{"id":188795,"date":"2025-10-04T04:28:17","date_gmt":"2025-10-04T04:28:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/188795\/"},"modified":"2025-10-04T04:28:17","modified_gmt":"2025-10-04T04:28:17","slug":"hogan-mr-reliable-toronto-argonauts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/188795\/","title":{"rendered":"Hogan: Mr. Reliable – Toronto Argonauts"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 2024 season has not gone as expected for the Toronto Argonauts.<\/p>\n

There are a multitude of reasons why the defending Grey Cup champs have a 5-10 record, all of which will be discussed at season\u2019s end. But for all the disappointments, there have been some positives, one of which has been the stellar play of kicker Lirim Hajrullahu.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"From walk-off field goals to a bevy of bombs, the Western University product has lived up to a high standard he established a year ago. He tied Lance Chomyc\u2019s Argo all-time record with 55 three pointers in 2024, while setting a club record with eight field goals in a game. His 202 points was the third-best single season ever, trailing Chomyc\u2019s \u201991 and \u201988 campaigns.<\/p>\n

He also had an impressive post-season, setting the Argo record for the longest playoff field goal, a 53-yarder in the Eastern Semi-Final against Ottawa, and breaking the team record by scoring 28 playoff points. He also went 4\/4 in field goal attempts in the Grey Cup win over Winnipeg.<\/p>\n

Earlier this season he moved into fourth place in all-time Argo scoring, passing Dick Shatto and Mike Vanderjagt, now just trailing legendary Argo kickers Lance Chomyc, Noel Prefontaine, and Zenon Andrusyshyn.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

With three games remaining, Hajrullahu will flirt with the record book again. He\u2019s already connected on 46 field goals, eighth-best in team history. There\u2019s little doubt he\u2019ll hit the 50 mark again, which would be the third time that\u2019s been reached by a Toronto player.<\/p>\n

Last Saturday in Vancouver he became just the second player in CFL history to record three field goals of 50 or more yards in the same game, joining Justin Medlock, who achieved that feat in 2009 while a member of the Argos.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not like the Kosovo born, St. Catharines raised kicker has been feasting on chip shots. His seven field goals of 50 or more yards leads the CFL, as do his 19 field goals from 40 yards or longer.<\/p>\n

When asked what\u2019s gone right this year, the 35-year-old was quick to credit long snapper Adam Guillemette and holder John Haggerty, saying another year together as a team has made things even easier.<\/p>\n

\"\"His ability to connect on long field goals has been noticeable. In pre-game warmups it\u2019s not unusual to see Hajrullahu attempt and usually hit field goal attempts of 72 yards. He\u2019s even gone further than that.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes as a kicker when you\u2019re feeling well and the weather is nice,\u201d he told Argonauts.ca. \u201cThe furthest I\u2019ve gone is 77 (yards). I\u2019ve been feeling really good, especially after the Labour Day game.\u201d<\/p>\n

While a 77-yarder may be pushing it in the eyes of his head coach, Ryan Dinwiddie has not been hesitant to allow Hajrullahu to attempt longer field goals. There is zero doubt the kicker has earned the confidence of the coach.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s been amazing,\u201d Dinwiddie told Argonauts.ca. \u201cHe\u2019s been consistent. Any time you\u2019re over 90 percent that\u2019s pretty darn impressive. He hasn\u2019t lost the pop in his leg, I actually think he\u2019s got a little more this year than he had last year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dinwiddie admits he\u2019s changed his mindset about going for long three-pointers this year because of the trust he has in Hajrullahu, and that he\u2019s also adjusted his philosophy of when to go for field goals, because there have been times the Argo offence has struggled.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s based on how the offence is going,\u201d Dinwiddie explained. \u201cA lot of times we\u2019ll take threes; it could be third-and-five, and the offence isn\u2019t being as consistent as we\u2019ve had in previous games, and we want to get some points when we\u2019re down there (deep in the opponent\u2019s end of the field). You\u2019d like to be more aggressive and go for it on third down, but it depends on what the situation of the game is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hajrullahu\u2019s success, as noted earlier, has allowed him to join some rare company atop the Argos record book.<\/p>\n

\"\"\u201cI try not to worry about numbers too much, but it\u2019s nice to see.\u201d he confessed. \u201cWhen you see at some of the records and see the guys that came before you, to be in the same conversation with them just shows that you\u2019ve been doing something right. I\u2019m thankful for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a strange situation. Everyone within the organization would love to see him solidify his place in Argo history, while at the same time there\u2019s hope that he\u2019s only needed to convert touchdowns, not settle for field goal attempts.<\/p>\n

Whether it\u2019s for one or three points, there\u2019s no question the Argos are comfortable with Hajrullahu any time he\u2019s asked to do his thing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 2024 season has not gone as expected for the Toronto Argonauts. There are a multitude of reasons…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":188796,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-188795","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cfl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-canadian-football-league","11":"tag-canadianfootballleague","12":"tag-cfl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=188795"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188795\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/188796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=188795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=188795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}