. That just shows you he knows the back end as well as he knows the front.”

This year’s script has followed last year’s pretty closely; first place in the regular season, followed by a bye week before hosting the Eastern Final.

This is where Dinwiddie hopes to re-write that script after losing last year’s game to Hamilton.

So, what is he doing differently in preparation?

“Not much,” he said. “We’re going to get a head start this weekend and get on the practice field. I just want to make sure we come out of this healthy; we’ll do a lot of teaching on the grass. We’ll do some things that Montreal and Hamilton have shown us. We don’t want to come out of this rusty, but we want to make sure we take care of the players so we don’t have any injuries.”

This raises the age-old question in sports of how to give players rest without letting them get rusty.

“It’s a fine line,” the coach explained. “You need to do what’s right to line up to play football and be healthy. The guys needed a break, both physically and mentally. If you looked at our locker room today, we had probably 30-40 guys come and get treatment or go and lift weights. The guys are dialed in. I think there’s always going to be a bit of rust when you’ve got the bye week, but we want to get on the field, work out some of the kinks and make sure we’re staying in shape and staying mentally strong with our eyes on the prize.”

The Argos are now just 60 minutes away from reaching the Grey Cup game. There’s one thing for certain as the team prepares for the Eastern Final; that Dinwiddie and his staff will put them in the best position possible to take that next step.