Former USFL Coach Talks XFL v. USFL Timelines, Arlington Renegades Preview, CFL Media Day Interviews

foreigner lives here well live remotely live from beautiful sunny San Diego tremendous show this week tremendous show no there are no free weeks here in the markets never forget to live here you know we're doing this uh from California this week remote putting together all this for you all your CFL content

usfl

and XFL this week's topic XFL versus

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can you handle the truth? want answers I think I'm entitled want answers I want the truth you can't stand the truth really proud of the guest list I have for you this week with none other than Jonathan Heimbach, current XFL Arlington Renegades offensive line

coach

,

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XFL 2020 , before the AAF, played in XFL 2001, won gray cups in the CFL and even

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ed last year in downtown Birmingham for the usfl with these studs Jonathan heimbach players and coaches defecting to the heimbach does all this you will be fascinated to hear what he has to say I promise you, but I think what Maybe he has given the XFL a little more.

I guess an advantage is that they watch the USFL that they watched last season. We have seen how players have developed and have had the opportunity to find some of the best. players that maybe were in the USFL, went to the NFL and now they're ready to come back and play and they're hungry to play and they'll play at the beginning of the year and then continue on to our previous 2023 XFL training camp. we've got Anthony Miller of Anthony, what I like about what they did with the backfield is that you know a lot of good running backs because I think Kenneth Farrell can carry the rock 20 to 30 times a game, not particularly, but having him, Davion Smith and Keith Ford.

They kind of all contribute at the same time, each one can do, you know, eight to twelve carries per game and be able to take the pressure off of them. You know, maybe once the season goes on, he'll get, they'll be able to get more. carries, but they will have a very balanced backfield with even an even amount of carries and, if that wasn't enough, everything in the CFL this week. Mike pinball Clements is coming to the show. Ryan will have dinner with you. We have Craig Dickinson. Jeremy O'Day comes with Sean Berg and Bob Dice of the Ottawa Redblacks, all things CFL Media Day, head coaches and general managers from three different CFL teams, what would you know here this week?

Well, I can't think. a better way to start my morning here bright and early I don't even need coffee, we have Mike pinball Clemson, how are you sir? Better than I deserve. Thank you very much and thank you for inviting me to work so much. to this week's show, like and subscribe, thank you very much. Hey guys, welcome to the cast of Mark, read here. You really won't recognize where we are today in beautiful Sunny San Diego if you're watching it on YouTube. I definitely recommend this week is a really strange show. We had some pre-recorded stuff from the CFL

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day before I talked to coach Jonathan Heimbach before I left town last week and then also Anthony Miller, you'll see just the ride and a lot of different things.

The backgrounds and the things that are happening I really appreciate you watching this week's episode and subscribing. I probably already spent about five minutes recording the intro to this show, uh, the promo, you know, talking about all the different guests we're going to have. this week, so I'll be brief. I'm going to try to edit it so I can go out and enjoy it. Send them to this son. As I record this, I'll be with Professor Andrew Murray tonight. It's going to be exciting, I hope we don't have too much fun and I'll be able to get up tomorrow morning after this episode.

I'll come with you a little earlier. I have to finish the job here. I'll be coming here during the week to film some research ships. There are some very fascinating things on the nearby docks here, so, as I said at the top, you know, Jonathan Heimbach comes on in a really interesting way, the conversation was, you know, talking about, you know, his time previously in the USFL, now coming to the XFL, curious. I think you guys will also be curious about the thoughts and things that Jonathan had to say about that, plus all the rest of the work he's doing with the offensive line group, getting them up to speed on the XFL, you know, shortening the training camp and everything.

So many good things from Jonathan Anthony Miller. Waiting a long time to try to get Anthony into the program. I really appreciate that I'm enjoying all these deep dives we were doing. We had Matt Lyons talking about, you know, sea dragons last week. Sam just. speaking of the Las Vegas Vipers, we've had Evan Willsmore talk about the Roughnecks before and I appreciate that Anthony also did a Renegades deep dive while we're in training camp and then like I said, all the different Day of the Dead stuff. CFL

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I really thank all Lucas and everyone in the CFL offices for helping arrange for a pinball coach, Dinwiddie, with the Argos, we have Craig Dickinson and Jeremy O'Day with the Rough Riders and then, obviously Sean Burke and Bob Dice with the red blacks, I really appreciate it, I hope you guys, enjoy even if you're not the biggest CFL pinball people since you can't miss dinwiddy, you know, anytime you can meet, training a general manager for a specialty, you know, professional sports teams.

I hear it, it's going to be. a long episode this week, but I think you guys will appreciate it, before we go, I didn't get a chance to watch it last night when I spoke to Anthony here, but the XFL just released their qbx, Jordan Palmer's kind of focused conversation. about all the on that couch in California? Jordan Palmer, you know, was showing them TV and really cool stuff, seeing all that behind-the-scenes footage. I like that they also feature Russ Brandon prominently in that Oliver Luck kind of mouthpiece. for the XFL, but it's qbx anyway, the XFL just posted it on their YouTube channel and shared it on Twitter.

I don't know if we'll get, yeah, you know, QB or qbwr, you know, we'll get any of the other position groups, you know, they obviously don't have anyone as prominent as Jordan Palmer there with the quarterback development in the XFL, but I thought it was really cool, I don't know if we're going to be a part of it. two or anything else with that, but you know, we've been promised for a long time this behind-the-scenes XFL content, good to finally see some of that, so I really enjoyed getting a good audience. I noticed a couple thousand views, so far.

That's right, if you haven't had a chance, make sure you go to XFL YouTube, check it out or on my Twitter. I also published it. I think that will be it, like I said, it will be long. trying to get all this out, I'll catch up with the professor later. I appreciate everything. An episode of Victor Queeze, that interview will be published next week on the podcast. You don't want to miss a lot of good stuff with the president and CEO of the Edmonton Elks talking about the US TV deal and the XFL about how that's affecting everyone in the CFL too, so it'll be good, otherwise the rest from the CFL stuff this week Jonathan Heimbach and Anthony Miller thank you all so much again. subscribe well I'm excited today we have Jonathan Heibach here sitting in beautiful Chata Stadium at the end of the day on Friday.

This will air next week. I appreciate it, sir, how are you today? Read life is good, the Forsaken are undefeated, uh. We still have to have a real practice, so I hope things go well tomorrow and we can continue with this. Well, this is good. I was looking at your impressive resume here waiting. I always know I have a good guess when I go online. You're already following me on Twitter, so that's cool, we're already connected on that, but why are you a crazy resume here and why are you such an important person to talk to?

You know, part of xfl01 as a player. I've coached everyone in the CFL. I just got the assignment from Ambrosia on today's podcast episode. Aaron's coach, back in the AAF, coached in the 2020 XFL. He was with Birmingham and has now defected to the XFL back from the USFL. What thoughts? First, here we sit in mid-January XFL 2023, how does it all feel for you? You know, it's really exciting. Like you said, I've had a lot of stops on the global alternative football scene here, um. I think I'm one of two people who have been involved with the XFL for the third time.

I was actually a player in 2001. I won the uh um. I was the center in the million dollar game and Tom Lugenbill was our quarterbacks coach, so he is. an ESPN commentator on 2.0 I was training in Tampa with Mark Trussman um and now here we go 3.0 so it's cool to see where this came from uh 2001 while we were sitting at training camp in Las Vegas uh with that he hates me and everything what's going on with the show that was at 0-1 to see now after being in the a uh being in the usfl being in 2.0 and uh and now being in this uh 3.0 is just that it's run the right way um just with guys like Bob Stoops and Jonathan Hayes, our staff is basically who's who, with Tim Lewis, Jay Hayes, Bill Sheridan, you know Scott Spurrier, Chuck Long, I mean, it's an incredible staff, so every day, as a coach , you just turn on how much football.

You're going to learn and then you look at the caliber of players that are here in this league right now. It's very exciting to see. I pinched myself, it's like a group of stars who defected from the USFL because they want to. playing a little bit early in the year, so it's pretty exciting right now, yeah, it's a lot that we have, right now it's heated up the alternative spring football landscape between that, we don't need to get into that too much, but there are notable differences like you said, feeling. you know you have all these high powered executives that got everyone else involved, we were talking off camera before we started about some of your interactions today, but any notable differences in this season compared to the USFL or the 2020 XFL, well, I think we've had a little more time, I was actually hired two days before the USFL draft.

Holtz hired me two days before the draft, so he was like drinking from a fire hose as we prepared to find our players last time. that the schedule came around and I had an amazing experience, I mean, I love skipping Holtz, you know, I was very grateful for the opportunity to coach in that league, you know, Daryl Johnston and I are our close friends, Jim Popp, who I won with some Gray Cup championships. in the CFL, I have great feelings for those people and what they're doing in the USFL and I appreciate it a lot, but I think what maybe has given the that you saw last season, we've seen how the players have developed and we've had the opportunity to find some of the best players that maybe were in the USFL, went to the NFL and now they're ready.

Reed, I think that's one of the things that guys have a little bit of appeal about, is that we're the week after the Super. Bowl, we'll start this on February 18th instead of two months later and as we got closer to the end of the USFL season it got a little tougher, it's getting a little warmer in Birmingham in May, Geyser is looking to get back to play. the NFL and when you don't have those opportunities until maybe June, July and August, you're losing that opportunity to play, so I think just the schedule and the amount of time that we have has really created a better start to the season, as far as As far as I'm concerned, with my interaction with the league, it's interesting because we know a lot of us casual fans, they don't know the players, we sit in line and they have the pay scale and they like the USFL that pays more. you have the timeline and does the Hub matter?

Do people want to play? The fans? in this answer, but you think the timeline itself is what sets these two apart. I think that's a component. I think playing the markets is a big problem. Also, I understand that we have all the teams here ready to start training camp here in the DFW area, so I think having a center for training camp and training is a financial advantage for the league and that is what I did it in the USFL last year simply by having everyone play in Birmingham, but I think it's a little more fan-friendly to have eight teams that will travel to play in local markets like we did in 2020.

I mean, I can I remember when I was in Tampa, our second game, actuallyour first game we played in New York and then we turned around and then went to Seattle, that was a little complicated for us as a team, but we had to stay silent and count against. Seattle because that place was rocking, I mean, it was a great atmosphere, a great stadium, the same thing we expect to see in San Antonio and St. Louis and those Dome stages. I was able to train in San Antonio with Mike Riley at the aaf and it was just an incredible environment, so I think those stadiums have been well planned to have the games there, but I think the amount of time we have in training camp I think We're going to have five weeks before we start this, we'll really know what we have and we'll be able to get through it instead of just a shortened training camp and I mean we're almost double the amount of players we have in Camp tomorrow in our first practice than those we had in the USFL when we started Camp.

I think I started with seven or eight offensive linemen and now I have 14 here, so you can really give guys a legitimate chance. competitive spot in a training camp instead of just taking these guys to the first game, so I think some of those lessons as these leagues have grown are going to make for a much better product on the field and I think everyone saw the product since In the USFL it was good football and I think we hope to get the same and I think two leagues are more opportunities for the guys and more training opportunities, more executives, more ball is good for everyone.

You talk about the game Dragons Vipers. Were we there? We were there front row. I remember it was one of the only Dragons wins we had in 2020, but it was good, yeah, well, I think it was still a CenturyLink at the time, but Lumen feels like yeah, it was rocking on that. Stranger in front row fifth year, like how did you end up with Bob Stoops this time? because obviously you were with mark tressman and jamie elizondo now who's with the brahmas how did you end up with coach stoops? Well, I had met Coach Stoops years ago.

In fact, my probably biggest connection is our co-offensive coordinator Chuck Long and I was Chuck's offensive line coach when he was the head coach at San Diego State. This was in 2006. Seven and eight of us were together in San Diego. I spent some time with his old staff when I was at Oklahoma and that's where I met Coach Stoops for the first time, but actually, when I was running 2.0, I had built a relationship with Chuck, obviously, and then with Jonathan Hayes, who is our other coordinator and us. I kept in touch and when things started moving there was an opportunity here.

I think Chuck felt like he could hit for me and just be able to be around the type of coaches that we have, like I said, I left a few. of the names above it's really a Who's Who and every day it's uh we're learning more as coaches as we're learning the scheme as we get to know each other but working with a guy like Bob is uh it's me. I couldn't ask for more and I had a great experience with Mark in Tampa and I know Jonathan Hayes did a great job in St Louis, so it's kind of an education for me to work with some of the best out there.

Yeah, because bringing in the best of St Louis now and with Coach Stoops here, yeah, were you impressed with what they were able to do with the battleground Hawks in 2020? We were actually preparing to play against them, so when we coveted. hit, we were playing and preparing in Tampa, we just lost a close one against Los Angeles and I think it was one of the games where we were down to the wire, we were going to tie and I think, uh, Schwartzstein and and Oliver Locke had thought that we could being the first overtime game in the We led the league in rushing in Tampa and I know they had the leading rusher with the Battle Hawks, so it's great that we were preparing for that matchup, but obviously the world turned upside down and when the NBA shut down, we had a feeling that, hey, if the NBA stops playing, I have a feeling we might be done for a minute and then here we are, fast forward three years later, it's great to be a part of this, how do you work with offensive preparation? ? line now with, you know, much more limited time restrictions, obviously, like you said you had more time than maybe with the usfl, you know last season, but like what unique challenges do they have?

Every time you have a new group, eh, you have to do it. just building your relationship, building your trust factor with those guys, one of the things we have in 2.0, we actually got to have a mini camp, which was nice to be able to get to know their guys, get a feel for them, them. I knew the scheme here, this is really the first time we've had a couple of Zoom meetings here and there, but it's been fast and furious this past week, um, and we were able to select several

former

USFL players that I I had coached my first pick, our first pick in the offensive line draft was Cameron Hunt, who was an all-USFL player for us in Birmingham, has a lot of versatility, plays Place Center guard and they released him. for uh the San Diego La Chargers, excuse me, um, and when he was free from his contract, I was looking for guys who knew what the spring leagues were about, we ended up getting a guy, Garrett mcginn, Maya for ahema Teton saltis, all the boys. that I felt like they were all caliber players, all USFL caliber and when you can bring those guys in to teach this roster, you don't have to start from scratch, they know what the schedule is, they know how to prepare and they're not. just young freshmen coming out of college and we also have some young guys that I think will really add to the group.

I'm really excited to get some Spring League experience, but also the young guys, and it's great to see all the guys. that we would see walking around the hotels in Birmingham or at the games you play against and now you have guys like House Loader and Sal Canela and Davion Smith, guys like that around the league who are resurgent and all trying to put together a great roster. You also brought some of the NFL Academy alumni. Have you talked to them about how they are working with their offensive linemen so they are ready to attack you?

Well, there was a connection with Steve Smith. who is the offensive coordinator for the generals in New Jersey, has worked with the academy for several years, so when we had the opportunity to scout and look for some of those guys, he called Steve and recommended a lot of these guys that had been working. and it's great to be able to add to our roster, like I said, to have more depth in this training camp than even what we had in 2020 and also with what we had last year in the usfl, so it's good to be able to have more positions in the roster, more availability, keeps guys healthy and they can really show not only what they can do for us but also against the other seven teams in the league and you know the NFL is watching closely and they're going to move forward. to watch the scrimmages and they're going to watch these guys and the same thing with the USFL who we ended up cutting.

I'm sure he'll probably be available to continue playing in, say, the USFL in terms of the IFL deal, do you think having guys in the sand game translates well and will it be a good option for you guys to bring in an extra offensive lineman. I think the biggest thing is the more football the better, and the relationships we have with those guys in different leagues, whether you know I coached eight years in the Canadian Football League just building those relationships with indoor ball with the Canadian League uh with the usfl, the more football the better and uh there are enough players out there that just need the opportunity to show their ability uh thoughts I'll let you go here for ideas on setting up The Hub and how it works , being able to have all the strength conditioning and everything there, obviously you have Sean Hayes and Carrie Gordon working on things, that helps in a way. prepare everyone yeah I would say it's great to have it under one umbrella here in the Dallas Fort Worth area where our strength coaches are sharing our individual strength coaches that are with us or training not only the Renegades but also the Roughnecks because we share the facilities here in Choctaw during training camps, so they can keep a close eye, there's a lot of communication between the staff, top down, so I think it really helps to manage that and keep everything under control. in an area and then we can go fight those guys, we'll see each other in organized practices and I think the League is being very smart about getting things out there, getting things moving, uh, to put a great product in field. this spring, uh, last question for me and I want to ask you about five and one before we go, five is one, you have a lot of familiar faces on all these different teams, who are you most looking forward to facing, you know. all over the field this season, well, I mean, there's probably someone on every staff that I've coached with, I mean, between the Senate and the San Antonio team with Jamie Elizondo.

I'm looking forward to facing him and his staff, I mean. That's always going to be fun to be able to see guys that you've won games with and that you know you want to see succeed, except when you're playing with them, so that would be fun, you know, I have guys. Vegas Bob Wiley had a lot of respect for Bob and he and I have talked a lot about the ball and it's just about giving these guys a great opportunity and you know, trying to find the best offensive linemen out there and training them and getting them ready. to play because you have to use five as one, five guys have to be able to play together to run a scheme and be able to function there, so we're excited to put this together, uh, yeah, anything about your podcast anything five of us one before I let you go hey, keep it up guys uh five is one.com is a uh it's more than just a podcast we have clothing uh we have three states that we're currently training offensive lineman in and uh my home state of Colorado, we have California from where I'm and then here in Texas and then we have some plans on the east coast really for middle school, high school, college professional guys, trying to do it all under one under one umbrella to be able to develop the offensive line training, there are a lot of coaches from seven on seven and strength coaches, but to get kids and technical training of offensive linemen, I think it's something that's overlooked and developing the position is something that we What I've tried to do with five is one, so get into the website and get some gear.

I appreciate the thanks and we're excited to see where this goes after the XFL season, continue to coach the guys and let them pursue their dreams. I really appreciate it like I said late on a Friday. I'm sure you want to start the weekend, so it means a lot. Thank you very much for taking the time today. I really appreciate it. Jonathan Heimlach is coming to the show you have. it Reid, good things, we will see you on February 18, we will be there in February, I think we have, yes, all the flights are going, so we will be there, well, this is exciting, uh, Mr.

Elusive, we all know the Evan Wills Moors of the world Professor Andrew Murray and Senator Mike Mitchell uh Anthony Miller here also part of don't forget Matt Lyon don't forget Sam I just don't want to forget anyone right now but we have Anthony Miller who never watch the show I think I never know, I think we liked a roundtable in the past, but I don't think you've ever been to the markets, welcome Anthony, how are you? Thanks for inviting me. I appreciate you very much. I know we've tried it a couple of times, but every time we tried it I was always busy, so I'm glad I finally got time to be on the show, so this looks a lot different than watching it.

I'm uh in my I'm continuity camped on my iPhone here but I think it looks good I think it sounds good I brought it to you, you know, I never know if you know the world is breaking or we have news to talk about, but Anthony and I have this scheduled I'm in San Diego for work, I hope the internet seems okay here Anthony, yes I've been chatting, but let's talk, uh, Renegades

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today, we're done with our training camp, we asked Pat to come over To do the Battle Hawks Preview, we have lions that do the sea dragons.

We had Sam, he just came and talked about the Vipers. Evan and I already did the Roughnecks. Evan was on our stuff in the metal draft we had too and then we'll get Anthony. today first from the top just this breaking news that came out today while we're recording this Wednesday this episode will air on Friday uh they're going to have a media event next week on January 25th in Orlando it will have Danny Garcia, the mayor of Orlando uh friend Dyer and then Trail Buckley, firstWhat came to mind was this is either a playoff announcement or a championship game announcement, one of the two, Anthony, what is your opinion on what you think this media event will be?

That's exactly what I thought. I also think it will be the playoffs and the championship. I know there's been speculation that it could be in Arlington, since that's where Hub City is, it could be San Antonio, but now with this announcement that they're doing a press conference in Orlando. It seems safe to assume it could be the playoffs and the Championship. I don't know what else it could be unless they advertise it like I don't know the weekly practices there or something for tryouts but I know we're doing that in Arlington so yeah I guess it'll probably be a championship game so which is a really interesting choice.

I mean, it's a great stadium to play in and I think Orlando as a city is a very good host city for playoffs and championships, so I don't feel like it's a bad option. I think it's a good middle ground between everyone that's in the south, everyone that's in the east and the north, so I guess that's why they choose Orlando because it would be an easier way to travel for any fans who wanted to come. let's see, well I can tell you this goes along with um, you know, XFL spring football usfl hates roller coasters out west, we prefer press conferences at 8 am, 8 am eastern time now.

Of course, this is the longest distance I'll have to travel from Seattle, so I don't think that's out of my mind. It is for me. It's strange. Makes sense. We know it can't be a cha cha stadium. that's where the Hub is, uh, we reported that you know the jackals, whatever the rugby team is there, they'll play on the same day and the timing would work, but you know God knows with the grass and everything and what that looks like, obviously, we. I've heard the rumors of San Antonio, that makes sense somewhere in Texas, TDECU, you know where he was going to go back before or Orlando, to me it makes sense because obviously we have Danny Garcia, you know, Danny, our Guardians are kind of his equipment.

I understand that, but it seems that when we have purchased or are looking to purchase tickets so far for Camping World Stadium, they are only selling tickets on one side of the stadium, which to me means that we are already aware of the amount of ticket sales we are going to have here, we want it to look good, pack everyone up on one side, now we're going to have the championship here, obviously, you're going to have more people than usual, you know, week seven of the Orlando Guardians game. But are you worried about the attractiveness of the Orlando market?

Well, I mean, think about that stadium with a capacity of 30 to 40,000 people and I mean, I don't know if Orlando will do it because it seems like the expectations of the XFL are to try to get in the way. maybe eight to twelve thousand fans a game, so I don't know, it seems like the XFL doesn't really trust the stadium to fill up. I think for Orlando the most they can do is maybe 20,000 because when the Apollos were there, didn't they maybe hit 20,000 maybe once and that was maybe the first home game and I don't know if they made it to over 20,000 after that, so I'm sure the expectation is that we won't be able to fill that stadium?

So it makes sense with the people, but they will put all the fans on one side and make sure that when ABC and ESPN are doing their broadcast, they do it on the side where the fans are and just focus on that. It makes sense, I mean, I like the eight to twelve thousand goal for the over twenty thousand, but cities like Orlando and Arlington probably film between 10 and 15,000 makes more sense, it's interesting to come back to that because obviously I wasn't a part of the XFL media in 2020 and you know, seeing some of the fans which I know we have like 12,000 and you know, for the Wildcats or, oh my God, like the sky has fallen and then, I know USFL is a different business model.

God knows what we'll see here when we launch the Memphis Hub. here in April, but you know we would kill for twelve thousand in many of these games. I'll be curious to see if the Memphis result is there. I just can't think of anything else, it would be me. I mean, I tweeted it, it just screams Championship. It's like you said. Know? Are we making Canada? I just don't know what else you're going to have. You will have the mayor of the city there. 12 Buckley. I know we would love you. Maybe you know some of the other coaches, but in Trails like Florida, you know he's your Orlando guy, like the four of the guy, that makes sense that way, but it's interesting, um, certainly, I'm not opposed to that, you know, give someone a little. beef out, you know, give someone a little nugget out of Texas, right, hey, let's pitch you, you know, Orlando, but I don't know maybe anything else about that.

I don't want to go too far with it, but I just want to mention. That's because that was kind of a breaking news story today that seemed to hit, yeah, I'm just interested to see what the announcement is going to be, so I'm hoping it's the championship and the playoffs because I think that's maybe the last key thing that we're . missing before the season started is where the playoffs will be so it will be a nice jump for the XFL to be okay this is where it is and start selling tickets so I think they are hoping that if they can sell they can Start letting them know by selling the tickets as fast as possible, maybe they'll get more fans to come, so I mean it makes sense to get this announcement and get it over with before the season starts, even you know that, because the XFL has been nice. of slow ads so yeah before we know we'll have a

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here.

Renegades, all training. You know we're in the middle of training camp now or you know. I see that the coach is doing the daily reports on him and everything I do. I like all of this, I like to see a little bit different variety of each of the people on social media, you know Haley and they were all here from the sea dragons, you know, they had denucie tots and the fish and they were taking photos of space , so you already know. like where you know, we get some of the posts that say okay, we have the new bucket hats available, but a lot of things are different, you know, it feels like we have a little bit of personality, how do you feel?

Because I've never done it, you know. Obviously, I have your opinion on all this, how do we feel here in mid-January, a month away from the start? I'm glad we have everything set in stone in terms of programming and stuff like that, because it was a little stressful not knowing. You know who will play, where the schedule will be seen, um, social media. I love what they are doing on social media but I feel like the xsfl has to up their game because in 2020 that was kind of the forte of the xfl. That's how you know their social media presence and all the work that they did for it, so I love the presence that they're making, I love all the work that they're doing and that they needed to step up and be on the same level as were in 2020.

Overall, I mean, I think I feel more comfortable now that we have a schedule, we're in training camp, we let you know everything up and running because obviously I'm going to be very scared as the season goes on because I've been burned so many times by alternative football leagues that they don't make it through a season, so I think in my case I'll probably be on pins and needles week after week, but once we finish the season, if we can make the playoffs in a championship , so I think we'll be I think everything will be fine after that, yeah, it seems to me like you know we're getting everyone up to speed right now, at the same time as the players again, and I'm not.

I don't want to harp on this, you know, social media is coming, we're getting there, but this feels like the first season of the USFL is some kind of beta season, let's get over this and think about it feeling like that more and more. kind of what the It was expected um, you know, I don't know if it was too much, but it looks like we're not going to like get over this. I mean, I think we're going to get through this, it's going to look good, but it is what it is. it feels a little bit more like, you know, version 1.0 of fan control football, if you follow any of that like, let's go through a season, see what people like, uh and then we'll go on from there, but you know what?

It's growing pains, but but it feels real now that we're seeing, you know, people posting training camp videos and people wearing practice jerseys and stuff. I mean, it feels really good to see it, yeah. I feel like this time I feel more confident, I guess with the USFL I knew the presentation wasn't going to be as good not having a lot of fans in the stadium so that was a bit unpleasant although I thought the USFL game was really good, but With the XFL being able to come to the home crowd and I feel like the stadiums will be much nicer to watch on TV.

I think it's going to be a better introduction, so I think overall I'm a lot more comfortable with what the XFL is like. In addressing it, I actually think the and being able to play games there and have the players and coaches interact with the local community, so I think the XFL is covering the best of both worlds and you know, that's why I feel a little more confident right now about what what xfos will do with their commercial focus instead of the USFO uh you'll be interested in the same episode here so we're doing a deep dive on Arlington here uh Jonathan Highbong uh heimbach on he's the offensive line uh coach there at the Renegades interviewed him last week here is He'll be in this program, so, you know, after the first week, if you give everyone that's getting in there, Jonathan was involved in the USFL last year, he was with the studs and he was with the to solve it.

Figure out how I want to frame this as we talk here alive, talking about the Renegades roster here and you know I'm doing a deep dive like everyone else here watching all of this, yeah, we got Bob Stoops back, obviously, you needed him. having at least a couple of the 2020 XFL guys back, was he the right one? Renegades, if we make Bobs make this return. I think Bob Sears makes all the sense in the world. I thought about the way he did it the first time. Maybe his approach to building the roster and having the talent that he had, I mean, I think it makes sense for him on a personal level.

You know, I think he wants to coach, but he doesn't want to have the life of being a college football head coach and having to work all year and recruit and try to talk to parents and things like that. I know it's very difficult for head coaches, so for Bob Stoops this is kind of the best of both worlds, where he can still be a coach, but the reality is he doesn't have to, this is not a one-man job. full year, you just need to work half a year and train him, and Bob Seuss is obviously a legendary trainer, he's a national champion several times, you know, Big. 12 Champion, he knows what it takes to be a winner, he knows how to develop players, so in that aspect I think he fits perfectly and I was a little surprised that he decided to come back, but at the same time he does everything.

It makes sense for him to come back. He did a great job the first time. I'm sure he'll do a great job this time. I mean, the roster already looks pretty good for what they've done, yeah, so this is from the personnel level here, obviously, you know we have Rick Mueller, you know DPP, you know the strange choice here where we have defensive code , you know, offensive, you know, offensive and defensive coordinators here with, you know John Hayes here, uh, Chuck Long and So, Jay Hay is on defense along with Tim Lewis, why do you feel like Bob Stoops has cards like a monster carpal to be able to say I'm going to bring four of these like legendary things that work like how did they do it?

We arranged everything very well. I guess you have to think about the first time in 2020 that I had mom as the offensive coordinator and in fact, right before the coverage, literally that week when the season was suspended, mom had just left the team, so I was point of having a new offensive coordinator in charge of the entire front office there, so I'm sure he wanted a little more stability and being and this feels like a little more security in case maybe John Hayes or Chuck Long or Jay Hayes and Tim Lewis find another job somewhere else, you have someone to support and they say okay, we have a coordinator who can manage it, so it feels like after what you experienced the first time you aretrying to cover himself in case someone. leave that staff, you really took the best of the battle, Hawks, here, molding it with, you know, Bob Stoops, uh, you know, right?

I'm not on the Nexus yet and that guy certainly wasn't back when we were. I saw Bob Stoops coach in 2020. What do you hope to see mixing with Bob Stoops? You get his vision of football, you know, bring the battle box like I said with the Hayes brothers and everything you expect to see there. I think the defense will be very similar to what they ran in 2020, it will be a 3-4 defense that will rely on versatile linebackers on the outside, something that former defensive coordinator Chris Woods ran in 2020 with the Renegade. So that's the kind of style that Tim Lewis used when he was with the Gamblers last year in the USFL, so I expect a similar defensive style, offensively, it's going to be a very different look for 2020. uh, 2020, how mom ran the Air Raid.

The offense was about passing the ball, having versatile running backs that you know can have an impact in the passing game. I think this time you know Jonathan Hayes and Chuck Long when they were in the battle I had in 2020. that was the very heavy team that they relied on, Jordan tiamo, they were open to Matt Jones and Keith Ford and those guys who won the football and you can tell by the way they drafted, I mean, they've got Kenneth Farrell, they've got uh Devion.Smith, I mean it's a strong running game with a strong offensive line that's been built there, so to me it looks like the Renegades focused more on the running back positions and the offensive line to make sure it is well built because the receiving core has a little bit of I have some questions about this Renegades offense, but that backfield is one of the best in the league, so it gives me confidence that I think the Renegades will be a very heavy offense and should be one of the best to do it.

It's interesting that obviously we're going to talk about the quarterback sharing with the rest of the world, but it's interesting, you know you have all these Temple players from the USFL here, you know, the cross charger, we have Debian Smith, you know the famous Pizzagate and all that. I have Kenneth Farrow, who made that play in the USFL, but he's obviously with the U.S. The United Football Players Association helped negotiate the USFL. It's really interesting, you know, that Kenneth is so involved in that and chooses to play in the XFL. He takes that as what you'll do, uh, what do you think?

You know Kevin Pharaoh had a long time off here. I mean, I talked to him when he was on the show with the CBA and he said yeah, I've had three years off or whatever. I've never been arrested again, but what do I mean? Do we expect him to make that big of an impact coming back after such an offseason? Well, that's a big question I have with a lot of the squad. on Kenneth Farrell hasn't played since 2020 Devion Smith I know he was with the Pittsburgh Mowers, but he hasn't really played a game since 2020. You also look at his defense.

I don't think Nick looks at you like the great Temple. Hill Raheem more? These guys haven't played since 2020 either, so I'm a little concerned when it comes to that three-year gap since they last stepped on the field and played, but you know the XFL. There are a lot of guys that come to these alternative football leagues, maybe spend a little time off the field and have to get back into it a little bit, so the first few weeks of the regular season are always a little bit tougher, which believe. The bad thing about these alternative football leagues is that you really have one chance to make a good impression and there is an unrealistic expectation that the teams will be perfect at what they do and that is not the reality in the first two three weeks.

It's pretty difficult for any alternative soccer league so you have to give them a chance to get on their feet, so my expectation is that it may take a little while to get their feet wet with the league, but for the most part . Once they get to mid-season they usually get back to fitness so it may take a little time but the Renegades have a lot of talent and a much better presence and know what it takes to be ready for football professional. game, so I'm confident that they'll make it once they're in the flow because I mean, I guess that's what I think, you know, Debbie has been.

I wonder if they're just that head and shoulders better than that, it doesn't even matter, they can have a couple of years off, I mean here we have it, you know, I just watched Tom Brady at the age of 87 here play football on Monday night, but yeah, like you, I just don't know, I mean, do you feel like Kenneth has such a special talent that you would rank him that high? I mean, I know we had some of the guys, but go back to, you know, the USFL, here, some of the drafted players, you know. at the running back position like Kenneth is a great talent, do you think it's a great ability?

I'm talking about every time Kenneth Farrell and Devion Smith have been on the field, whether for the football alliance or the XFL. I've always been the best running back in the league, so I'm confident and they can step in and you know, do a great job. I think Keith Ford will be another good complementary running back in that backfield. I think Damontre Tuggle will be kind of a sleeper pick at that running back position. He's a guy that's actually been playing the last few years in college, so Ohio, so I feel like he can step in and be that versatile running back that they need, but Kenneth, I think Kenneth Farrell and Devion Smith will be fine, they'll be able to come in. to the field and will be able to make an immediate impact.

What I like about what they did with the backfield is having a bunch of good running backs. because I think Kenneth Farrell can carry the rock 20 to 30 times a game, no not particularly, but having him, Davion Smith and Keith Ford contributing at the same time, they can each make eight to 12 carries a game and be able to take the pressure off them, you know, maybe once the season goes on he can get more carries, but they're going to have a very balanced backfield with even an even amount of carries, it's interesting and Now we know we're in the middle of training camp. and everything, and I know this is like sleep time for the Renegade, but let's go back to the coach, we had an interesting video again because I think the battle against the Hawks is as far away as I am.

I can say I'm leading the charge right now just in terms of getting some little daily updates of what's going on, what's going on, why it's like my wife is trying to call me, what happened, I'm like, but I, I'm like this. like weird like literally like uh taped together like here like nothing can move I got Dorothy trying to call me on the phone um you know I think the Battle Hawks are doing their best job right now like hello back just talking to us every day like here this is what's happening this is what's happening but um he was saying how great we're finally getting the pads on.

We've really spent the first week feeling like we're breaking bad habits. We're finding out where people are. you're like you know it's interesting because it's a very short training camp, but then you know bringing in all these guys from scratch should be pretty difficult if you had continuity from last year, but half of these guys you know or you're coming . They've been out for three years, as you know, how do you balance it? Okay, we have to prepare these guys to play immensely, but we also have to make sure that these guys can physically go here, uh, fascinating, I don't know.

You know, I'm not done with any of these coaches and I don't think spring football is for every coach who wants to do it just because it's such a rush job. I think Stoops obviously hasn't gone through the in 2020 helps with that right, we sound like Mike Riley and the USFL people, but it's such a big challenge that I can't imagine trying to get up and be like a full football team established here in about 30 days, no and and That's why there are real and unrealistic expectations when it comes to the first two weeks, so think about these guys they only have a month of practice before they step on the field for the first game.

Maybe they have like maybe a preseason game before actually. It comes in, but a lot of times it doesn't look good in the first week and everyone likes to shit on these legs like, oh, the quarterback play is so bad and you know the defenses are so good but the offenses are terrible, like it wasn't necessary. It's time for you to know how to stand firm. I mean, in the NFL they have two months of training camp before the regular season starts and realistically that's how long it takes and that's the same with these leaks, it takes them at least two months.

To get used to it, you know how the systems work, you know, getting fit in 100 football takes time, so realistically these teams probably won't be at full strength until maybe early mid-March and then that's when you'll start. . seeing the good play of the teams uh looking at the quarterbacks here um obviously you're bringing Kevin Anderson here with the supplemental draft that I'm reading uh Drew play he was on our show the first quarterback off the board here with Bob Stoops back during the Show of quarterback selection Drew Plitt uh called and then Kyle Slaughter obviously with the USFL you know, I heard Orlando is one of the worst quarterbacks in the league.

This to me feels really competitive. I don't know if this is the best. quarterback room, but it looks like maybe I'm reading wrong, how are you reading these three guys? I mean, they're not the Las Vegas Vipers' quarterback room. That quarterback room is absolutely crazy with Brian Scott and Luis Perez, but I think it's a decent quarterback room. and it's super competitive because I don't want to offend Kevin Anderson, but I feel like it's a battle of two quarterbacks. I think it's between Kyle Slaughter and Jude Plate. The question is: do you know which one is Bob's?

Bob Seger will go with the oldest. quarterback than Kyle Slaughter, who has been in the NFL for a long time, has played in the USFL, has more experience at the professional level or go with someone like Drew Plitt, who has really high potential and played incredibly well for the Bengals in the preseason. They're both similar in terms of being bold and they're also a little taller than Drew, but I think Drew is a little more athletic than Kyle Soldier, so at least that's a question of what kind of quarterback you'd want, my gut. . tells me that Kyle Slaughter is probably the favorite to win that job, but I actually wouldn't be surprised if Jupiter wins it based on his athleticism alone, so I think that combination between Slaughter and the game is going to be really interesting, my gut tells me . slower, but I mean it's going to be a really interesting battle on the training ground.

I'm just wondering if Kevin Anderson is like he was brought in to be the elder statesman, like you said, you know, I know he does his thing, you know, I check in with you. I know training stuff like they brought it in, like, hey, we need a stable Forester to help work with these guys. You just know, I'm always curious about the mentality of guys that come into this, like you know what I'm reasonably expecting. of this and then like you said, obviously with um you know, veteran presence, I mean, we saw Andrew Jones in 2020, I mean, Bob Stoops can do a little bit with a little bit, I mean, I don't think Landry had much more, I think Hassler. he certainly has a lot more in the tank, that's the concern for me as well is that with Landry Jones in 2020 yes, he was obviously going to be the starting quarterback just because he was the first player signed by the XFL, but in reality Landry Jones was average at best, I mean, he threw a lot of touchdowns, he threw a lot of yards, but he also threw a lot of interceptions and I feel like Kyle Slaughter is pretty similar in that regard to what he did to the USFO, yeah, he led the elimination, right?

You know? he was a first-team all-usfo quarterback, but the reality is that he threw as many interceptions as touchdowns, so I almost feel like the concern with Kyle Slaughter is whether we're about to have a Landry Jones 2.0 coming into the Renegades , so that would be my biggest concern is that Slaughter is a good quarterback and is generally pretty accurate and protects the ball well until he went to the USFL and then had a lot of turnovers, so I'm really interested to see if you can reduce turnovers. smarter with the football maybe use his legs a little more to gain positive yards offensively uh obviously Sal Canelo here is another one of the biggest names that you think of when you think of the race against the roster so far, he's probably going to be the leading receiver on that team, I mean, if you look at the receiving field, it's not a bad receiving core, but there are quite a few unknowns about it.

I mean, Jordan Smallwood played with the Wildcats in 2020 and did pretty well with them. Flynn Nagel. I was a Bob, you know. Stoops loved him in 2020 as his slot receiver with the Renegade, so I think, butFandango also has another guy who has a play from 2020, so I'd be interested to see how he steps in, but overall there's a lot of uncertainty with the receiver, so Sal Canoa already has that connection with Kyle Slaughter from his time with the breakers last season with the USFL, which gives me good reason to think that, like Sal Canal, he will be their security blanket and has a very good chance of being that.

The next one, uh, Donald Parham, I never understand why Sal didn't hold on to him. I know it happened well. He was on the Packers' practice squad just before the season. You just know I've watched it all spring. Before, he was very strange to me, some of these guys and you know, they're these little intangibles and people are looking for them. Just some of these guys here, I mean I think Sal Canelo is a total rock star, he's just weird. for me to see it, I mean obviously I saw it here and like you said I saw it with Slaughter and I think that's cool and I know you know us people now might be oh I don't care about counseling but I guarantee you if Slither and falconelle were in usfl, you wouldn't mind that a lot, but I think it's a good combination, you think about the other, the rest of the receivers here are on par with what you think Stoops wants to do, I think I think they are .

Well, it's not the strongest position right now on the Renegades, but I mean you look at veterans like Jordan Smallwood Flanagel and even Chad Williams, who was assigned to them, but he's a guy who was drafted by the Cardinals in the NFL. , so it has some play. experience, so they have some veteran presence and at the same time, they have some younger receivers on the team like Lawan Willingham. I think he could be one that could really step up and be a good receiver on that, you know, on that course. But again, there are some positions where I think there are probably more question marks at the receiver position than at every other position within the Renegades at the moment, so it will be interesting to see what they do with that rotation and training camp and who ends up. starting in terms of the other side of the ball here and obviously you already know the codes of defensive coordinators, I can't even say this, but what do you think of this on the roster and what we've seen so far? especially with the supplemental draft adding a bunch of other guys uh it's a very, very strong veteran presence on that defense um honestly the best pick they had was in the supplemental draft with Donald Payne I mean it was a great recovery for the Renegades and it's interesting because on the Donald Payne like him, but we're talking about a guy, she was the first USFL player to bleed the league in tackles for bettors.

I mean, he was a fantastic player, I mean, other than maybe Chris Odom, he was the best defensive player in that league, so I think having him on the roster. I think he's huge, whether he ends up playing defensive end or whether he plays that hybrid linebacker position, he's going to be huge. Nick Temple every time he plays in an alternative football league, he's been phenomenal, he was great in the AAF, he was great in the XFL, so I. I think the temple can make a big difference. Edmond Robinson was good for the Roughnecks in 2020, so I think you can have an impact on the fact that the secondary linebacker position is deep.

I mean, Raheem will be more Hill Devonte Bigsby Josh Hawkins Robert Nelson that all these guys used. to play in the NFL, they all have experience playing in the XFL as well. I think even though that combination is the secondary, I think the Renegades honestly probably have the best secondary in the XFL and that defense is going to be really scary if there's a force. For this Renegades team it's definitely that defense and in particular that's secondary, but the linebacker position is also very good for them, yeah, in terms of the XFL website, you know, I got into that this weekend.

I was sitting, I was sitting watching this Sunday, you know. The wild card games on Sunday became a little bit, you know, well, I take a couple of losses and I get a little angry about it on social media, but I know we were talking today in the group chat along with the press conference of Danny Garcia like I really felt like it's necessary to send out press releases or update things right now. The winter and list transactions are taking place in usfl is not the best. The moment is not always the best. Sometimes it's two in the morning, but it's reliable.

It's on Twitter. Can. following what's going on in the CFL is a blessing with that, uh, the XFL needs to do that, but yeah, right now, if you're one of these people, if we're updating the XFL website, you know 50 times a day, just don't take it. for the gospel right now, obviously, they're doing the best they can, they need to work on it, this is something that I think they just know that they need to know and that we need to know and just because we tell people things that they need to know. It doesn't mean that we hate or that they're doing a bad job, but if you want people to take your league seriously, you have to, but yeah, that's it in terms of special teams here, obviously, Taylor Rosalino comes back and So I still I imagine Marquette.

I can't even consider Marquette King a renegade. I still see it as a battle as the strongest special teams grouping here that we have in the XFL. I think so. I mean, I love all those old Battle Hawks. that they are listening to because literally all the special teams are practically in full battle. Hawks Rosalina was Marquette King's kicker, they punted for them and they even got Joe to clear the supplemental draft and he was the one who returned the first kickoff for a touchdown in XFL history, so he'll probably be a favorite, you know , he will also be a kickoff returner for the team, so I mean the reason we know is just because of what he did in the XO that gave him his opportunity in the NFL to play. the Broncos during the coveted Marquette King season.

I don't understand how he didn't get another chance to play in the NFL. I mean, that guy was a stud in the XFL, by far, probably the best partner in that in the It's also very solid, I mean, that group for Special Teams is really very good, probably the strongest in the XFL too, huh. so to complete our conversation here I appreciate you being late here you know your hours ahead and coordinating all of this I really appreciate it like um you know we went through all of this I always think it's very strong okay, these are the fibers Look okay, the drug is so good, how do you objectively know to see the Forsaken here?

As you know? Obviously, we got to see Final Cut Downs and everything, but you know, going into the season, as far as we know now with the Limited Navigator Transactions of the trending list that we have How do you see the Forsaken as they form with the others seven teams? I will say defensively. I think they look very good. I think they are going to be very strong defensively, that was a strength for them. In 2020, I think this time it will also be the same. I think it's a really strong defensive unit. Special teams are obviously great offensively.

They're going to be if to me the roster looks like a very heavy offense, so I'd be interested to see how they make that transition from being a very passive team in 2020 to now being run-focused, which you know, we'll see how that goes. I think at the end of the day I mean the Renegades, probably one of the favorites to go to the playoffs and win the XFL title, I think they're going to win the XFL title, honestly no, but they will, they're very, I think they're on the cuffs and I think the difference is that I.

I still don't know how strong the passing game will be for the Renegades and that made me maybe just need to see the receiving core and how they do it, and you know how much confidence I have in Kyle Slaughter or Drew. Whoever the starting quarterback is, but I mean the offensive line is stagnant, they're going to be a good defensive unit, it's really good, they're going to be competitive every game. I can see them finishing, they're six and four, seven and three, they get into the playoffs and I don't know if they're a championship team yet, but they have the building blocks to be a really good football team.

I'll tell you right now this is not just for my Seattle CEO, Seattle Sea Dragons the Loyalty, but uh, the team I want to watch when it's the championship is the Seattle Sea Dragons because Haley, their social media person, posted that he'll get the XFL tattoo if the Sea Dragons win the championship, so okay, I need to see it, yeah, I think ultimately. that's the one we need, but no, I think racing games look good. I'm excited about this, Anthony, you were stellar today. I appreciate you working, you know, like I said, take the time to come, we'll help you. again here now like having these, you know, like our specific type of team reporters that obviously talk about XFL stuff and whatever else before they let you go.

I really appreciate your time tonight, no, I just appreciate the time to be on the show. I'm glad we finally had time to participate. I really appreciate Insight, so thanks for having me. Yes, follow Anthony and all the guys you meet on News Hub. Anthony is doing the Renegades and I'm just making the league feel real. when we know all of you and you're following this all the time, it's more work than any one person could do well, so I think it's really important and I just hope the league appreciates it because, uh, the USFL struggled with it in terms of to get involved, you know enough people to cover the week-to-week details and training camp and all that, and I think you know that very well so far.

I think we need to get more stuff out here. like we said roster transactions, but all this help makes the league feel bigger than it is, so I think it's really important. I really appreciate all your guys' work. Yes, thanks for that. I appreciate your You do a great job too, so I know you're doing it. You do great things for the CFO and for the entire alternative football league, so you do a great job too, so I'm sure the league thanks you. Yes, there are no free weeks here. San Diego, I mean, this setup almost looks better than the one I have at home.

I might have to come here more often than do everything anyway Anthony, thank you so much, thank you, I appreciate it, thank you. I can't think of a better way to start my morning here bright and early I don't even need coffee we have my pinball cleaner How are you sir? Oh, better than I deserve. Thank you very much and thank you for inviting me to this. It's good. I told Lucas. I told him you know. He had you the last time we spoke, he was there in that Regina casino, there before the gray cup. I don't know if you remember that busy weekend.

I was listening to our interview. You said you'd need a miracle to be uh Winnipeg Blue Bombers. Yeah, and the other part of that was that I believe in miracles, even if you say so and, you see, the game was just that, I mean it, you know, when you have two block kicks, two block kicks in the last five. minutes Tupac kicks a game is crazy, right, but they have two in the last five minutes of the game. I think he was in the last three minutes. Just crazy, you know, and you know, I can tell as we get there.

To this point in preparation, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers are still a better football team than the Toronto Argonauts. We were the better team that day and so part of what we're working on is to hopefully become a power one day. to say yeah, we're the best team in the league and uh, but uh, the opponent we played against is just dynamic and incredible, and we were very happy to beat them, so that's interesting, so how do you take it? that now, hey, now that we've reached the top, maybe we're not the best team, how do we internalize that and move forward?

So, that's the pragmatic part of continuing to move forward and improve. day by day one of my favorite books was the business bible from the 90's and it was called "good for great" and the first line of that book said "good is the enemy of great" and went on to say that the reason why That we have so few great companies in North America is because we have so much good news and good is the enemy of great; In other words, we can be intoxicated by the good and, uh, but if we don't keep moving forward and trying to work, we'll find out that we like each other and that's something in Toronto that we don't want to do.

The most important thing is to play consistent football, we won in 2017, but after that we had a couple of very difficult seasons, you know, two seasons. that did not add up to ten wins in total and it is very consistent with that, we and you know, for the product in Toronto in the GTA area, it is very important that we can maintain that level of consistency that was the reception as if I saw videosof parades and you know, Enoch moombas and hockey games and stuff. I mean, what was it like for him to come home as a great Cup champion?

You do know that he always exceeds your expectations, right? The level of kindness and generosity. the loyalty of so many fans and it continues, you know, until now, after the date of that game and it's one of those sustainable victories that people talk about, you know, people will come, you know, today. and and uh uh and and say wow, the game went like that and that's what you want and really for us that's what we need in the city of Toronto uh in terms of kind of rebuilding now for next year, you know, some signs of question mark, right?

We talked about McLeod on the show and the love we have for him, you know, I think it's still up in the air what he's doing regardless, how are you guys looking to fill that position? I know we have style. Chad Kelly is there as well as part of the equation, what are we seeing at the Center? So we would feel very comfortable with any of those guys. Chad is under contract. It's like waiting to see that he had an injury that kept him out of that game and he already had surgery for it, so one of the things is physically if he is able to do all the things and the feeling is yes.

There's not going to be any problem there, but then, like, another guy, Andrew Harris, has multiple opportunities and you know, you're thinking carefully, you know what the best route is from here and what are all the opportunities that I have available. For me today, will they still be available in a year or two years if I keep playing? So, you know, both guys are in super positions and we'll try to be patient with them, but at the same time. We'll continue to try to build the team we have until we get an answer from those guys, yeah, regardless of what happens with McLeod, right?

You know you said you got Chad, you know Swag Kelly here in your contract. uh I'm just curious what you think about him coming late to the game you know he came to the CFL with a lot of you know uh vibrato and they're very excited and he's better than the NFL quarterbacks now that They bring that confidence translating it to the field, what was that like? uh, you know, watching it, seeing what happens, it's, it's, it's a beautiful thing, you know, yeah, it's kind of a story where you would love to have seen McLeod be able to get that first win after being there for the whole season and haven't been here for five.

Years ago, so you know you missed that side, but to see him be able to come in and make the big play of the game, which was the fight, um, I thought that was probably the biggest play of the game and uh. and then to be able to continue to move forward to get us to that victory um, that's what you know, yeah, I mean, he, you know he's a very confident guy, uh, but that can't do anything but help him keep going. forward. It was that locker room like after winning that game. I mean, I have to imagine he was out of control.

Yes, you know, he keeps getting richer. like it's never happened before and, uh, you're euphoric out of body, uh, you experience the point, perfectly good drink, one on top of the other, totally absurd and, uh, uh, but you know, as part of that, there's also those moments, uh, that happened, you know little. Conversations you have with guys in that moment where you know they're talking about the weight that may have been lifted off their shoulders or you know how good it is for you. You know I've never won a championship before, uh, so, um, it's one of those indescribable things, uh, um, it's very out of body in one sense, it's very personal in others, as there are moments where you have those more intimate moments where guys share their hearts, uh, speaking of someone you know, finally reaching the top of the mountain, you know, we have Brandon Banks, sure, you guys know something like that and at least you did it, right? how was that? to be able to give him that and for him to be part of that team.

Wow, you know, that young man that I love and uh, I was a big fan before he came to us and, uh, you often know, you know. He is our archrival. I often went up to him after the game, you know, when he beat us again, uh, and you know, just tell them how much I admired him and, uh, you know, he's done a lot of work. uh with the young people in the community, also both in Canada and at home, and I really have a lot of admiration for him and his story and what he's been through, and then being able to see him get that championship.

Victoria, uh, it was, it was amazing, yeah, just, one of those, one of those memories, one of those things that you'll never forget, uh, yeah, it was the follow-up, you know, everything you know, prayer celebrations, everything I think we talked about when they were on the show before raising the profile of Argos at Toronto Riot and they're, or there's all this stuff that goes along with it, but are you looking forward to having this next big cup? You know, having to add another one there here recent. We're going to be able to take advantage of that in terms of getting more profile visibility for the team in the city.

I think one of the things that will add to this and we have to be careful not to make mistakes. It's about yesterday and more about today because our 150th anniversary is this year. The grounds were founded in 1873. It was originally a rowing club that played rugby in the off-season to keep fit. And finally, yes, the big cup came several years ago. Later in 1909 it was handed over to the National Rugby Union championship, so we were still rugby players at that time and because of that, the great history we have and being able to bring in some of the great players. history uh this year um you know that combined with being able to honor the guys with the Banner championship uh having the 150th anniversary we have to make sure that that 150th anniversary is today, not yesterday, so we can't get caught up in yesterday it has to be about today and moving forward is difficult is the biggest strength and weakness I think of the CFL is that you have this illustrious history and so much more than any of the other leagues that we cover on the show.

But of course, people get a little paralyzed sometimes, but we don't want too much change or we don't want that, how do you balance that? um I I think you have to keep pushing well and and Challenge and those uh there will be those who are more conservative uh who want to protect yesterday and so they will have their voice and so we will always have that push against the balance but we We don't have to have enough of us , that we are moving forward and challenging the traditional. I'll have trained with you here in a moment to talk about the confidence you have in him and the rest of the training. staff, everyone else is moving on oh my god yes we talked about it the day we hired him, about him, he's been in the game for so long and he loves it, he actually got into a ball. bag I think we talked about it before we put her in a ball bag and luckily, you know, uh, uh, I'm not.

I don't remember the details of exactly what happened, but his father was a coach and he has lived with him and so his level of competition is indescribable, but what is really cool is seeing his humanity in the way the team was able to connect with him this year and, um, uh, because you know those who have. I've been around him and know that he's just a guy that likes to have fun and, but he's very serious when he's on the field. I think this year the players got a chance to see Ryan Dinwiddie, the man, even more so this year. that the year before, when we were dealing with a pandemic and a shortened season and all the different challenges there, you really got a chance to see Ryan Dinwiddie, not just the coach, but the person and the man and the guy that he is. .

You know, one of the best teammates you'll ever have. I keep an eye on the clock before I let you go. You know, touchdown in Atlantic is coming up again. whatever else you've talked about about the 150th anniversary celebration, but this year we're going to have a lot of interesting milestones for Argos, there he is and uh and we need to make sure we take advantage of this and do a great job. integrating both the old and the new, uh, how do you behave, are you going to help do that, uh, well, we already have a couple of things that I'm a part of in terms of first game and navigating how we're going to bring to the young people to that opening game, that first game of the year, um, and also, you know, I think my biggest responsibility is to make sure that We are competitive as a football team and so we are already working hard for that and and and uh um and yeah , we are excited about next year, there are many things, so we have to do I am sure that those things will not become distractions for us, but additions.

You are a confident guy. I have to imagine him as the reigning Gray Cup champion, that he has to help us go into the offseason and build teams. Oh yeah, you know that absolutely helps. There's no doubt about it, but what we have to keep in mind is that he hurts too. We are in 2023. We were champions in 2022. Now we have to move forward and play like champions, prepare like champions. We need to do the little things that are necessary in the off-season before we get there right because we could lose right before training camp starts if we don't get the same level of commitment in the off-season and the different things, so, uh, we'll make sure We'll communicate often with our guys and we'll try to keep them motivated and encouraged so we can be a more consistent team as we move forward.

I really appreciate your time today, busy day. I appreciate you taking the initiative. It's time to catch up with you again. Thank you very much one hundred percent of the time. It's a pleasure, he laughs. Well, today I'm excited about the Gray Cup winning head coach, where I did it with you. How are you sir? I'm fine just uh. enjoying, you know, going back to Alberta and seeing the mountains and, you know, look up these League meetings, yeah, we were talking, enjoying the growth of off-season beer, you said you haven't shaved since the gray cup, You haven't saved since the gray cup.

It's been nice, oh, you know, I haven't cut my hair yet either and if I need, I need both, but I just enjoy it, you know, I just enjoy my time often. I usually run out of beer every winter, so it's uh. It was very good for me to do it again, especially after winning a gray cup. Well, yeah, when you're the big man, you're here in the league right now. I think you can make the decisions, congratulations on the victory we got. up in Saskatchewan, you know, a cold night for the people in Seattle, but it was fun, what was the experience like going through all that and the crazy ending to the game and everything else?

Well, I think it was like that. ended well, we felt like we had to play the first game mostly with the sack and then we got the face mask and then, you know, they fight and we have the interception with Enoch before that drive and we felt like we were going to finish it, already you know, right there on their side and it was great to see that our players, you know the way it ended, the way they handled the moment, you can see the growth throughout the 18 games and then the two. playoff games, yeah, just extraordinary and you know, we cover and talk to a lot of the writers that cover, you've got this Winnipeg team that's like they've been doing this and they're building this Legacy franchise, whatever it is here Argos Get in and just grab everyone by the shoulders on the sidelines like we gotta go for this we gotta defend ourselves here yeah I think you know playing against Winnipeg they've been there and played big moments.

I thought it was an opportunity for our club to show some growth and to let you know that they're available to take those same steps and you know I feel like you know this year was a great year for us and you know we're kind. Looking back at the year before, you know there were missed opportunities and we knew that going into it and I think that carried over into the beginning of our season, you know we knew that and you know there was some frustration, you know. apart from different things and then we finally got over that and grew together and you know that's what championship teams do and you know I feel like you know some of those guys really matured as men and football players uh for you, obviously the coveted year and then we come back and everything is ruined and now we finally have the first full season in your tenure, how nice it was to be able to go from start to finish, yeah, it was great, you know? apart from the strike.

To start training camp, you know, other than that, it was pretty smooth, you know, for us and it was nice to get it right again, not wearing masks on the sidelines, not wearing masks in meetings. Let's go back to playing football and a little bit of normality to what we are used to in our lives. Yes, it was a great season and you know, very rewarding. It wasn't easy, but you know the guys in our building found ways to stick together and they watched the process and they knew it was going to take a full team game, 18 full games and then you know the three playoff games and you know fortunately we only we had to play in two of them.

I know we listened. A lot of people poop and you know Toronto and they don't care about all this. I saw your guys' celebrations, which is crazy, you know, watching the Enoch hockey games and everyone parading through the streets, what was it like experiencing all that afterwards? The celebration, well, it was pretty good. Believethat the city rallied around us and really respected what we did for it and how much we appreciate the city and you know we want to have a full stadium every week and you know that's not always the case. This won't be the case in any organization, but you know, we want them to feel good about us and, when we talk about the Argos, we eliminate those who know that those guys are really playing good football and doing good things in the community and , you know, we try to do that and that's what pinball is here to do, you know, find a way to get these guys involved in the community and mlc does a great job with that, you know, get us into the game of hockey. .

Take us to a basketball game, you know, I mean, I'll probably have to make a phone call, they'll give me some tickets. I don't try to do it very often, but I just have the opportunity to go to the Raptors game in the shortest time possible. it's pretty unique and I don't think a lot of cities you know offer that and we do and you know they have the same owners as us and that's the cool thing about it and you know, now let's keep winning and get some more seats, you know, it's They filled that stadium.

I just talked to pinball here before moving on to you. He had very kind words to say about you and just the growth that he feels like you know last year, like you were saying with the covert protocols. and everything we're just trying to get through right where this year he felt like the players got to see you grow as a man and as a leader among the team, you know, hearing that from someone you know, obviously, one. from your you know, coworker, whatever you know, whatever the relationship is, but the legend of the game is like this, how does it feel?

It feels great and you know Pinball and I have had a great working relationship since the beginning and you know I think the first year was kind of a learning experience and yeah I think the way we finished the year before we lost The Eastern final really suited me and I felt like we weren't disciplined in that. It didn't sit well with me and it carried over into the next season and I probably wasn't as easy to work with. He probably took a different approach and you know I felt like I lost the players a little bit with that approach, so you know it's about I don't know week six or week seven, I'm like man, I can't, I can't, you know, no.

I can, I have, I have to find a way to find a message for these guys in a different light and uh We did that and we came together and then we created a football club and we worked towards the same goal and yeah, you learn as a young coach and you know how to approach certain players in certain locker rooms and you know every organization is different. I know I put on my Calgary hat and you know there are expectations and it's a little bit different well we're a different Club in Toronto and you know I have to manage our players a little bit different and once I gave them the respect. and um, you know, hey guys, it's up to you, I'm not going to be a fool anymore, let's get going and um, this is what we have to do to win and you know, everyone, you know, join in on that.

He thought and he moved forward and you know, work hard to make sure that they're also working for their teammates here in the off-season, you know Saskatchewan is hiring people, we have this whole hodgepodge and you know there's always talk about the level. from coaching in the CFL and you know, the cap or good enough, whatever when we were in the gray cup, which stood out to me looking at Winnipeg and Toronto, two phenomenal personnel organizations among coaches, from above Below, what do you think of the level of training? in the CFL right now, well I think it's for the best, you know, I've been in the league since 2005 and when I was a player I wasn't very impressed with some of the coaches that I was around and you know they're out there.

There were some really good coaches that I was with, but overall I didn't feel like you knew there were some guys like who is this guy, how did this guy get a coaching job and I think now that you look at it it's like you know him now. We're going to lose coaches, you know? I mean, there are really good coaches across the board and I feel really good about my staff and in this coaching position, things are tough and I can't reward guys for doing a good job and where we are. Which is unfortunate, but I think we need to move away from that if we want to keep good coaches in our country and in our league, and you know, guys make sacrifices to come up from the United States or move from, say, Montreal to Saskatchewan. training there or you know just one example, but you know guys are away from their families for six months and you know I think they should be paid you know a little bit better than what we pay our coaches and we have a good league. and we already know we have great players, but now I feel like we have great organizations and great coaches to match that, speaking of players, a couple of guys on their team and I know the future is uncertain, McLeod and everything else, but we have Lo I followed throughout the coveted year and came here, he played in the United States in San Antonio and that was a little crazy, what do you think of him as a leader and is it just as someone who finally got his chance? this year, yeah, I think you know he's been through a long journey, you know he's been cut several times and I think you know the reason why he's been cut in the NFL so many times.

You know the opportunity really had one, but you look at a skill set, I mean, the ball jumps out of his hand and that was the only thing that really intrigued me about taking this job and working with him. I could see him from the bench, working for another club and uh his leadership is, you know, contagious, he brings guys in and you know, and all the things he did with you, you know, were resolved last year, you know, his one-year-old daughter, her brother-in-law makes her heard. car accident the day before one of our preseason games and his wife, you know, taking the job in Atlanta for six months and they were going back and forth, it was tough and you just look at his mental toughness and what he had to overcome last year. . under all the circumstances and then play his best season, uh, pretty impressive, well, that's the thing too.

I mean, it's hard enough if you're in the NFL or in the United States and being away from your family and being separated, I just don't do it. I don't think people appreciate that enough and they like almost how isolated it is, like I'm in Canada right now, we have fortnights and stuff, but I can't do the things that maybe I could do. Normally yes, and they don't understand the circumstances, right now I'm going to receive my oldest son. You know he's going to preschool and kindergarten and you know, let's say it. You know, I don't plan on leaving, but if he had.

I had to take a job, well I'm sure if I take a job somewhere, you know we'll still have him in school and we'll keep that house and then we'll get a separate house and it's hard and it's part of the business, but you know , a very rewarding business and you have to make sacrifices, but at the same time you understand, you know what they have to be from time to time. Thoughts on Chad Kelly came into the CFL like he was a cannon shot. very excited you know grandiloquent thoughts online about him getting into the gray cup and all about sway Kelly well I mean you know the guys had high expectations and he works hard and you know he's had a great career in the states Joined. the college level didn't really get a chance to play much in the NFL and, yeah, I mean, he came up and played well for us, did a great job at short yardage at times, you know, we got to see him do. a few more throws, but we feel like we can win with Chad, we feel comfortable with Chad, I feel like he has matured as a man, we still have some things where we are going, we have to see the development as a franchise quarterback. but let's say McLeod retires tomorrow, we feel good about Chad and we'll bring in some competition to compete with them in camp because you don't just give them, you know, franchise quarterback jobs, you have to earn them, but I feel like you don't could earn it, I feel like it can't be a franchise guy, you know, obviously, someone who works with quarterbacks and you know, Levi, everything else that we've talked about before on the show, that transition, obviously, now we have the XFL. usfl here and the players wanted shots there versus it's really a two three four year process, you know, to catch up in the CFL.

We've seen Cornelius here with the Elks potentially take the next step. Why is it for you and then that building process to become a successful CFL quarterback? Why is he so defiant? Well, I think you should have some time, you know? I think when you throw a guy on the field that early, you know? You screw them up and you have to have a foundation to mold the younger quarterbacks well and make it quarterback friendly and have a plan with that, so I feel like you know some of the younger quarterbacks that I play with. I've been, you know? you keep it simple and you give them a chance to be successful and you know how to play good defense, good special teams and then finally you know you give them more words, more on their plate, you know, win the football game, but you know, I think it's a tough breakout is you know, 12 guys, a lot of movement, it's different, it's in um, certain guys can handle it, certain guys can and, uh, you gotta have some athleticism to play in this league, you know, it's different than the NFL and I and I think you know a lot of the quarterbacks that used to come to the CFL are now staying down south, so you know, skills change as far as what they're looking for. , you know, searching. in the same things that we are, but yes, yes, we'll see.

I still feel like we have some good quarterbacks in our league and you know we have to continue to find some more and, um, yeah, and develop them and coach them properly to give them a chance. to win on game day, do you think the league can? And that's more of a bribery question. How do you think the league can further attract those players and quarterbacks here with all the competition? Well, I think financially we have to have a plan for that you know, you know, maybe take some of the quarterbacks' salaries and keep them separate from the rest of the club and find ways to pay them a little more to keep them out of these other leagues and you know that they have a bright future up there and you know that maybe you do, you know that the first quarterback can make this amount of money, you know that a second quarterback we have to pay more than 100 thousand dollars and you know That for a third quarterback we have to pay more than 100 thousand dollars.

I'm going to pay him 85 so you know 125 because I mean guys aren't going to come here for 65 grand. There are new leagues and that used to be the case, yeah, because there was no other league that the guys wanted. play football so they can come and be a third player for 65 thousand dollars, but I want to say even 100 thousand dollars. I think you know that might be the minimum to pay your third quarterback and let's invest in it, let's see how. It's aware of the time here before you let them go, you know, moving forward here, building the next steps for you, what are you waiting for?

Yes, I can't wait for you to see what you know about what free agency is like. I'm going to go, I don't think we're going to be, you know, I guess as aggressive as we've been the last two years, I feel like we've got to be more aggressive with our guys and you know, find the right side. guys that are in our club that we want to bring back and you know, we're going to get two or three guys from other teams, we feel like we can add and help each other and then we have to go explore our ass and go search.

You know, six and seven rookies will come to training camp and try to take some of these guys' jobs and go from there, so you have to have competition and a training camp, it's vital and I'm looking forward to this year we can . You don't just know how to say, hey, we won the gray cup, we're going to do it again and we have to have competition and some guys have to know they're going somewhere else, we'll see how that plays out, well, we're excited, congratulations. Again, I'm looking forward to the future, hopefully we'll see, we'll be in Hamilton and hopefully we'll see them defending there, next year.

I appreciate it, it's amazing, it's good, thank you. Well I was just told that this would probably be my favorite interview of the day we have Craig Dickinson here with the Rough Riders how are you sir? I'm fine thank you thank you for inviting me I appreciate it so first of all have you recovered from we were in Regina Winnipeg? The logo is painted in the end zone which had to be pretty traumatic, yeah boy that was tough, yeah it took me a couple of weeks but I think I'm over it and I'm ready to move on, excited for 2023, sure, yeah, you know with the season?

Last year it was easier to just move forward, how do you approach that? How do you compartmentalize that? The good, the good of being a little older. Now I am 50 years old. Do you know you've seen it? we did it and we did it a little well, we have been through good seasons that you never want to end and we have been through difficult seasonswhere you know they can't get over soon enough and honestly last year was a bit of a bit of both, we started really well, there were four of us and one at one point felt like we had a good team and a good group of guys and then the wheels just fell off, you know, and they did, like that, huh.

Unfortunately, week to week, but you know, we were able to think about that as a football operations department as a coaching staff, figure out what went wrong, how can we do better next year? address it so that if the same things happen, we have answers and I feel like we did a good job, a very deep dive into the season after it ended and I think we're ready to hit the ground running. 2023. Yeah, I mean we're new to covering the CFL, all I know, you know, Saskatchewan runs the league, you know if you know the kind of Premier franchises right in your fan base and everything else, so you know when I lived a season like last year, you know, it certainly doesn't feel like the norm, no, we're a proud organization and a proud franchise and every time you see the playoffs without being in them it's a disappointment, so you know.

I'm ready to roll up my sleeves. I know the people I work with. You know the football operations people and management from the top. Craig Reynolds all the way down. We're ready to get to work this offseason and figure it out. a way to make sure that we can have an improved season, make sure that we can get back to the playoffs and really fight for a championship because that's who we are, that's our goal, that's what it's about is trying to win championships and we feel that we are an organization that should be able to do it year after year.

Hey, I'm having Jeremy O'Day. I'll be there later too, you feel like you know where he is. Maybe it's not the most ideal last season, you know, last season you were able to move forward, but it almost gives you more drive to move forward, I think so. I know that you learn from everything well, so you learn from the good, you learn from the bad and hopefully we can learn from the things that didn't go our way and let them know, take away the emotional element, so to speak, and just learn. and make sure that we, you know, structure our team and structure how we do things in such a way that we can overcome those obstacles because every team will have them, every team will have obstacles read and the better it can be, it's just like going through them like you're in a big monster truck handling the good with the bad, you know, the better your chances of being where you want to be in the end, so I think last year was nothing more than a learning experience, hopefully a bump. along the way and hopefully we can make changes and improve it, so what is the most important thing you are looking forward to?

I mean, I know people are always talking about the old line, you know, with quarterback stuff. I mean, where are they headed here in the future? Well, that's what I mean, that's the truth, we have to improve up front. I think the offensive line is probably our priority. You have to improve a lot in our tackle positions, in our tackles and then I think we have to do it. We also have to solidify our inside three. I mean, we just weren't good enough up front and I think that led to a lot of the problems that you saw across the board.

The quarterback will be in the marquee position on our field. just like any other league and we're going to have to do a good job of making sure that our number one quarterbacks feel comfortable in the system that we're going to use and the number two feels that they have their best football ahead of them, so Those They're our two big, big challenges this offseason, their offensive line and their quarterback, and honestly, we've already been working on them for the last month, yeah, obviously, you know, Mason, okay, will you bring, will you? are you going to bring? a lot of people to compete for that position.

Do you feel good about Mason? we're going to apologize it's going to be wide open at the quarterback position we feel like we're going to bring in a good veteran quarterback whether that means we re-sign Cody or find a free agent and waive him or sign a contract. We'll have a good veteran quarterback coming in and hopefully we'll have some good young talent. to compete and Mason is one of those young players, uh, Jake Dolagala is one of those players, we feel like we put the best three or four quarterbacks we can find on the field and in training camp and we let them know, We let them play and we let them.

The cream rises to the top, that's what we're planning to do. I apologize for asking just because I'm sure you've had a thousand questions about this all season and obviously we've never asked them, you know, Cody. For me, Fajardo is an outsider, it seems like the most fascinating situation in the world. I've never seen someone who seems so docile, hardworking, you know, works hard, but things always happen. I mean, what's Cody like? a person, I mean, you've been, you know how many years, you just know what I'm saying from a stranger, it always seems strange to me, well, Cody is what you describe, a really outstanding person, a hard worker and he cares a lot. a lot about football, good family man, just when he was a baby, him and his wife, um, and he, he's a good guy and he's a good football player.

I think a lot of the things you see overseas, honestly, are a product of Saskatchewan, I mean Saskatchewan Coolers is a different organization and the fan base is so passionate and so connected to the team that I think sometimes you get a lot of the good stuff you get is all these outside opportunities and then sometimes you get outside distractions because of that, so I think Cody is a good football player. I don't think he's any different than anyone at the quarterback position and that he has, you know, a lot of weight on his shoulders, but at the same time he's the quarterback.

They probably get more credit than they deserve when you win and probably more blame than they deserve when you lose and Cody Cody has seen both. Is it more challenging to be a quarterback in Saskatchewan than the other eight CFL teams? I think so, I think you have to have a little thicker skin and I think there are more opportunities for distraction even though Saskatchewan is a relatively small place, you're not going to get into too much trouble off the field, but there's a lot of things to do. a lot of noise and we're going to work hard as an organization to make sure our players understand that noise is noise and it's your choice whether you want to hear it or not, but that's the way we're going. do things and we don't make our decisions based on what the public John Q says they have, we respect and appreciate the input that the public has, but we don't base our decisions based on that, yeah, I was in the gray cup.

I'll tell you honestly, I was very terrified of bringing my wife from Seattle to Regina in the middle of winter. I really have the lowest expectations and I was really happy just because of the hospitality and everything else. I mean, it really was It was an incredible moment, but yeah, he's very, very worried about it, yeah, it's good, it's a good place in the CFL. I'm glad, I'm glad you're diving into the league. It's a wonderful league. I grew up in Montana. I trained. in the NCAA ranks I coached in the NFL and I've been in Canada for 15 years and it's really special and unique and it's a great league and I'm thrilled to see more American people like you get interested in the league because it's a Well, absolutely , yeah, talking about the kind of noise and you know, I want to talk about the new offensive coordinator too, but you know, do you feel like the Rough Riders are still a desirable place to play and coach?

It's still a desirable franchise, oh yeah, I still feel like you know we're going to have one here from time to time, it just is what it is, some years are better than others, we certainly don't want to kill it off. Here, but I still think it's still one of the best places to train. The support is off the charts. The fans care and that's why sometimes you'll hear it if you're not doing well, but I'll tell you what. I'll take fan engagement over apathy any day and we definitely have fan engagement here and for better, worse or indifferent, you'll hear grandma at the grocery store when you walk in because she'll know who you are. and she will have an opinion on the team and for me I think it's a great situation, well I think once people are quiet then they don't care, it's definitely a factor of having passion, that way it changes.

You know, bringing in the new offensive coordinator is exciting, what kind of things are we expecting? You know, Kelly is a guy I've known for a few years, but I haven't given them the keys or given him much of a hand. she of responsibility necessarily, but I think she is a really intelligent guy, very emotionally intelligent. I think she relates well to people and I feel like we're doing a good job of building a good staff around her, so you'll see. offensive new look and exactly what she's going to look like, I can't tell you because they're still in the process of molding her and shaping her, but I think Kelly will bring a lot of good ideas to the table, I think, um.

I think we have a good staff, we still have some positions left to fill, but I think we're going to have a solid staff and it will be kind of a new beginning for all of us, which is exciting. level of coaching and talent right now in the CFL there's been a conversation and different job hires and everything else, how do you reach the level of that? And you know, it's still a desirable league for quality players who want to come train, I think. is still very high, you know you are going to have challenges like you have in our game, we just lost our defensive line coach, a young man, a good young man, I would say probably a promising young star in training and he is We just can't pay you enough to keep them sometimes and that's the reality, but the business model that I think has been built for the CFL is based on making sure that the costs are at least predictable and and the reality is that young coaches They're going to lose a good young coach from time to time, just like the NFL loses a good young coach from time to time, just like, from time to time, they're going to lose one because someone else is going to pay them more. for doing the same thing and fits more with what they're looking for, but I think overall, to answer your question, the CFL is a very desirable place to work.

You get a coach who is truly the best. athletes in the world and they are different athletes in the NFL, but athletically they are phenomenal, they can do things that others just can't do and I think the fan participation and the loyalty that each city and group has towards their team, it just leads a lot of interesting rivalries and really cool experiences, so I think the CFL is aiming up and I think it's going to get better. Last question, what should fans expect from the team? here, like you said, New Look offensive, we can bring Corvette, it seems like there are a lot of changes, right, the change is good.

I mean, even for Rough Rider fans, sometimes it's nice to do it, so what should the waiting people expect? Yes, a lot of changes, so wait for the The unexpected would be an answer. I expect a lot of new faces on the offensive line. I expect a little bit of a different offense in terms of what it will look like. I think you'll see a little more emphasis on running the ball. I felt like last year we did a decent job running and then I think just some new faces training. I think that's one of the things that will be fun for the Casual fan to come to a practice and see different guys training and I think. opportunities for guys like Kelly Jeffrey and Young's new coaches to really put their stamp on the team and put their own distinctive flavors on it, so there were a lot of changes, but hopefully a lot of good athletes were looking to become really athletic in the receiver's physique from the front and I can't tell you who the quarterback will be, but he will throw the ball very well, they will be good people, you know some of them.

I saw some of the Riser fans upset because of some of the game schedules and I got it, but they'll have a good team here to support us. We will make sure everyone is happy. I know change is hard sometimes, but I think it should be good. Yes, I'm looking forward to the season starting. I appreciate the visit, thank you very much. Greg, I really appreciate your time, thank you, well, we have Jeremy O'Day here, uh, with the Rough Riders. Just returned from the beautiful Regina here in the gray cup. Obviously she wasn't in the gray cup, but I witnessed Winnipeg take care of everything else.

How did you deal with all that? Very difficult, to be honest, it was difficult, difficult to watch, but you know, that's the difficult part of having a home game when you're not at it. You know what people do. What I don't understand is what's so difficult is the amount of work your own team puts in to host a Gray Cup and the amount of work even when you go back and think about how they have to do it. bid on the Gray Cup to be able to receive it, our staff, we just did a great jobbidding on it and we were actually supposed to have it in 2020 and it was actually delayed because of covid, so, that's the hard part.

The part is that you're obviously disappointed that your football team isn't in the game, but you know how much work was done and then, then, you know, then an opposing team comes in and they're in your locker. room during the game, you know, that's hard to swallow too, so um, but I thought about the presentation and the setup of the gray cup. I thought it was amazing and it was all in one room and I'm a bit biased but the Ryderville thing was amazing the size of that place was monstrous and I saw a lot of people having a lot of fun in it yeah because we went to Hamilton and everyone said Well, that's not real. go and this is like this, now we went with his dad, so at some point we will attend a real, you know, I go, but you know, obviously he's a boy, he needs to be whatever, but no, it was fun and we had a lot of fun good. there and I got to see the sights and the sounds, it's a cool place.

I have very low expectations of going to Regina, but my wife and I had a lot of fun, well, I'm fine, I'm glad you enjoyed it, you know? pilot season, uh, here, how would you grade Ada from A to F? The 2022 season, oh, a numerical number, anything anytime you're not, you don't put yourself to be in the playoffs and have a chance to be in the last game. I think it's a failure to be honest with you, so, you know, I would never be a guy that would rate us higher than if you didn't make it, obviously, there's a lot of things that happen during the season, a lot of guys have some personal successes for the that you're happy and there are areas where you did well and there are areas where you didn't do so well, but obviously last year it wasn't something that was our expectation. our expectations move forward and, uh, something you really don't want to experience again, you want to have successful seasons and you want to have a chance to be in the playoffs and run for them because, once you're in the playoffs, it's anyone's game.

The biggest hits you can get of the season. Things you are proud of. This is an organization. I think when you do it you're really looking at individual players, some certain players on your team. I think you know some of the things that were interesting to see watching Keenan Schaefer Baker establish himself as one of the best receivers in our league. Mario Alford comes in a trade and going from being traded to moving from one team to another and being the most outstanding special teams player is not an accomplishment and we went through a lot of adversity. ups and downs it's really difficult when you start the year strong and then it fades, it's really like that.

Those are tough seasons, um, if you start off slow and then get better as the year goes on, that's a sign of improvement, but when you go the other way, that really takes its toll, so it's not something you want to do, certainly, we certainly want to improve on our season from last year, we are new to covering the CFL here, the last two seasons, all I experience in the world is that you know it's Saskatchewan, you know the CFL Canada CFL team and the place to be, that gives you It adds extra pressure and to be a part of that knowing that this is kind of the lifeblood of the CFL up there, you know, I think there's always pressure to be successful in your job.

I think one of the things that's different in Saskatchewan is that it's more public. I think there are more people. matters, football matters in Saskatchewan, I say it all the time and people want to know what's going on with the Rough Riders, they want the team to be good, they spend the money to come to the games, we have a great subscription base for the season, so their expectations are that we do well, we have no excuses not to be successful, we have a great stadium and a great fan base, so they really just want something to be proud of and to be proud of, and that's what you're trying to do, ultimately, give them a team that they can be proud of and that's what's hard when you're having a tough year when you're not having success and you're not making the The playoffs are in Saskatchewan, at pace of the Rough Riders season, so you can see it weekly if we win games, the mood of the city is different and you certainly want to win those games. because it definitely puts people in a better mood after the season and like you said, you didn't finish maybe the way you knew you wanted to, how do you approach the rebuild now?

I mean, many of you know that we will. go in a couple different directions here, but there are a lot of areas we need to work on as a team here in the off-season, how do you even begin to process that? Yeah, right, immediately, uh, and honestly, you're going. through this during the season, you know what we feel, that we're not playing as well in a certain position or in a certain group and you know what you have to prove and you and you're certainly trying to do it. improve that during the season, um, if you can, um, and there are times when you wonder if we just need time to gel, you need time to improve, uh, in one area and sometimes that works, where the guys, uh they realize it and sometimes they don't, um and then when the season starts you're really gathering a lot of information from the coaches and players and your scouting staff, hey, here are the areas where we were deficient.

Here's some areas that we think we're good at and then you start to develop your kind of offseason plan of how to make the team better, and then a lot of that has to do with your free agency and going into the draft, I apologize to Craig for asking this too because I'm sure you know Cody Fajr, you certainly know a lot, you know I'm experiencing this as an outsider, it's an anomaly for me as someone who is very nice and you seem to know that I even killed a family man and we love all of this, but it's more of a controversy all the time, like it's a weird dichotomy to me where you know normally, like in the NFL, you get these like the bad guys that They get a lot of press, what do you think about the kind of it's just for Saskatchewan and that's the focal point is the quarterback?

Why does Cody get so much pressure around him in that position? Yeah, that's natural in Saskatchewan, it's a different place to play and a different place to be the starting quarterback. There is an enormous amount of pressure. You can't go anywhere without people giving their opinion on it. It's always been that way, so it takes a lot of adjustment, and you have someone. Cody is such an open, honest, honest person, he wears his heart on his sleeve, and there are a lot of people who, yes, yes. you've got a tough game, they're not nice about it and that's the reality and Saskatchewan is that they will tell you how they feel and that could be good or bad and sometimes it makes it difficult and uh when you take a lot of pride in what you do and your values ​​and your beliefs, uh, it's hard, it's hard to accept that and it's been a long history of that in Saskatchewan.

I can say you have to do it. You have to have a certain mentality when you play in Saskatchewan and I've known a lot of starting quarterbacks from my time, here and it takes, it's a unique challenge to be a certain quarterback in Saskatchewan, for sure because you have a lot of coaches and a lot of GMS that they live in the province but again I've said it a million times and I really mean that's what makes it special and that's what makes Saskatchewan special it means a lot and you know what they say about what they say about Sask being a football town is definitely true.

I'd rather be in a city where everyone is paying attention. that a city where not many people pay attention to it, so it's the good and the bad shots fired at the Argos, no, I was just joking, you know, and I didn't mention any names, you know, because me and I'm friends with many from the Saskatchewan media and you know they cover the team well, you know more every day than I would ever hope to know about all of this and you know you bounce back as much of a quarterback as you can. It's not successful because the offensive line isn't there or the offensive line isn't the quarterback and they're going to bring in Mason to figure out all these kinds of things like, uh, moving into the offseason, like, how are we addressing this? what do you think because it really is the most controversial situation that I think of in terms of any of the nine teams right now, yeah, you know, you know, I firmly believe that to give yourself the opportunity to be successful you have to be good at up front on the offensive line and I think we definitely didn't have a strong year up front.

I think we did a good job at the beginning of the year. Running the ball early, which helped us in the last game and as we started the season started to move forward, I think other teams started to stop the run and, you know, there's a lot of variables that impacted the way the run went. season and how the struggles started and, you know, Cody injured his knee and had to wear a big brace and that slowed down some of his mobility, which is a big part of his game, it definitely had an impact. but you know everyone has to share the responsibility, uh, I certainly share, share, share the responsibility on that and it really is a group, it's a group effort to change it right, everyone has to take it personally and, you know, I'm proud . to be proud that the guys didn't point fingers, uh, when things got tough, I thought the guys, I thought we faced a lot of adversity, you know, we had about a covid, we had another virus that came in, uh, during another game where we had uh 20 or 30 guys that were pretty sick during the game, um and then obviously some situations that uh, uh, they weren't very happy with, happened during the year, um, but I thought that through all of that I thought the guys stuck together um for the most part it's always a challenge you have a room full of grown men who uh it's not easy when the going gets tough everyone handles it in different ways and um , but overall I thought the guys handled it just as well. as possible and I really just want to get back to a season where we avoid avoiding some of those situations and really just focus on football, yeah one of those signed individuals here in the USFL will be able to cover here. in April, so I'll be very curious how that all works out with one of the CFL's big bad boys here moving on, uh, it's Saskatchewan, uh, still a desirable team, a franchise team, a team you want train. play to want to be a part of yeah, I really believe that so I think that um uh you know again.

I'm certainly biased, um, but you talk to a lot of people and I think what they come to appreciate is just the atmosphere that we have there, I think a lot of our players dream of playing in big stadiums in front of a lot of people, you know, they want the excitement. after scoring a touchdown. I think we do a great job. of our game presentations and getting the fans involved in those things, but it has to work hand in hand, you have to have a team that they are proud of and you certainly know when you have a good year, certainly some of the Other players will talk more to you about what a great place it is and if you struggle it gets a little more challenging, but you know we're going to try to do it. get back on track to where we were in the past and uh, when, when the football games and getting into position at the end uh, last question for me, just uh, your word to you, you know, season ticket holders, passionate fans.

From Saskatchewan, I know. There was a lot of idea that we had the schedule and we are achieving all this, but people will be excited to come back. What is your message to them here heading into 2023? Yes, the same message that Ali gave them is Just to continue to support our team, they have been fantastic and I understand that they are frustrated with last season and I just want to give them our word that we are working hard to try to improve the team, give them a team they can be proud of, we certainly have people in place who know the importance of building a team they can be proud of, both on and off the field. field um and just to show that Rider that writer Pride that they've always had and uh the writer nation has always been there um and I hope that they continue to do that and come out and support us and uh we'll do the best we can to have a great team Forum uh, well, busy week for you, busy day for you.

I appreciate you coming and good luck with everything I was going to ask you about Kelly Jeffrey as well, but you know there's a lot of excitement going on. and I think this will be good and I really appreciate your time today thank you very much yeah I also appreciate you taking the time it was good to talk to you busy day for you guys uh yeah busy you know we're here uh traveling here for the tomorrow and in a different time zone and then plenty of press opportunities and a good time to talk football with all the coaches, GMS presidents and the League office, so it's a good time to put down the swords for foul best term in the off-season when no one competes and we really talk about trying to improve the game.

I really appreciate it. Sean Burke with the Autumn of the Red Blacks. We have all our listenersAmericans. I'd say Ottawa probably has something. one of the most popular in terms of fan support for our American listeners. I appreciate your time today. League Offices, everything is going well, having a good offseason. Yes, absolutely obviously, we are faced with a very important decision. As we began our offseason, that was. uh hire a head coach and by doing that you can then set Bob's plan to build his staff and then start signing players to your team so we started off a little slow in the offseason in terms of signings and then we hit a flurry once we have our staff in place and now we're trying to make some headway before free agency opens and then see what free agency brings uh yeah I just finished talking to Bob Pure ago a few minutes.

Which ultimately led obviously comes in the midseason special teams at Enron, but to finally give him the keys here at the end of the season, yeah, I would say, first and foremost, leadership, an outstanding leader, leads the men. in a way that inspires them and cultivating a culture in our room and culture is often a word that gets thrown around a lot in sports, but you can't talk about it on a daily basis, you just have to continually expect it and set the expectations which I felt like Bob did in the last four games, secondly, just the game management, I think that's where the head coach makes a big difference having experience in a specialty that is usually involved in that type of things and then finally, the staff he was able to put together, I felt like the staff he was proposing to you. you never go to 100 on everyone on his staff, that's on his wish list, but he had a lot of what he said in the interview process to bring in two guys like Kahari and Baron as our coordinators, he just gave us A great opportunity to work with great people, that's the bottom line, at the end of the day at Coach GM, the relationship is a partnership and you want to be able to work with a great person and I've been lucky enough to do that. in Hamilton with several head coaches, I have to do with Paul last year, no disrespect to Paul please, I had a great relationship with them and it was a difficult decision that I had to make and ultimately work together with Bob during the last 365 days. days in his ability then and now, that coach really excited thoughts about last year as a whole, obviously, I felt like there was a lot of momentum from the offseason with you and we have Jeremiah, we're doing all these shows behind the scenes. and everything I thought, a lot of the momentum never really translated on the field and then I really got hurt and all that, how do you look back on the season?

Yeah, I think whether it's NFL, CFL, NCAA, uh, anytime you lose your number one player. It makes things a little bit more difficult, that would definitely go without saying, but the reality is that we expect to be a better football club and we have to offer a better product on our pitch for our fan base and that, ultimately, in addition to the property, who, who. We are all responsible for our fan base and that responsibility is not taken lightly. You know, we have expectations of winning games here and getting better. I felt like we fell short on that.

I think we have some. pieces in place here that's why we've been actively giving up some pieces the cover isn't naked this is not a review uh you normally avoid those types of situations in our league compared to the NFL a little bit uh but I'm sorry We have some talent and we have to play better, put W on the board, especially at home, with the CFL being such a fan-centric league and the relationship feels even closer than even some in the NFL. franchises that get those wins at home, especially and everything else is you feel that extra pressure, you know, I always say pressure is a privilege, right?

It's a privilege to have this opportunity to lead this organization and I don't take it. lightly with my background. first on the business side of sports, I definitely know what this league means to defense throughout this nation, and I don't take that lightly as a Canadian executive, there aren't many of them in our league and I take my responsibility. uh very highly so we want to offer a winning product in Ottawa we want our games to be exciting you know ultimately what we're looking to do is compete every year in our division for our own playoff game and see where they are the chips. fall and see where you can go from there and see that year after year with teams in this league and it's a pretty well balanced league, the difference between winning and losing is not a wide margin in this league, that's a credit to the people It does its job throughout this league and we just have to win more of those close ones. going four and five on the road and then 0-9 at home is just not acceptable to our fans, you know, with everything this year.

Like I said, all the momentum, you know, Mazole goes down, like you said, having the number one guy, uh, you know, I mean, personally, do you feel like your sale is over at that point? I mean, how do you regroup and take it? I guess the personal side no, no, you always have to compete, injuries are part of this profession and part of our job as GMS and the coaches in this league is to surround the club with the ability to handle those injuries and handle that adversity. Some position groups are a little more difficult than others, obviously, but that can't be used as an excuse.

We get paid to win games and you know we had complete confidence in our quarterbacks Caleb and Nick. Obviously I reacted quickly by bringing Nick in right after Jeremiah's injury when we knew it was a long-term thing and the reason was not a lack of trust in Caleb, but what would happen if this happened to Caleb and all that, he always . A GM's job is to provide answers to the team to give them the best ability to build a team each week, so we felt we needed to react quickly. Obviously, Nick had a bit of an advantage in knowing some of our terminology. in our Playbook the coveted year, but at the same time he had not gone through training camp, it took him a little time and Caleb is still progressing as a quarterback, the reality is that in two consecutive years he has been involved in situations difficult due to injuries. where you like a guy to take time to develop behind another guy, see how everything develops and not get pushed into things, so you saw some moments of great play, you saw some moments of not so good play and that's generally what what are you doing.

We're going to be dealing with young quarterbacks and Nick brought an element of stability and professionalism in leading a room and you know the reality is we just didn't win enough games, he wasn't quite right on any side of the ball, I think all three of them. Our offensive defensive special teams ball sides could take some parts of the games during the year where they like to get them back and do something a little different that could have meant the difference between winning and losing, yeah it's very difficult and I I mean, I've had this conversation with a lot of people, you know all the talent now and trying to get guys to the CFL and it's taking them several years to catch up, just being in a different game.

It's difficult, as a general manager and as someone trying to build a roster. I think the first difficulty is that guys understand that it's a new league and you know, whether it's high school football or college football. football or NFL, your journey usually doesn't start as a starter, the Dalton Joneses are few and far between and you have to buy time to learn a game, whether as a backup or on the practice roster you know from the high school you're at. you play JV. In college, you redshirted on the SP team in the NFL and, uh, I think sometimes it takes a little time to adjust to get respect for the type of competitors that are in our league and understand how it works. our league, also in terms of the squad.

You know it's part of the evolution of a player coming into our league, but I definitely think there are some things that are being implemented in this new collective bargaining agreement that can help us have some consistency in the rosters, which I think the players will enjoy. , the fans are going to enjoy it and uh as a general manager building a team, I'm going to enjoy it too, uh, expand on that, what are some of the things and I mean, we talked a lot about that preseason and how it all went down, but why What were you happy to see the players get here?

It's a seven-year CBA and seven years here, well, I definitely think it was beneficial for everyone being a league team and players to have some partial guarantees in the contracts, obviously from a player's point of view, it gives us a absurd point, you know, ours. The league is often harped on about roster bonuses and cuts that happen behind them, before them, and the same thing happens in the NFL, you just know we're talked about in our league because that's who's talking in our league. league about what happens, happens in football, uh. So looking at those partial guarantees that you know makes your decision making more important to a GM who gives them because there are some severe restrictions if all of a sudden you're paying two or three partial guarantees with the size of our salary cap, like that that help. a player can commit to a long-term organization for the general manager and head coach, helps build continuity on the roster that you're not constantly starting from scratch or trying to build a new team and bring in new players and create that environment in that room.

And then from a fan standpoint, the most important thing is just the ability to engage with the players in your community. You know, having guys here maybe for more and more years so that when they buy jerseys they're not constantly spinning. on their jerseys and can identify with those guys. I just thought it was a great decision made by both parties to come to a compromise that worked for everyone. I loved the series behind r you know, the staff there directed In the season and since I'm not a football fan, I talk to a lot of really smart people who inform our audience, but as someone who is very casual and able to get behind the wall, did you enjoy power? to educate the audience and let them in and some of these high pressure situations and hiring people and trying to negotiate all that, yeah, I think sometimes you just forget that it's there, that's what it's supposed to be, it's natural , TRUE? a lot of trust in Josh in our series uh behind the r, you know, working with him on a daily basis and a lot of trust with him, uh and everything, so sometimes he would just forget it was there and you know, ultimately something Well.

Things come from there. I think every fan enjoys maybe an F-bomb or this or that, you know, we're all human, we have emotions. One of my most competitive days of the season are always those first two. free agency days or draft night, that's where I can really leave a mark on this team, the reality is I don't coach the team, I don't coach the team during the season, I don't make those decisions, that's the job of a coach in chief, so those are where I can really impact, so I feel like one of my strengths is bringing the players together, recruiting them and seeing them a vision of what we believe and the audience got a little bit of that behind the scenes that we try In the As much as possible, not do any editing, because it deserved to be seen for what it is and I know that we will have four or five episodes behind ER of the 2022 season that, you know, have good raw content, you know, not It's necessarily the best content that we want to show, but we have to be real if we're going to be honest with our fan base and show them what we're all about, we can't just show the good times because we have to show the struggles and the obstacles and I think that The most important thing is to show the work effort and what it means to be a director or a coach or a player or a management guy in football. not all game day and Jeff window Jets and all that there are a lot of hours, a lot of sacrifice and most importantly a lot of care, we don't take our job lightly, we think and process a lot. on things and uh, that game day result, if it's a win, it's the best thing in the world and if it's a loss, it's just crippling for the next 24 hours, you don't want it, you just want to get to the next game to get over it. , yeah, I think that humanizes a lot of you, because I think fans get so desensitized sometimes, well, I don't know anything and I think it really allows you to get into your head and your space and what.

It actually feels like being there, yeah, final thoughts before I let you go. I appreciate your time, we just talked to Bob Dyson about the rebuild, getting ready for the season, uh, things that you're specifically looking to build, you feel like you have a good core here heading into the offseason and free agency, yeah, ya You know, I think we want to continue being a team offast physical football, we want to have players that compete at the highest level possible, but we want to sacrifice individual accolades for the betterment of the team, ultimately everyone has an ego in this game, from me to that coach, the players, we all want, We want some personal things from this, but the best way to gain recognition and personal growth is by presenting a winning product.

Together we want to offer a consistent product on a course that will be a great entertaining product for our Ottawa fans around the world. I really appreciate your time. Very thoughtful answers mean a lot. Thank you very much for giving me some time today. Thanks Reed. Have a great day, I appreciate it. I know Jenna and many of our American fans, especially the other Red Black fans, will be excited. Here we have Bob Dice. How are you sir? Oh, I'm great, how is he? We're ok. I appreciate these League winter meetings here, congratulations on being officially named, you know, third head coach of Redbox, how did it feel to have everything become official here?

Oh, obviously, it felt great, you know, Sean Burke went through a really intensive process once the season was over and, you know, obviously I went through the interview process and when I went to Ottawa for my final interview, I felt very well being able to name the third coach here in Ottawa, a lot of work to do here, you know, at the end it was a strange season. I felt like there was a lot of momentum and a lot of you know Masoli and all that, and you never felt like everything was fully operational. What was your opinion about him? season, well, you know, I think you're right, you know, obviously, there were some trials and tribulations, you know, peaks and valleys, you know, obviously, when you lose a player of Jeremiah's quality, it's going to affect you.

CFL, such a quarterback-driven League that when you lose a player of Jeremiah's skill, it's going to hinder your success a little bit, but I will say this, you know, and the reason I'm so excited about the job is that These players continually struggled all year through some adverse situations, and you know, Sean. Berkeley said he did a really good job, like you said expectations were high at the beginning of the year because Sean had done a great job attracting talent and so, I'm excited that there's a great talent base here and as you saw in the last four games, the guys fought until the end and you know we talked about that being our base for this year and that's why we are. excited to get started in 2023.

E5 there's a lot of pieces there that you guys can work with yeah I know you know when you look at Jeremiah again everything is clicking and he's going to come back strong with this offseason and you Look at the guys in our receiving corps like Jalen Acklin and Justin Hardy uh Nate Bahar um you know, a really solid core there Devonte Williams did great things in the backfield and Jacob Ruby really came in and anchored our offensive line and taught you guys what it was all about and they did a great job this year, playing well as a unit, so offensively I really feel good about what we have there and some young guys like Cyril played well, also defensively, the same type of things as you guys You know, you know, obviously, Lorenzo he has a chance to be a free agent, I'll try to lock him up before that happens, but you have players like him and Avery Williams and guys like Money Hunter and Patrick levels in our secondary, there are a lot of them. talented players here and now, it's just our job as coaches to make them play as a cohesive unit and play hard for 60 minutes, hey, so Mozilla comes back feeling better, where the plan is in motion, you're heading towards 2023.

Well Yeah, Jeremiah would come back, yeah he's our quarterback and you know he's a great leader. You know we talked about the game on the field getting hit when he wasn't there. You really know what happened. Well, because he had had some side effects with the injury and was not in the facility. Jeremiah is such a strong leader that even the presence of him not being there really impacted the guys and you know he's there and we're going to do it. Look, where we go with number two, you know Nick is a free agent opportunity, so it could be him or some other guys that come in and really excited with Jeremiah leading that room on offense and the team, actually, uh.

For what 2023 has in store for us, how do you see Jeremiah's talent? I mean, he was such a big signing when they brought him in and I know this was before, obviously, you took over as head coach, but you know, big free agent signing, you know big time. off-season moves, how do you view his talent above the rest of the CFL quarterbacks right now? Oh I see, I see Jeremiah is a high level CFL quarterback, you know the experience he's had, you just can't take that for granted. Um again it says leadership skills, you also know that you want your quarterback to be he's almost like a coach, a secondary coach for you and that's what Jeremiah brings to you, you see his personality, the players just were drawn to it. for him and then his ability on the field.

I mean, he still has great mobility, which is a huge benefit to our game. He is still a great suit of armor. If you look at those two or three games earlier in the season, he was playing high-level football and we're looking for him to lead us. um and get Ottawa back to where we are where we should be. Do you think there was enough? You know even though it wasn't the season. You wanted enough positive traits here near the end to have enough to build from 100. um, I said when I was hired that uh, this is not uh, I didn't take this job thinking it's a Reclamation project, uh, and we have a long way to go, I think there's a lot of talent here, obviously, like I said, Sean.

I did a great job of giving up some of the guys before they hit free agency and I'm sure there will be more to come and then once we hit free agency there will obviously be additions and changes every year. Um, but I hope we compete and I hope we compete this year from week one to 18 and I hope we're a team to be reckoned with this season. Do you feel that there are many expectations? Know? the losing streak at home and all that I quite like, you know, I have a passionate fan base regardless of everything, even through everything and yeah, how do you balance that in your mind?

Hey, we gotta make sure people are happy. I think the most important thing to do is make sure you're doing things right. And you know what I mean. Make sure your processes are correct and that you are doing things that will allow you to be successful. You know, obviously, I think for people. the city of Ottawa, obviously, yes, I want to see us win that game at home in front of our fans and obviously we do too, but that's not our only focus, our focus is to win, to play winning strong football and we do that, we know we're going to win home games, so it's not something that's in our head like, oh, we have to win a home game.

We're concerned about doing the right things so that when the time comes, we do the right things every week so that when the time comes. The end of the season is coming, we are playing very important games, so how challenging it is, obviously, you have had a, you know, tremendous coaching experience in the past, but you have to take a step in the middle of the season like you had to do and like say here, you know, I have to film any void, that's how challenging it is, as well as the position of the men's leadership, well, you know, I guess the only benefit that I felt I had was, I've been in Ottawa with this group for a time. and they knew what it was about and I had a pretty good idea what it was about and I think from the time I was here we played pretty solid special teams football and the guys, the one thing about being a special teams coordinator, uh interact with everyone as they are so you know everyone and they know what my expectations were and they know how I trained and I trained hard um and so it wasn't that hard maybe um in that sense because I felt like they had a good relationship with the guys, um , but at the same time it's because it's someone else's, it's been someone else's ship and you're trying to reboot it right and your four games aren't a lot of time to change the way people are.

I've thought about it and especially when it's been a challenging situation, but the guys responded exceptionally well. I couldn't ask for more. They like. I said they fought hard and we are very excited about that little Foundation. Grow from that. have great success this season, I'll say that from the people I talk to and it all came up and obviously you don't want to see anyone lose their job, but you come in and then obviously you're named head coach uh overwhelmingly positive. Which I think in the CFL is kind of hard to get unanimous support all the time.

I mean, does that just speak to your background and the history you have as a coach or the way you interact with people? Do you attribute that to um and that's a good question? I think you know what I've always tried to do is I've tried to do things the right way and I've always tried to treat people, do you know if that's true? be players other coaches um everyone with respect and what you do and I think that uh if you treat people well uh they are happy when good things happen to you uh and so I don't see that it's different there obviously very honored by that um uh in In that sense, but like I said, I was telling my wife the other day that I was able to enjoy this while everyone is happy because it's like being the backup quarterback all of a sudden, although when you become the starter, everything changes and so on.

I'm enjoying enjoying this little honeymoon now, but we're excited to get to work and turn things around here quickly. I think Kahari Jones comes in, you know, obviously another fan favorite, so he thinks about bringing that in and how that's all going to work, yeah, you know. Kahari and I have a long history together and you know, the coach is a player and he brings all the intangibles that I look for when I look for leaders of men. He has done a great job as a former player. things very well and he communicates them well and, you know, he's a quarterback, you're a leader, so our relationship has changed.

You know, so when we worked together at Saskatchewan, we worked together, he was my quarterback coach when I was the offensive coordinator. And again I got to see him work positively as a coach and then just see his work from the outside, what he did in Montreal as a coordinator and head coach, but I knew from the beginning that he was going to be one of those guys that I talked to and, uh, but I would like to work with him because for all those positive attributes that he has, I think he's another fan favorite that you might know that a lot of people maybe didn't know about.

I don't think he was treated fairly or, you know, unfortunately a little maligned and whatever, and to be able to come and get it, start over with you here in Ottawa, it's got to be exciting, I think for the fan. base there just if you want to see a compelling offense on the field 100 you look at the car it's very innovative in what it does and we're excited I know Jeremiah is excited and I think the offense as a whole you know when you know I'm very excited about everything , well, obviously, all the staff, um, those guys that you know started, obviously started their meetings and, um, you know, like I said, Kari leads that group, it's very exciting and you see how.

He quickly really wanted to be named because he was going to be a bigger part of the success we have here. What do you want the obstacles to be known here next year? Do you want your football brand? Be okay, I want to win football for the first time, but I think it's very similar to how we've played special teams here the last few years, you know what we are, we hold ourselves to a very high level. standard and play and play at a high level and we hold each other accountable and we're going to be a very fast physical team that plays with great energy and a great competitive nature, but most importantly, you're going to see a team that maybe does a little bit of work, a better job finishing throughout the course of the games and even went down, obviously, it's a very emotional game, but we have to make sure we keep our emotions in check and uh, but uh, very fast, very physical and also a team intelligent.

I just announced that Devonte Deadman is coming back. You know if the big returns specialist signing like that you expect to have a lot of exciting moves like that here heading into 2023 100 obviously very very excited to have. Devonte, obviously, he and I have a very close relationship and from my time as a special teams coordinator, again a dynamic personality, not only in Ottawa but for the league, and I'm very excited about the guys, he's the kind of player that players love. play or block and yes, as I was saying before, there will be some changes and some additions, so we are excited about that and obviously we also hope to see some, some of our current players return as well,so it's going to be a great combination uh new ending and the players have been here in the past so we're really excited that Sean has done a great job putting it all together and I'm looking forward to seeing what happens here in free agency and also when you come into the permanent head coach that you know now, obviously bringing in Kahari and a lot of the other off-season coaching changes so far, how do you feel about the current level? of the coaching staff is in the CFL across the board.

Oh, you mean our staff compares only to the CFL in general, the quality of the staff right now, oh, I think you know probably as good or better than ever. I think you know, uh, what we do. find is now, I mean, when you look at guys like me, who are Canadian, we've been able to get more exposure in the last few years and have access to states and all that, and then you know you look at there are some fantastic coaches that have always come here from the US in the past and I think now you look across the board, you know, meeting guys here, even this week, just a great group of experienced guys and there are also young, fresh people who are contributing new ideas and I think coaching in the CFL is, like I said, as good as it's been in a long time, okay.

I wish you luck here. I know I'm saying you're taking the reins here at the end of the season, now running them again. I think it's going to be exciting, uh, things that fans will look forward to. Before I let you go, sorry, I just said. anything fancy I look forward to Before I let you go any final comments oh, I would just say this. I think you know one thing you'll see about these players. These players are excited to play for and win for the Ottawa fans. Ottawa fans and they're excited to get back on the field, they're coming here in May, so like I said, get ready for a very exciting, aggressive physical team from Ottawa that will compete to the end and like I said, play some football winner.

I really appreciate your time. Good luck here. Okay, it was a pleasure meeting you and thank you for your time. Thank you so much. A special thank you to all of our guests this week. To all. A lot of work from people of all kinds. different leagues helped coordinate and facilitate that this week. I really appreciate the XFL offices. Matt with the Forsaken for helping set up the Jonathan Heinbach interview. Jonathan took the time, you know, at the end of a work week on a Friday night in Arlington to sit in the stadium and spend a few extra minutes, you know, 25 minutes with me for real.

I appreciate everyone taking the time to do that, Jonathan and Matt, everyone here really appreciate Lucas and everyone at the CFL offices for coordinating everything that put up with me, this crazy American podcast that helped me provide six more, obviously, Randy Ambrosi, our entire CFL. Media day

interviews

everyone with the Argos, the Rough Riders and the red blacks really appreciate it and then of course Anthony Miller takes some time after work late at night to help them know, come on, do your Renegades preview, really appreciate Anthony and everyone else. I think that goes. To do it for me, I'm going to try to get out here and go to the beach for at least a minute and walk along the boardwalk before going to have some beers with a professor.

Thank you very much to all. Take a look. Jordan Palmer qbx on the XFL YouTube Channel Like and subscribe. I don't have my Brian Scott ball with me this week, but make sure you like it and subscribe to be part of our fast-approaching 2,500. I think we're less than 100 now. Who would have thought we'd get closer to the start of the XFL and everything else? Thank you all very much, see you next time, thank you.