Barn Burner: Boomer & Pinder with Rhett Warrener - Dave Dickenson (FULL INTERVIEW)

Episode Date: October 14, 2025

VIDEO LINK: https://youtu.be/qZO-stveCb8Boomer is joined by Calgary Stampeders head coach Dave Dickenson to break down last week’s win over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and look ahead to the final two weeks of the CFL regular season. The Stamps are back home against Toronto this week before wrapping things up in Edmonton — can they finish strong and build momentum heading into the playoffs?#cfl2025 #cfl #cflfootball #cflgameday #calgarystampeders CHECK OUT OUR STUFF ⬇️FLAMESNATION MERCHhttps://nationgear.ca/collections/shirts/FlamesnationBARN BURNER SHORTS https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLj_bcGtvvo-cW2DHEDZ6dEO5ePDmlhZc9&si=jo8iNGxT4ImhS2Y8📲 Follow us:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fnbarnburner/X (Twitter): https://x.com/barnburnerfn?lang=en🎧 Listen on:Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/be/podcast/barn-burner-boomer-pinder-with-rhett-warrener/id1648562889Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3Mc6Qd5U22R2zbMlQ7RxIiProducer: Jack Haverstock Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

David, nothing like a win to pick up a man's spirits. A four-game losing streak, a buy week, you come back. And I know it's probably recency bias, but maybe your most complete game victory of the season. It sure felt like it. Yeah, I thought really all three phases fed off each other, and we needed it. You know, we were working extremely hard,

and the guys were competing extremely hard. We'd get no results, so that can really wear on a team that could wear you out. And so really happy that we were able to kind of get rewarded for that effort and beat a great team in Hamilton. What do you do there? I mean, you've been doing this a long time between coaching and playing, certainly coaching now.

And you've got a team and you're coming down the stretch and you know that you got more on the road than you do at home and things are starting to snug up a bit in the standings, whatever cushion that you maybe thought you had is gone. Is it, what is it the carrot or the stick? Is that how that goes? A good coach, bad coach? How do you tend to lean? I think you got to know your team.

I think you got to, you know, if they need a little bit of something, positivity, you can go there. I think you got to make sure they understand the standard has to raise. I mean, when you're professional football player, efforts not enough. Any sort of athlete effort's really not enough. It's got to be results driven. And the problem is if you just focus on the results, sometimes you forget about getting better and trying to approve. And, you know, sometimes you need a bounce or two to go your way or call to go your way as well. So I think sometimes it could snowball in either direction.

We're hoping that we gain some momentum and we can take this and make a run in the playoffs. Talk about Vernon Adams for a sec, because you look at the numbers and it's 16 of 23. It feels like the games when his numbers don't look all that impressive, are the games that you win and you guys manage to, you know, not win with ease, but there's a bit of breathing room for you on the scoreboard. Not a lot there, but that play near the end of the game, that second and 12 play with about two and a half left puts it right on, Eric Brooks, that's a hell of a throw and a hell of a play. And it's still a 10-point game, but it kind of snugged up on you there. Yeah, so I think we're better if we can be balanced.

It doesn't mean the stat line for the quarterback is as fancy. But, you know, when you can run the ball and you kind of shorten the game, keep your defense on the sideline, and then, you know, the physical part of the game is still the number one thing, win or lose. And that means your offensive line is moving downhill. You're running back. You're going after people. That's the easiest way to win and call a game.

And then defensively, too, usually that's better too because they're not on the field so long. So, you know, it was just a good combination of no turnovers, winning the line of scrimmage and then making big throws, big plays, cross the board when we needed it most. Is there a mandate for him to run, not to run? Do you like it better when he's mobile? Does he want to run? What's the ground game strategy and technique when it comes to VA? He's free to play winning football.

I mean, I did another show, and they were saying the caller, you know, it kind of came in and it was like, it's management, not wanting to run. Well, we have designed quarterback drops. We have movement plays where we force him to get out of the pocket. And then we have what we call run-pass options where if the end pitches down, he has the right to pull it and run. We have it all, really. And yeah, you're right.

You don't want to necessarily be running your quarterback in the, inside the tackles a ton. He will, especially when he's not the biggest man, put himself at harm's way. But, you know, we're trying to win. And part of that is for the quarterback to use his feet, which he's been blessed with good, quick feet that makes him elusive. And certainly that's when he plays his best. I know the last time we talked, we talked about Deidrick Mills and just what a difference he makes. Another 100-yard game, couple touchdowns. He's ran up there in the, you know, tops for the league in terms of rushing yards. And he'll challenge for it here. with a couple weeks left. Ludovic Chokette made his presence felt a 2025 pick sixth round.

I know Detroit with, you know, with Jemir Gibbs and like they've got their, whatever they call it, they're two men running back. Yeah, that's what it is. I don't know they call with that, but I know that's with a old school with the giants and yeah, Sonic and Hedgehog or something. Two old guys. Gary Henry with like Chris Johnson back with. That's right.

Yeah, yeah. Is there? Tennessee. Tennessee, sorry. Yeah, maybe not stature-wise necessarily, but is it fair? Not to take anything away from Chocette, because he looks like he's a rugged dude,

but is there a bit of dynamic running combination there with these two guys? Well, they do run a little bit different. I mean, Ludo's more of like a jump-cut guy quick, showed good toughness and contact balance, and both can catch the ball. I think both are more than fine and pass pro. But, yeah, Mills is super rugged.

you know, it's usually going to try to put his head down and make you pay and then get forward. Ludo's a little more elusive. We went with kind of a ratio change because we're having so many injuries on defense right now. So we played six Canadians on offense, and that gave Ludo more opportunities. He took advantage of it. And you need to be able to block as well, right, for your quarterback. Both men fairly adept at that? They're actually both good.

Yeah. You know, it's not easy when it's, you know, it's not easy. you want a 230, 35 pound linebacker. He's coming after you with momentum and speed. Both guys sit in there and do a good job. You get to bowl Levi four times held the run game. I think it was 34 yards, 10 carries, a red zone stop there in the third quarter as well. I think the last time we talked to, it felt like the defense was kind of coming.

There's been some big numbers put on the board. Certainly the BC game, you get 50, a 50 burger put on you. It's, you take a look in the mirror. where's the defensive side of your of your game? It felt like it was, that's a nice statement game against one of the top teams in the league. Yeah, I mean, they got their hands on the ball again, we intercepted the very first play, Adrian Green,

who's up to five picks on the year. That's what he had. It was stuck on four for probably eight games. He did break his legs, so he's got an excuse there. But, well, I thought, first off, we got the lead. And that's really important. And our team, we feel like we play a lot better with the lead. Most teams do, but kind of gets the other team out.

away from running the ball, which then allows us to kind of, you know, disguise some things and hopefully make some plays in the back end. Certainly, I think our defense needed that. You know, the confidence was definitely diminishing a bit. You know, we were getting after boats and making life miserable on. I had some sacks, knocked the ball away a couple times. And then kind of, they got away from running, which makes a team one-dimensional, which really helps our defense. But, you know, we got to play complimentary football. That means get after their quarterback, protect ours. Special teams is pretty much a wash. I think we do a little score chart. You know, we'd like to think we could make a few more plays there, but we're covering extremely

well. We're kicking and punting extremely well. So as overall, the team just kind of fed off each other. Talk about special teams. And as we sit here, you would have played with, you know, with Paul McCollum, you think about René Paradis and just how reliable as a coach, you must just love being able to throw that guy out there and feel like more often than not, you're coming away with points. We're getting into cold weather. That becomes so important. And there again, like you say, you get some points early and maybe a drive stalls a little bit.

Well, Renee's pretty good, pretty good to throw out there, gets you three. Now it's six. Now it's nine. That's nothing, like to keep that offense rolling, he's, I don't know, not underappreciated by the fan base, but man, he's been doing this. it feels like forever now. Yeah, I mean, I actually thought I was a little concerned. You know, we had some great opportunities that we were down there in the score zone,

and we kept getting field goals. And I was like, ah, man, we're giving away opportunities here. And, you know, but he was kicking well on that. I put him out there like a 54-yard. That one didn't cash in for us. But other than that, he was money. And then I do think he's better in a game, even than practice. I think he has that confidence and he's clutch.

But, you know, we really. If we're going to win, if we're going to win this, we can't be settling for field goals, you know, too often. It's just the reality is you got to score touchdowns to beat these guys. And we were able to kind of change that in the second half. I always love watching the kickers at training camp when they're kind of doing their own thing. I remember one of the first, this was many years ago. One of the first camps that I covered was a Winnipeg Blue Bomber camp. And it wasn't Trevor Kennard, but Bob Cameron was the punter.

and I forget at the time who the field cold kicker was. And they literally walked across the street to go get ice cream as everybody else was banging away at their two days, just sweating and dying. And it's, oh, what are you going to do? Give the kicker shit for not, like, what do you, what do you do, right? It's, they're a unique. Was Westwood? It might have been Westwood early. Yeah, maybe early. Yeah. He said, yeah, I mean, I'm trying to remember back with Bob, who was before Westwood. But it's one thing about kickers. And it's like long stoppers, somewhat punters too.

the good ones just stick around because they're so reliable. And as a coach, you don't want to make a change anyway because you really don't know what the next guy is going to do. And, you know, it took injuries and tryouts to get Renee in there. He's really just obviously been the guy for now 14 years. And it doesn't really look to me like he's slowing down. No, because it is crazy. I know he passed Troy Westwood for fifth all time.

And now it's, you know, Paulus Ballast. Yeah, those guys played forever. but if you can take care of your body and if you're accurate, there's nothing like, it's such a marriage. Coach has trust in the player and the player has trust in the coach. And when you've got that, you can go a long way in for a long time. Yeah, it does help our league. I mean, be honest, one thing about our league that people don't think about is they kick off a tee.

You know, if you look down in the NFL, you know, it's definitely harder to go off the grass. And, you know, some of the kickers that come up here try to go off the grass. so they're prepared to go back to the NFL. It's a huge advance. Think of it in golf. You're going to put your treewood on the grass or you're going to hit it off the ground. Or hit it with a T. So to me, CFL, I think that helps older kickers because it helps with the lift, and they can still get the lane.

I wonder about, you know, buy weeks, whether they come early in it, talk about buy weeks and all that. But you had the four game losing streak and you made a trade in there and you try and change some things up. You get a week away. You come back. you get a big win, you got a couple left in a way, okay, so you're not going to win the division, but you've kind of got some destiny in your hands here.

It's a really good opportunity in a way to almost mentally just wash, just scrap whatever happened before the buy and just focus on now. Playoffs are right here and who cares about what the regular season says. Is it a good kind of a reset at the right time? Well, it was a good reset because we won a game. But, I mean, I think we just won one in a real. But we have to really kind of binightly or focus, like, kind of laser sharp on one opponent, one opponent. That's Toronto.

Like, you really can't be thinking about it. Oh, you got this potential scenario. If these guys win, you're in, you just take care of your own business. And Toronto, believe it or not, is playing extremely hard. I mean, they're out of the playoffs. And yet, they get SAS everything they can handle on the road. They'll come in here, ready to go. It's our job, though, to get after them early and just keep the gas pedal down.

But if we take care of business, get our own little winning streak, really wherever we finish, wherever we go for playoffs, we'll have a chance for sure. So with that in mind, and I know I don't know why I would even ask this question because I'm talking to a coach. But Winnipeg and Evanton both play on Friday and depending what the outcomes of their games are when you play on Saturday, is that going to have any kind of potential how you approach this game or is it pin your ears back we're playing? Yeah. So unfortunately, we don't have any healthy people anyway. I looked at my injury board. I think I've got 25 guys on it.

I mean, literally it could suit up a whole other team. And most of them aren't coming back. They're not coming back. So you could complain about injuries and kind of, oh, woe is me type of thing. That's not going to happen. We've got guys that are hungry and ready to go. You talked about the trade we made. Lozo Lorenzo Malden got hurt in practice.

Hopefully he's back, but we need him. And we need these guys to step up, gel, and continue to move forward. So no, it won't have any impact on how we play this game. That's why it's just singularly focused on one thing, a game versus Toronto 5 p.m. Saturday. And I don't know, it sure feels like, and from the outside, but it feels like the crowds, in a way, are back at McMahon. And you guys have had a big part to do with that.

The Stampede Bowl was exciting. You guys win labor. You guys have had some exciting football at home. And you've got one more here against Toronto. It's a big game now. It means a lot for you guys. as far as the playoffs is concerned that I suspect it's going to be a good crowd.

But do you feel like some of that zip is back with the Stampeder fan at home? I do. I think we've done some nice things and organization-wise. I mean, I liked how we brought in, you know,

the past, like a player from each grade cup team. I thought that was excellent stampede bowl. Definitely brought some flavor into the city. You know, yeah, the games have been excited. We haven't necessarily protected our house

as well as I want to, but we definitely, I think, have been improved in her showing, showing people we've got more talent and the guys that's really solid team of effort and you can tell they're playing hard and playing for each other. So we do feed off the crowd. I mean, the crowd really, really helps. I mean, if we can get people loud and getting after the other team when they have the ball, football I think has as big of advantage as any sport if the

crowd is loud and making it tough on the other team. So certainly looking forward to that and hoping to weather cooperation, it seems like it's going to. let's go get after the Argos. Did you get some, now we always have fun with you. You're not a big hamburger, cheeseburger guy. Thanksgiving. Do you do that or is it some kind of tofurky or something strange? No, no.

No, meat is good. Meat is good. So bless my wife. She made a whole Thanksgiving meal for her dad and brother, Medicine had, took it over to him. And they did that. And then she drives back and then makes a whole month. meal for our family with my brother. So anyway, it was excellent.

She does it right. And then she also does another one for U.S. Thanksgiving. So hard to stay lean, man. It's anyway, it's great, though. And a lot to be thankful for, honestly, really, really. Both my kids are in college now. So good to kind of just be around them. And certainly I feel, I feel very thankful the life I have and the opportunity I've been given

here in Calgary. well said sir get a win looking forward to it on on the weekend okay see you later take care