THE CANADIAN PRESS
TORONTO — Rich Stubler was calling from his home in a small Colorado town where the snow was interrupting his golf. The old football coach was on his way out to watch the local high school basketball teams play in the thin mountain air, 1,900 metres above sea level and a long way from Toronto.
Rich Stubler won four Grey Cups with four different teams during his CFL coaching career including Hamilton (1986), Edmonton (1993), B.C. (2000) and Toronto (2004).
It was in Toronto where his decorated run in the CFL was ground to a halt, fired 10 games into his first season as head coach of the Argonauts. Stubler was 4-6 when he was dismissed two years ago, and he returned to the U.S. as the team lost 23 of its next 26 games.
“I have no reason to badmouth anybody or to defend myself,” Stubler said in an interview with The Canadian Press. “They let me go and I rode off into the sunset. Hopefully, I’m not too old to come back there and do some other things.”
As the Argos embark on yet another attempt to rebuild, though, it appears Stubler’s influence has already returned. Mike O’Shea and Orlondo Steinauer were named by the Argos as assistant coaches last week, graduating from their days as leaders of a remarkable defence crafted by Stubler.
Kavis Reed, who played for Stubler in Edmonton before working alongside him in Toronto, has been hired by the Winnipeg Blue Bombers as defensive co-ordinator and assistant head coach. Michael Fletcher, a linebacker who won the Grey Cup with Stubler and the Argos, has signed on to become a high school coach in Los Angeles.
Both Reed and Fletcher believe more of Stubler’s former players will evolve into coaches as they retire, listing former Argos such as Kenny Wheaton, Jordan Younger and Jonathan Brown as prime candidates.
“He hand-picked his defence, basically, and obviously the guys he hand-picked loved football,” Fletcher said. “When you get around a guy like Stub, he makes you understand life, along with football, and things that you want to pass along to these young men.”
Stubler’s defence reached its zenith in Toronto three years ago when it held opponents to an average of only 15.9 points a game. No CFL defence has allowed fewer points-per-game in 25 years, according to the league’s head statistician.
The scheme placed its fate in the hands of the veteran players on the field, especially with middle linebacker O’Shea and safety Steinauer. It operated on the principle that it would allow the offence to run the ball to a point, knowing teams in Canada would eventually have to resort to the pass.
As a result, Toronto defenders were often on the field for long stretches, but rarely for opposing touchdown celebrations. And because of what it asked of veterans, it may have helped groom future coaches.
“It just grew into something where the kids understood it and could take ownership of it,” Stubler said. “Probably, the most unique thing about all that was their understanding of how offences worked.”
When Reed moved down the highway to work in Hamilton, he said he and Stubler would gather to discuss defensive concepts and strategy once a week, unless it was a week where the Ticats and Argos were playing each other.
“He’s different from a lot of other coaches in that he doesn’t try to force a system on the players,” Reed said. “Because, all too often, players become ‘systems players,’ and they’re not fundamentally sound enough to go to other places and have success.”
Steinauer, one of eight assistants named by incoming coach Jim Barker last week, disagrees with Reed’s assessment. Steinauer, who will work with the team’s defensive backs this season, said there was a system in place, but that it was up to the veterans to spread its gospel.
“We had people who were just raw athletes, and they had their place on our team,” Steinauer said. “(Stubler) knew if we brought in a player like that, he didn’t have to worry because he didn’t have to teach him. O’Shea and I would have to teach him – we were an extension of his arms.”
Stubler ran the defence for five seasons before he was promoted to head coach prior to the 2008 season. The seams, which had already begun to fray around the franchise, fell apart in his first year at the helm, marked by an ugly quarterback controversy and a suddenly-vulnerable defence.
He was replaced mid-season with Don Matthews, who lost in each of the eight games he coached. Bart Andrus posted a league-worst 3-15 record in his rookie season last year, and was fired in December.
Stubler, meanwhile, is still considering his options.
“I’m looking at a couple or three things, and we’ll see what happens here in the next little bit,” Stubler said. “I like the CFL. I mean, the CFL, it fits my lifestyle.”
