Kevin Sousa/CFL.ca
Game day is always the best day of the week for Corey Mace so this week won’t be any different, even though the Toronto Argonauts’ defensive coordinator will be facing his old Calgary Stampeders teammates.
“It was inevitable,” said Mace, who spent 12 years in Calgary as a player and coach before joining the Argos in January. “It was going to happen at some point this season. I’m just excited for us to get the heck back out there after a tough one last week. Calgary just happened to be the opponent.”
Mace won two Grey Cups with the Stampeders. One in 2014 during his six years as a defensive tackle, the other in 2018 when he was Calgary’s defensive line coach.
The 36-year-old Vancouver native swears he’s more focused on making amends for last week’s 34-27 loss to Hamilton than reminiscing with his former team.
“You get to see a couple of friends before the game, maybe a couple for seconds after,” he said. “But I’m really excited about our guys in the room here and seeing them execute game plans. We’re still coming together as a defensive unit.
“These are the guys who make the calls come to life.”
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Ja’Gared Davis is just one of 10 former Calgary players on an Argos roster that welcomes the Stamps to BMO Field on Saturday afternoon (Kevin Sousa/CFL.ca)
When the Argos (4-4) host the Stampeders (5-3) Saturday afternoon at BMO Field it will be like a high school reunion.
There are 10 former Stampeder players now with Calgary, including defensive backs Royce Metchie, DaShaun Amos and Shaq Richardson (out with an injury); receivers DaVaris Daniels, Markeith Ambles, Eric Rogers and Juwan Brescacin (both currently on the six-game injured list); linebacker Wynton McManis and defensive lineman Ja’Gared Davis.
The Calgary connection extends to sidelines where Toronto has seven coaches that either played or coached with the Stampeders. Besides Mace, head coach and offensive coordinator Ryan Dinwiddie was a quarterbacks coach with Calgary for four years. Receivers coach Pete Constanza spent 12 seasons with the Stampeders in a similar role and defensive backs coach Joshua Bell both played and coached in Calgary.
Offensive line coach Kris Sweet, secondary coach William Fields and running backs coach Edwin Harrison all either played for the Stampeders or coached with the team.
Mace said the CFL is a small league and it’s not uncommon for players to move around. Some, like Davis, played with other teams before landing in Toronto.
“If you’re in a locker room, it’s probably because you’re a pretty dang good player,” he said. “While we do have a lot of ex-Stampeders, we’ve got a lot of good players as well.”
It also makes sense that if you are trying to build a winning franchise, you follow the blueprint of an organization like Calgary, which has appeared in seven Grey Cup games since 2000, winning four.
“A lot of the things that happened in Calgary over the years, you look at the organization standpoint, not a lot of turnovers,” said Mace. “After a while you do build a standard and a culture. That’s something we’re going to have to continue to build here.”
Mace isn’t sure if having a familiarity with the Stampeders will give the Argos an edge this weekend.
“There might be some slight advantages as far as knowing a little bit about individual player’s mindsets or other coaches,” he said. “They probably are looking at some of us that they are familiar with and knowing some tendencies or certain things about our guys.
“It’s going to come down to having the players make the plays and the coaches making the best calls possible to put these guys in the right position.”
Calgary quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell comes into the Toronto game with an edge after venting his frustration last week after the Stampeders blew a 12-point halftime lead and lost 41-40 to the BC Lions.
Mitchell hasn’t been the dominate force this season that he has been in past years. The two-time league MOP has competed 151 of 245 passes for 1,861 yards, a league-low four interceptions and nine touchdowns. His 89-yard touchdown pass to Malik Henry against Edmonton on July 27 is the longest pass of the year.
The Stampeders are second in the league in scoring, averaging 30.8 points a game, but Mitchell’s 61.6 per cent completion ratio is second worst among starting quarterbacks, only ahead of Edmonton’s Taylor Cornelius’ 59 per cent.
Calgary is seventh in the league in averaging 244.1 passing yards a game and eighth with an average pass of 7.8 yards.
Mitchell has thrown for 300-plus yards just twice this year, the last time on June 25 against Edmonton. He’s also thrown for 220 or less yards four times, including just 137 yards in a win over Ottawa two weeks ago and 206 against BC.
Mace isn’t writing Mitchell off yet.
“If somebody is saying Bo is not playing good, (he’s) still better than a lot of other quarterbacks in the league,” he said. “He’s still Bo Levi Mitchell and we’re treating him as such.
“He’s a well respected quarterback in the league and he’s still making some unbelievable throws. I know he still commands that room and you can never take that lightly.”
The Argonauts head into the weekend sitting first in an East Division that has turned into a barroom brawl. Toronto has punched above its weight by beating Saskatchewan twice and losing by a single point to Winnipeg.
Mace hesitates to say the Stampeders are a chance for the Argos to prove themselves.
“We’re getting towards the midpoint of the season and we’re still at .500,” he said. “Truthfully, every game is the biggest game of the year for us, and it should be even if we were in a situation where we were undefeated.
“That’s the mindset we roll with. There’s nothing else to focus on except for our opponent this week, who just happens to be Calgary.”
