{"id":378097,"date":"2025-12-30T22:14:18","date_gmt":"2025-12-30T22:14:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/378097\/"},"modified":"2025-12-30T22:14:18","modified_gmt":"2025-12-30T22:14:18","slug":"argos-turning-it-to-eleven","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/378097\/","title":{"rendered":"Argos: Turning It to Eleven"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the running gags in the 1984 mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap revolved around how often the band changed drummers. It had to, as multiple percussionists met with untimely, often peculiar fates, including one case of spontaneous combustion, while another perished in a bizarre gardening accident.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, nobody on the Toronto Argonauts has died this year, but the lack of consistency at the strongside linebacker (SAM) spot is reminiscent of the British band\u2019s volatility on the kit.<\/p>\n

In training camp Quincy Mauger was perhaps the favourite to regain his starting status after an injury-plagued 2024, but he was a late camp cut. Since then, the Argos have seemingly gone through everyone but Eric \u201cStumpy Joe\u201d Childs at the position.<\/p>\n

Mauger lost the job to Donald Rutledge, who passed the baton to Kenneth George Jr., who was injured and gave it Jarrett Martin, who passed it to Tyshon Blackburn, who gave it back to Martin, who handed it back to Blackburn. For the last two games the spot has been handled by a veteran who has made the job his, the Argos hope for the rest of the season.<\/p>\n

The Boatmen signed Branden Dozier on August 11 and less than a week later he was their starting SAM. He came to the Argos with over 100 CFL games under his belt and immediately gave the defence a much-needed veteran presence at a tough position to play.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt makes it way easier as far as not having to teach the game,\u201d Argo defensive co-coordinator Jason Shivers told Argonauts.ca. \u201cWe can just focus on scheme, and he\u2019s been in enough schemes where he can understand and pick things up quickly and plug-and-play. A guy that brings the tenacity that he does around the line of scrimmage, can fit the box but also can play in coverages and give us the possibility to play at free safety is awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n

After stops in Montreal, BC, Calgary, and Hamilton, Dozier was released by the Ticats and less than a week later he was in Double Blue. The Argos were the first of multiple teams to reach out to him and he opted to sign in Toronto, an organization he\u2019s played against for eight seasons, but is now happy to see from the inside out.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cPlaying against them for so many years you wonder how teams operate,\u201d Dozier told Argonauts.ca. \u201cIt\u2019s first class here. You always heard that they bussed to practice so you always assume that their facilities wouldn\u2019t be that nice, but the facilities here are great. The locker room, the food; you go off campus for practice, but it\u2019s right down the street.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019s also fit in on the field. The UNC Charlotte product has been effective in his two starts, while also contributing on special teams. He likes what he\u2019s seen so far from the team\u2019s defensive co-coordinators Shivers and Kevin Eiben.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I like the most is how open they are to using the strengths of everybody on the defence,\u201d he explained. \u201cThey draw things up to get guys open d-line wise, and even to the strengths of our coverages. They really use everybody across the board to make sure that we\u2019re putting our best effort out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dozier will start again Monday in the Labour Day Classic in Hamilton, the team that released him earlier this month. He says it will be fun playing against the guys he\u2019d trash talk during practice with, and admits that moving from black-and-gold to Double Blue has been fun, and the uniform didn\u2019t burn the former Ticat when he put it on for the first time.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, it didn\u2019t,\u201d he said with a laugh. \u201cI was shocked at how clean it looked, to be honest. The Double Blue looks really good on the uniform.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps the only person who likes seeing the newcomer in Double Blue more than Dozier himself is Shivers. Because Dozier is no stranger to the position, Shivers has to do less teaching and more coaching, though at this stage the newcomer is just adjusting to the wrinkles of the Argo defence.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe fine tunes on his own,\u201d said Shivers. \u201cHe just needed that openness of the coach to say \u2018You\u2019re playing football, you\u2019ve played a hundred-plus games, how do you see this? This is how I see it, what do you think?\u2019 Once they get out there and they start practicing, I kind of just give them free reign to talk and make adjustments as they go, they\u2019re the ones out there playing the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dozier isn\u2019t the only one excited to play on Monday, after all, it\u2019s the Labour Day Classic.<\/p>\n

Because of the importance of the game, the Argo defence is hoping it can turn its performance up to eleven.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of the running gags in the 1984 mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap revolved around how often the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":378098,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-378097","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\/378097","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=378097"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378097\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/378098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}