Folarin Orimolade, “Flo” to his friends, is back for a fifth CFL season and second year with the Argos. He’s established himself as one of the league’s premier defensive ends, finishing with 10 sacks a year ago to lead the team, a major part of a defence that led the CFL with 68 sacks, 13 more than second place BC.
This year the man with the Ivy League education from Dartmouth is expanding on his already impressive wealth of knowledge. He’s learning from new defensive line coach Demetrious Maxie, a star in the CFL for 14 seasons before becoming a coach, spending the last eight years in Edmonton, the final six as the D-line coach.
“D-Max has taught me a lot already,” Orimolade told Argonauts.ca. “For me, my ‘ghost’ is probably my best move (an oversimplification of the move, it’s showing the offensive tackle a straight arm, then dropping the shoulder and going underneath the block), so I’m trying to work a good power counter off it.”
After a slow start, including missing a couple of days to deal with a personal issue, Orimolade is regaining his form of a year ago. It’s a frightening proposition for the opposition to have the Washington, D.C. native back in stride to go along with returning players like Robbie Smith, Shawn Oakman, Jared Brinkman, Deionte Knight, Benoit Marion, and Ralph Holley, who joined the team late last season. That impressive cast doesn’t even include the addition of Jake Ceresna from Edmonton, where he finished tied for second in the league last year with a dozen sacks.
There are a couple of newcomers to the group as well, including Derek Parish, a defensive end with a high motor and style that may remind one of Orimolade. The vet has liked what he’s seen from the rookie so far.
“I think he’s good,” said Orimolade of Parish. “He’s got a really good arsenal of moves. He can go in and out, he can switch edges really well. It’s something that I do well that he can do as well. As he continues to adapt to the Canadian game and the yard off the ball, he’ll be able to make plays.”
Parish is from Pearland, Texas, a suburb just south of Houston. He stayed home and played his NCAA football with the University of Houston Cougars, where he was named Second Team All-Conference. He certainly gained attention in a game against Texas Tech where he recorded 11 tackles, 4.5 sacks, and 6.5 tackles for loss, a good season for some.
He blew away scouts with his performance at the Cougars Pro Day, running the 40 in 4.56 seconds, posting a 37-inch vertical, and bench pressing 225 pounds 27 times, but at 6’2”, 245 pounds he was considered undersized to play end in the NFL. His athleticism was so impressive the Jacksonville Jaguars drafted him in the seventh round of the 2022 NFL Draft and tried to convert him to fullback. The experiment didn’t work, and he was released in October.
To say the Argos were excited when he signed with them would be an understatement. The chance of pairing him with and having him learn from Orimolade seemed like a perfect match.
“I’ve really learned a lot (from him),” said Parish of Orimolade. “His bend, his get off, his pre-practice routine. Pretty much anything I have a question about I’m going to Flo or Rob (Smith) about how to handle it. I’ve been a sponge around them, trying to learn everything I can from them.”
The learning curve for a newcomer to the league can be a steep one. A defensive lineman must adjust to the yard off the ball, the change in angles, the width of the field etc. Chasing down a quarterback when he’s rolling out can seem to take forever on a Canadian field.
That means it usually takes a while for a player to stop constantly thinking about what he must do, and just being comfortable enough to know what his assignment is and playing at full speed. Parish feels like he’s already playing fast.
“For a little bit we were thinking but now we’re playing,” he said with a huge smile.
That’s a prospect that should excite fans of the Double Blue.
ARGO NOTES: In the early part of Wednesday’s session the offence had the upper hand over the defence…Defensive line coach Maxie felt his group was flat and was exceptionally vocal about his displeasure. He wasn’t the only coach to test his vocal cords on the day…Maurice Carnell IV made his camp debut in uniform. The North Alabama product missed all of last season due to injury and was with the second group at boundary halfback…Mason Pierce made an acrobatic catch for his first interception of camp, falling to the ground while securing the ball…The first unit has been rotating defensive backs during camp, on Wednesday featuring Pierce at field halfback and Leonard Johnson at field corner…Fraser Sopik showed off his range on a sideline pass. He got all the way to the sideline from his weakside linebacker spot, diving in front of the receiver, knocking the ball away while he was parallel to the ground. Sopik may have been the most vocal defensive player, urging his teammates to pick up their play, which they eventually did…Cameron Dukes connected twice on deep balls down the middle to Rasheed Bailey, hitting him a third time on a lengthy sideline completion…Richie Sindani had a couple of catches on deep balls, one from Bryan Scott, the other from Nick Arbuckle…First-round draft pick Kevin Mital is finding his legs, making multiple catches on the day…Another rookie, sixth-round pick Justin Sambu, recovered a bobbled exchange in the backfield and sprinted some 30 yards for a touchdown.