Landry: Looking Long Term

An avid Argos supporter and season ticket holder, Don Landry has covered almost every type of news from sports to music to talk radio in his 25 years of broadcasting and has conducted over 10,000 interviews with the likes of Prime Ministers, Premiers, sports legends, showbiz stars, power brokers and many more.  Follow Don on Twitter @argoslandry or visit his website at donlandry.com.

________________________________________

DON LANDRY
Argonauts.ca Columnist

MISSISSAUGA — As the Argos practiced on a cool and cloudy autumn day, a large flock of geese winged its way over top on the way south. The team’s playoff aspirations having preceded them, it’s time to talk about next year.

Next year is something Defensive Coordinator Orlondo Steinauer is already considering. Like those geese, he may not have a detailed map of how to get where he wants to be, but he knows he’s going in the right direction.

“I’m prepared for the effort, absolutely,” he said as we sat on the bleachers next to the practice field. “As far as what, exactly, and how I’m going to go about it? I’d be lying to you if I said I had it all mapped out.”

There will be time for cartography, soon after the business of prepping for two final regular season games is done. After that, Steinauer plans to take a week off, then get right down to the task of building the 2012 edition of the Argonaut defence.

“I’ll be going over game film, I’ll be in touch with the staff, I’ll be in touch with Coach (Jim) Barker. I’ll be looking at other players in this league, (upcoming) free agents that we’ve been looking at, and go from there.”

He’s relishing the opportunity to rebuild and reform a unit that has shown some improvement in some areas since he took over a third of the way into the season, in early August. Some improvement, yes. But it is still a defence that lags behind 7 other clubs in many categories in the CFL’s team stats, including rushing and passing yardage, sacks and points given up.  Ask Steinauer to pinpoint areas of improvement and he doesn’t hesitate for a moment.

“Turnovers. Getting off the field. Two-and-outs in crucial situations of a football game.”

Not surprisingly, the former defensive back is pleased the Argo defence has started intercepting more balls, since he took over from former coordinator Chip Garber. Garber’s defence plucked 3 opposition footballs from the air in 6 games, while under Steinauer that total is 11 in 10 games.

That kind of upswing in thievery fortune is a strong indicator of the philosophical differences between Steinauer and Garber. It might also lead one to wonder why there’s such improvement in that area, but little, comparatively, in other defensive categories. If it’s that Steinauer did not have the benefit of starting his program in training camp, he’ll only allow that to carry so much water.

“Regardless of my vision, from that point on (when he replaced Garber) it had to be installed in segments. By no means is that an excuse for how we are, currently. The bottom line is you gotta win games.”

Still, designing and building through an off-season, with an eye toward a fresh start on day one of training camp, would obviously be preferable to what Steinauer’s attempted this season. No matter the business, we’d all prefer to have months to bring our vision into focus, as opposed to days.

When it comes to a D.C. putting his own stamp on things, it may not be as much about where you put the x’s and o’s as you might think. But, rather, it’s the timing of WHEN you employ x’s and o’s in certain ways. According to Steinauer, that’s the real difference maker in pro football.

“You’re either gonna play man or zone, or you’re gonna play a combo coverage. There’s only so many coverages that are run. It’s the people running them and when you call them. There’s only so much you can do but there’s different ways in how you go about it and game plan for every team. And what you choose to stop, and what you choose to give up. That’s really the big challenge of being a coordinator.”

Now we come to a very important question.  Steinauer maintains that it’s about when you call certain things AND about who’s on the field to run those schemes. Does the Argo defence, as currently constituted, have the right players for the job?

Don’t get your hopes up. Of course I asked him to name names. To tell me who he’s pleased with and who not. He wasn’t biting.

“I’m not going to divulge where I’m happy, where no changes will be made and where changes WILL be made. But I’d say, probably at least half of our guys will be back.”

That’s not a threat, by the way, to half the men on the Argo defence.

Steinauer doesn’t think he’s ever played on a team where at least 20% of his mates did not return for various reasons. Injury, retirement, trade, free agency, releases, they all play their parts in the formation of a football team on a season to season basis.

Which brings us back to those geese and Steinauer’s own off-season journey.

He’d love to head in a straight line to where he wants to go. But there will be stops and detours, no doubt, along the way.

“I think anybody who’s building something wants to put all their own pieces together. But there’s contract issues, there’s people that were just signed last year that Chip really wanted back and things like that.

So, I will build around what we already have but I’ll also have input as to where changes need to be made.”

Part of the challenge in making those changes successfully will be in ensuring the Argo defensive unit has the right people to keep its formation tight. Certain types of athletes for certain types of jobs.

Finding that is as much a part of the process of building an airtight defence as pure athletic ability, according to Steinauer. The players he wants on his defence in 2012 will be good athletes, that’s a given. But he’ll want more than that. He’ll also be looking for those who have an understanding of the game plan and the concept of team.

“You can’t have all leaders. You’ve got to have some followers. That isn’t a negative thing. That’s a role that’s accepted on any football team. Any team, in general, any corporation. Not everybody can lead.”

THE EXTRA POINT

Steinauer is on a track. A track to be a head coach. Hard to find a CFL observer who doesn’t believe he’ll one day get that chance. It does not consume him, though.

“I’ve always wanted to be a head coach. But I don’t take it into my daily work. That’ll happen over time.”

When it does happen, Steinauer believes he has the right abilities and mindset to be successful.

“I would love to be in charge of putting a staff together, leading men from a different point of view. I think one of my strengths in being a leader is surrounding myself with good people, with like goals.”