Ron Wilson had some advice for defenseman Cody Franson,who will make his season debut against the Calgary Flames tomorrow night.

“He’s going to play the next game and the rest is up to him” said Wilson.  “He put a lot of pressure on himself talking (to the media) this week so now he has to perform.”

3:13-3:20 about Franson.

Cody Franson was vocal about not playing.  What really bothered him was how he found out about sitting out the first two games by watching a video of a Wilson scrum similar to thix ones.  Clearly, Wilson that he didn’t really appreciate the the comments.

Tim Connolly missed practice again, he will not play.  It’s still not clear as to who comes out of the lineup in place of Franson, but based on the minutes, expect it to be Jake Gardiner.

Projected forward lines against Calgary.

MacArthur-Grabovski-Kulemin

Lupul-Bozak-Kessel

Frattin-Lombardi-Armstrong

Steckel-Dupuis-Brown

Defenseman

Phaneuf-Gunnarsson

Liles-Schenn

Franson-Komisarek (Gardiner Likely Sitting)

Goaltending

Reimer

Gustavsson

A little while ago, organizers for the Honda Indy Toronto announced new fencing that would be put around some track on the Exhibition grounds.  Today, they unvieled the new fencing as the IndyCars get ready to take the streets of Toronto a month from now.

Several drivers were on hand for this event including IndyCar rookie and Toronto Native James Hinchcliffe

Hear from Hinchcliffe about the Indy 500 and the whirlwind that has been his rookie season.

[audio:http://pmd.fan590.com/audio_on_demand/Interview_David-Alter-James-Hinchcliffe-20110601.mp3]

Hear the entire news conference:

[audio:http://pmd.fan590.com/audio_on_demand/Interview_David-Alter-Indy-News-Conference-20110601.mp3]

Jeremaine Copeland signed an extension that will make him an Argonaut for the next three seasons.  This comes as no real surprise given that Head Coach/GM Jim Barker and Copeland go back having worked together both in the XFL, Europe and other CFL franchises before this one..  The only real wrinkle in this comes in Copeland’s age.  He turns 34 in February and will be 36 when his contract expires.

“I think so” says Copeland when asked if this will be his last professional contract.  “I mean, I’ll be near 37 at that point and I think that will be it.”  After his playing days, Copeland wants to share his wisdom on the coaching end.  “I’ve been a natural born leader and a lot of my teammate have reminded me of that, and I have a lot of wisdom to share having been in and seen so many different systems.”

Copeland wasn’t happy with his output this season having his least productive season stats wise since his playing days in Montreal.   He did suffer his first severe injury (elbow) that kept him out for four weeks, but feels that the receiving core will improve next season.  “I think it’s a step we have to make come training camp, we all understand the system now.  Guys can’t be classified as young anymore because they know the system, we have to see who steps up and I’m excited to see who becomes a big playmaker for us.”

View the scrum here.

“Jim (Barker) has done both jobs and given what he was able to accomplish in a short period of time and all of the personnel changes he made, it seemed to be a natural progression for us” said Argos President Bob Nicholson.

Former G.M. and V.P. of Football Operations Adam Rita had very little presence behind most decisions that were made this year.  In previous seasons he had appeared to be more active in his role, at least when it came to speaking to the media.  This left many (including myself) to believe that maybe this move was inevitably going to happen upon Rita’s contract expiring.  Nicholson denied this, but did say that given Barker’s success and personnel experience, it was easier to “streamline our sources to make sure one guy is making the call on those decisions.”

So Barker is now the GM and he becomes busy right away.  Today the CFL announced all of the potential free agents come February 16th.

Argos Free Agents

Adriano Belli DT NI
Shannon Boatman  OT I
Jeremaine Copeland WR I
Bryan Crawford RV NI
Ronald Flemons DE I
Kevin Huntley DT I
Jeff Keeping OL NI
Chad Rempel WR Ni
Lin-J Shell DB I
Eric Taylor DL I

Barker says he will try and use as much cap room to keep as many guys as possible.  Also important to note, Barker doesn’t expect to be too active adding free agents coming from other teams as he tries to continue to build from within, a concept he feels will be the key to a championship.

Cleo Lemon is expected to get surgery on his hand soon although no timetable has been set as to when that will happen.  Barker says that the ligament damage in Lemon’s hand didn’t strongly affect his performance which was interesting to hear.  Lemon had to get used to throwing with a glove, but if he couldn’t play, Barker wouldn’t use him.  Still, I found it interesting that again it wasn’t a ringing endorsement for Lemon when Barker could have said that the injury did effect Lemon’s effectiveness.

The entire coaching staff have been tendered one-year contracts to stay on so it’s expected the staff will look the same as it did last year, unless someone gets an offer elsewhere in an elevated role.

The fact that Chad Owens picked up CFL Special Teams Player of the Year comes as no real shocker.  All you have to do is look at what he accomplished week-to-week.

Owens started the year with an incredible 90-yard punt return touchdown in the season opener in Calgary

One week later, Owens was instrumental in helping the Argos grab their first win when he took an Alexis Serna missed 45-yard field goal and returned the ball back all the way to the house.  This effort earned Owens his very first CFL Special Teams Player of the Week honour.

The following week Owens was a runner-up for the same award when he helped the Argos extend their lead to a crucial field goal margin, after snagging the reception on a two-point conversion.

Taking on his former team, Owens won his very first Offensive Player of the Week honour after making six catches for an unbelievable 163 yards as well as two touchdown receptions. Owens showed at this point what he can do as an all-purpose football player.

Week 12 against Winnipeg, Owens notched his third return for a touchdown, helping the Argos grab another win. He’d be awarded with another Special Teams Player of the Week award.

Owens would go on to win the award three more times for a total of five on the year – three times he was voted as the unanimous winner.  The honours would also help Owens grab the Gibson’s Finest Special Teams Player of the Month for September and October.

Owens amassed over 1,000 punt return yards and 1,000 kickoff return yards for the season, becoming just the fifth player in CFL history to do so.

Owens enters his option year and he’s almost certainly going to get offers from the NFL.  Owens says he has every intention of staying on.

Quarterback Cleo Lemon was under heavy criticism this year despite grabbing 10 wins (nine regular, one playoff).  Lemon says he’d like to be back and credits Head Coach Jim Barker for his success this season.

“If you have a guy who believes in you, it gives you confidence to lead this team” says Lemon.  “Through his (Barker’s) leadership that’s where I think my season took its turn.”

Barker was satisfied with Lemon’s performance this season and expects the QB to be back.   But stopped short of giving him a ringing endorsement as the team’s #1 QB going into next year, saying there will be some competition at camp.

“I saw progression in certain aspects, and there were some where obviously he (Lemon) didn’t get good enough at” says Barker.  “Those are the decisions we have to make, can he make those kind of changes that need to be made in order for us to be successful.”

Barker also spoke to Andrew Krystal in the Morning earlier in the day:
[audio:http://pmd.fan590.com/audio_on_demand/JimBarker-AK-20101122.mp3]

Cory Boyd helped establish the Argos running game, and he will be back next season as he is under contract.  Boyd says the team is already talking about organizing gatherings to hold their own unofficial O-T-A’s.

“We’re trying to do something to see if we can get a better chemistry as an offense” says Boyd. “I definitely want to work out more and learn more about the game and learn more about how you conduct yourself off the field as a professional.”  Anyone who has had an opportunity to meet Boyd feels he doesn’t need help in that latter department.

Chad Owens is a virtual lock to pick up Special Teams Player of the Year honours later this week.  He heads into his option year, but now feels more secure going into the off-season now that he has competed in his first full year of pro football.

“As a player, what you do the year before helps out a lot from a comfort level because when you are more comfortable, you know the system and you play better” says Owens.

The Argos have seven different free agents that they will try to lock up before the critical dates lock in which make them to expensive to keep.  At some point we should expect to see Jim Barker be promoted within the front office while keeping the role of Head Coach.

Rob Wong and I recap the season that was in this audio report:
[audio:http://pmd.fan590.com/audio_on_demand/argosseasonrecap-darw-20101122.mp3]

You can catch the Play-by-Play on CKOC 1150 and FAN590.com Sunday afternoon at 12:30pm

After being on the nine-game injured list, RB Ryan Christian is ready to return to the lineup and that could be huge when it comes to special teams.

Christian had a franchise record 110-yard kickoff return TD against Montreal earlier this season.  He’s also considered by many to be one of the best cover guys on the team. Christan had been out with a broken hand.

Chad Owens along with RB Cory Boyd, D-Lineman Kevin Huntley, and Offensive Tackle Rob Murphy were named CFL All-Stars.

A lot of time at practice was spent on throwing the ball deep, in an attempt to try and exploit was many would consider to be a weakness in Montreal’s secondary.

Meanwhile Jeff Johnson (hamstring) and  Bryan Crawford (adductor) were taking part in practice. their status yet to be determined for Sunday.

Audio report for your listening pleasure.

[audio:http://pmd.fan590.com/audio_on_demand/ArgonautsPracticeReport-da-20101117.mp3]

THE FAN 590′s David Alter and Mark Masters of the National Post get you set.

Check out the walkthrough audio report.

[audio:http://pmd.fan590.com/audio_on_demand/ArgonautsPracticeSuperVoicer-da-20101113.mp3]

One of the most experienced Argos will miss the CFL East Semi-Final as RB Bryan Crawford continue to suffer from an adductor injury.  RB Jeff Johnson is also a question mark while he recovers from an ankle injury.  Both are utilized heavily on special teams coverage which will leave quite the void.

Wide receiver James Robinson missed another practice with a knee injury leaving his participation this Sunday in serious doubt.  Robinson made his season debut in Hamilton on Labour Day, and his absence would likely mean Spencer Watt could see more of the ball after having a breakout game last week.

Head Coach Jim Barker after practice…

WR Jeremaine Copeland talks about being counted on as a leader and performing in a playoff situation

[audio:http://pmd.fan590.com/audio_on_demand/JeremaineCopeland-da-20101112.mp3]

Noel Prefontaine talks about the Hamilton/Toronto rivalry and getting prepared for game day.  I hadn’t seen him in awhile so we also talked about the circumstances which led to his return.

[audio:http://pmd.fan590.com/audio_on_demand/NoelPrefontaine-da-20101112.mp3]