{"id":380119,"date":"2025-12-31T20:48:23","date_gmt":"2025-12-31T20:48:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/380119\/"},"modified":"2025-12-31T20:48:23","modified_gmt":"2025-12-31T20:48:23","slug":"hogan-parish-ready-to-lead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/380119\/","title":{"rendered":"Hogan: Parish Ready to Lead"},"content":{"rendered":"

Everything changed in the blink of an eye.<\/p>\n

After winning the 111th Grey Cup, the Argonauts defensive line was decimated by defections. It started on January 10 when Folarin Orimolade was traded to Calgary for linebacker Cameron Judge. Three days later Ralph Holley signed with the NFL\u2019s Cleveland Browns.<\/p>\n

The biggest hit in terms of sheer volume came on the first day of free agency, February 12, when Jake Ceresna, Robbie Smith, and Jared Brinkman and all signed deals with the Edmonton Elks.<\/p>\n

All of a sudden, the Argos defensive line group was down a total of five key players who combined for 31 sacks last year.<\/p>\n

Replacements were brought in via free agency, but only three of the defensive linemen who dressed in the Argos Grey Cup win over Winnipeg remained in Double Blue; Jordan Williams, Thiadric Hansen, and Derek Parish.<\/p>\n

Of those three, Parish had the greatest impact a year ago, contributing a half-dozen sacks in his rookie campaign.<\/p>\n

This season, he\u2019s ready to increase his contributions on the field.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was able to go into the off-season with a notion of how to get better at the game within the game,\u201d Parish told Argonauts.ca. \u201cLast year I was ignorant to it and didn\u2019t have that knowledge, but now I feel I\u2019m a little more comfortable in terms of my training and getting better in this training camp.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to watch Parish and not think of his former teammate Flo Orimolade. Both are shorter than your average end, they know how to use that natural leverage to their advantage, both have an elite combination of speed and power, and both have great bend.<\/p>\n

But when asked what he learned the most last year from a veteran who shared so many of the same attributes, the first thing out of his mouth wasn\u2019t a physical trait.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cHis knowledge of the game,\u201d said Parish of Orimolade. \u201cHe would always give me pointers and tips on how something would play out and just help me raise my IQ in the Canadian league. Every time Flo or another vet would talk, I\u2019d be a sponge. Even if I wasn\u2019t asking him and he\u2019d say something to somebody else and I\u2019d hear him, I\u2019d write it down.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the defections in the group, Parish is remarkably the veteran along the d-line with 18 games played as an Argo. Anthony Lanier and Bryan Cox have played more CFL games, but Parish has the most seniority in games played in Double Blue.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s ready to assume a leadership role if it\u2019s needed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s something that I would love to step into, but I also believe that has to be earned,\u201d said Parish. \u201cBy keeping my energy up every day, showing up for these guys on the field, I think that\u2019s a great start. If I get accepted in that role I would gladly step into it, but I\u2019m, going to do my best to get myself and the guys around me better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spoken like a true leader.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just the players that are new to the group, as last year\u2019s defensive line coach, Demetrious Maxie, left for Edmonton as well. Maxie\u2019s replacement is a perfect fit for a young group.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Greg Marshall knows a thing or two about playing defensive line. Not only has he been a coach since retiring in 1987, he was a tremendous player, named an all-star four times, and was named the league\u2019s Most Outstanding Defensive Lineman in 1983.<\/p>\n

He likes what he sees in Parish.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can tell he\u2019s a guy that likes playing the game,\u201d Marshall told Argonauts.ca. \u201cHe has fun out there even though he\u2019s working hard. He likes to be the leader of the group. He\u2019s done a good job in camp, I like the way he works. I like the way he tries different things when you make suggestions, he\u2019s coachable. He\u2019s just enthusiastic when he\u2019s out there on the football field.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marshall was equally enthusiastic about the Houston native\u2019s potential.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he can be a very good pass rusher in this league. I think he\u2019s excited by the fact that he\u2019s going to get more opportunities than he got last year. We need someone to step up and fill some of the void from the guys that were here last year. He was more of a rotational guy maybe getting 20 snaps a game, this year he\u2019s probably going to be one of the front line guys getting 50 snaps a game. He looks like he\u2019s prepared for it in the off-season and he\u2019s had a good training camp so far.\u201d<\/p>\n

Argo fans will be watching the evolution of the defensive line as the season progresses, anxious to see who steps up to replace the numerous players who left. There is little doubt that if they watch the group, number 97 will catch their eye very quickly.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

ARGO NOTES For the second straight day the defence had the better of the offence during the scrimmage and skelly periods\u2026One offensive player who had a good day was Calvin Turner Jr., who made a sensational sliding, over the shoulder catch, while also catching a TD pass when the team was working on red-zone offence\u2026Several pairs were as returners during kickoff drills. The first pairing, not surprisingly, was Janarion Grant, with Deonta McMahon as the off-back.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Everything changed in the blink of an eye. After winning the 111th Grey Cup, the Argonauts defensive line…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":380120,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-380119","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\/380119","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=380119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380119\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/380120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=380119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=380119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=380119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}