Anything But Ordinary

THE CANADIAN PRESS

MISSISSAUGA — This is hardly an ordinary rookie camp for Toronto Argonauts head coach Jim Barker.

Five among the 45 players on the field for the CFL club are quarterbacks, all of them getting their feet wet learning new coach Barker’s offence. While that’s pretty typical, what makes this camp out of the ordinary is all five are vying for the Argos’ starting job because there will be no incumbent arriving when Toronto officially opens its training camp Sunday.

Barker took care of that in the off-season, wiping the slate clean by releasing veteran Kerry Joseph and Cody Pickett — who shared most of the starting duties last year — and youngster Stephen Reaves as he attempts to rebuild a club that posted a CFL-worst 3-15 record last season and missed the playoffs.

“Normally there is somebody else coming,” Barker said following Thursday’s workout. “It is a little different than what you normally see.

“I was saying to one of our coaches today that I wish one of them would either step up and be really good or fall back and be really bad. They’re all doing some things good and doing some things bad and are so close it’s tough to differentiate one through five. We study the film and will make the right decisions, it’s just tough. But that’s a good thing when you have five of them all getting it and learning on the run.”

Three of the quarterbacks —  Cleo Lemon,  Ken Dorsey and Gibran Hamdan — arrived with previous pro experience, but all of it in the NCAA and NFL ranks. That means adjusting to the longer, wider Canadian field, the pass-happy CFL game and playing with a 12th man and unlimited motion on offence.

Dalton Bell spent last season with the CFL’s Saskatchewan Roughriders, but didn’t see any playing time before being dealt to Toronto in March.

The fifth quarterback in camp is none other than  Danny Brannagan, the native of Burlington, Ont., who led Queen’s to a Vanier Cup title last year. Brannagan, 23, left the Gaels as Canadian university football’s career passing leader and is the most familiar of the five with Canadian football but is a raw rookie battling others with varying degrees of pro experience.

And Brannagan also has the added pressure of being a Canadian looking to break into what has traditionally been an American’s domain in the CFL.

“I think people know a little bit more about me but at the same time I’m just a rookie quarterback like the other four guys,” Brannagan said. “But I think it’s an advantage knowing the nuances of the Canadian game and knowing how wide the field is and how that 12th man on defence comes in as a factor.

“I think my time at Queen’s and playing football in Canada has helped prepare me for this.”

Another typical aspect of rookie camp is players making mental and physical mistakes as they attempt to catch Barker’s eye. But the Argos coach quickly showed, rookies or not, he won’t tolerate errors and shoddy play.

“Half the O-line was offside when we’re trying to score,” he yelled at the offence late in the practice. “This team will not take penalties.

“I can assure you of that. Focus!”

Afterwards, Barker said inexperience isn’t an excuse for mistakes.

“They have to know we don’t accept certain things,” he said. “Losing your focus at the end of a practice is one of the things that leads to penalties and that’s one of the things we will be better at.

“It’s a point of emphasis. I think any time you start seeing those things creeping in, if you don’t stop it . . . . it didn’t happen again.”

All five quarterbacks had to adjust to the absence of a true centre, meaning the snaps in the shotgun formation weren’t always crisp, forcing the passer to concentrate on getting the ball first, then quickly looking downfield to make the necessary reads. And, predictably, that didn’t always go well either.

“Today was disappointing because you don’t always have a chance to talk about everything,” Barker lamented. “But the ball went up in the air deep middle against zone coverage and when you do that in pro football the ball is going to get intercepted 100 per cent of the time and that’s exactly what happened.

“Hopefully that was a learning process and that won’t happen again.”

There was nothing wrong with Lemon’s focus as the six-foot-three, 220-pound quarterback looked sharp for a second straight day. Bell also looked good while Brannagan appeared tentative at times and on other occasions seemed to play it safe. Both Hamdan and Dorsey have great size for a quarterback (they’re six foot four) but say they’re slowly adjusting to the Canadian game.

“It’s definitely a learning experience, there’s a lot to learn and a lot of things are different,” said Hamdan. “But I really enjoy a lot of the intricacies of it, the motions, the creativity of it.

“I think, moreso than anything, it’s learning some of the nuances that I don’t know yet. You’re going to struggle with those things and that’s something most of us are working through. There’s definitely some throws that are more difficult because of the field.”

A fact not lost upon Dorsey, who guided the Miami Hurricanes to an NCAA title during his university career.

“This (rookie camp) is crucial for all of us because it’s a very different game than what we’re accustomed to down south,” he said. “As many reps as you can get, you’ve got to take advantage of it because while you have similar concepts with an extra player you have more guys in there.

“The field is certainly big, but there are opportunities out there. It’s just knowing where to go with the football and being accurate.”