Photo courtesy: Paul Yates/B.C. Lions

The Toronto Argonauts interviewed Rick Campbell for the team’s head coach position, per sources.

As CFL rules state, the Argos asked and received permission from the Redblacks to go through the process with Campbell. The 54-year-old spent the 2025 season as Ottawa’s special teams coordinator.

Campbell has had two stints as a head coach in the CFL, one with the Redblacks and most recently with the B.C. Lions. He was named the three-down league’s Coach of the Year in 2015.

The Spokane, Wash., native was hired as Ottawa’s head coach when the team was an expansion franchise in 2014 and stayed there through 2019. He posted a 44-62-2 win-loss-tie record with the Redblacks, leading Ottawa to three Grey Cup appearances during his tenure and winning one in 2016.

Campbell left the nation’s capital to become B.C.’s head coach in December 2019. He added co-general manager to his duties when the CFL returned to the field following the COVID-19 pandemic. The veteran bench boss produced a 38-30 win-loss record during four seasons on the West Coast but was fired on November 20, 2024, after the Leos lost in the West Semi-Final to the Saskatchewan Roughriders.

Hugh Campbell’s son took his first coaching job in the league with Edmonton as defensive backs coach and special teams coordinator in 1999 and kept the role through 2004. He has since served as Edmonton’s defensive coordinator (2005-2008), Winnipeg’s defensive backs coach and special teams coordinator (2009), Calgary’s running backs coach (2010), Edmonton’s assistant head coach and special teams coordinator (2011), and Calgary’s defensive coordinator (2012-2013), earning two Grey Cups as an assistant coach in 2003 and 2005.

Campbell, who has been a Canadian citizen since 2011, has an 82-92-2 record as a CFL head coach with one Grey Cup win.

The Argonauts’ head coach job became available after Ryan Dinwiddie, the team’s two-time Grey Cup-winning head coach, left for the Ottawa Redblacks to become bench boss and general manager. Toronto unsuccessfully tried to woo Winnipeg Blue Bombers’ head coach Mike O’Shea. Then targeted former Hamilton Tiger-Cats and Saskatchewan Roughriders head coach Kent Austin.

3DownNation has reported that Toronto special teams coordinator Mickey Donovan interviewed for the vacant spot, along with other assistant coaches from last season’s coaching staff.

The Argos finished third in the East Division standings in 2025 with a 5-13 record, missing the playoffs for the first time since 2019. Chad Kelly was unable to play all season due to a fractured leg he suffered in the East Final in 2024. Nick Arbuckle threw for 4,370 yards, 26 touchdowns, and 15 interceptions to be named the team’s Most Outstanding Player.

Toronto ranked seventh in net offence, sixth in net defence, and seventh with a turnover differential of minus-eight. The team’s leading rusher was Spencer Brown with 314 yards, the leading receiver was Dejon Brissett with 907 yards, and the leading tackler was Cameron Judge with 79 tackles. The Argos ranked ninth in attendance with 15,109 average fans at BMO Field, which was a 0.1 percent decrease from the previous year.