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Jim Barker knew it was too late to ask his Canadian Football League pals if he could pilfer their coaching staffs.
Thanks to an ownership issue that dragged on far too long, Barker, himself hired only 11 days ago as the Argonauts’ head coach, didn’t have a slew of choices when he sat down to assemble his group of coaches.
But Barker takes a glass-half-full view, and it was with that attitude that he revealed his new staff in a small, dark theatre on the University of Toronto campus at Erindale on Friday morning.
“I look at it as our culture now,” Barker said. “I don’t look at the past. It does not concern me. I am concerned about where we are today and we’re better today than we were two weeks ago.”
Barker wanted a blend of experience and youth on his staff, and he got it.
Former players Mike O’Shea and Orlondo Steinauer should develop into integral pieces, but a lot of what the Argos do in 2010 will ride on the plans of offensive co-ordinator Jaime Elizondo and defensive co-ordinator Chip Garber. Elizondo, 38, has not run an offence at any level, so it’s hard to say what his exact plans are, and Barker is undecided as to whether he or Elizondo will call plays; Garber, coaching since 1980, has been a defensive co-ordinator, but not in the pro ranks.
Garber knows this much: The defence won’t sit back and wait for offences to play into its hands.
“It’s not going to be a bend-don’t-break type of deal,” Garber said. “We will make some things happen, because that is what I am used to.
“Look at the job the (Super Bowl champion) New Orleans Saints did this year. We want to create turnovers and score as well. They had a good defence here last year, and we will be bringing some more people in, but we want to build on that.”
Neither Elizondo nor Barker nor general manager Adam Rita has any desire to build on last year’s offence, which was the worst in the Canadian Football League. The only question that fans have is who will be under centre on opening day July 1 in Calgary. Kerry Joseph? Cody Pickett? Jarious Jackson or Buck Pierce, if the B.C. Lions decide Casey Printers is their No. 1 guy? Adrian McPherson of the Alouettes? Someone else?
“I have not watched enough video on Kerry at this point,” Elizondo said. “He is a tremendous player, I know that from my experience in Montreal. But it’s a continuing process in the evaluation.”
Barker and his staff are convinced that no matter who is throwing the football, the humdrum, low-rent offence of recent years is history.
“In this league, you don’t have a lot of drives where it is all five yards rushing,” Barker said. “You need to have 20-25 yard plays, and we understand that. So if you’re talking about exciting football, that is what we strive for.”
When Barker worked with the Argos’ offence during its high-octane season of 1997, quarterback Doug Flutie used the league as his personal play toy, and the Argos ran up more than 600 points on the way to winning the Grey Cup. Barker wants the offence to take risks, so something that looks like 1997, but watered down, could happen.
The biggest difference for the Argos from last year lies in Barker himself. Bart Andrus was criticized for hiring a staff that had no CFL experience, and if you drop O’Shea and Steinauer from the equation, the new staff is not one that has extensive CFL work on its collective resume. Where Andrus was a CFL neophyte, Barker’s in-game decisions make a large difference.
Rita has managed to survive despite a combined 7-29 record in the past two seasons.
Another bad year and he knows he probably will be looking for work.
“I think we got it right this time,” Rita said. “We are expecting a lot of good things.”