OverDrive - McManis on his season with the Argonauts, the team's progression and his role on the team

Episode Date: September 19, 2025

Toronto Argonauts linebacker Wynton McManis joined OverDrive to discuss his position on the field, understanding the opponent's defensive scheme, Ryan Dinwiddie's clash with the Elks, the matchup against the Alouettes and more.

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run into each other man it's it's like unsettling almost it is they those are car accidents that's what it is there's big guys and you know and the speed and the strength of guys it's it's amazing absolutely speaking of which a guy who's very familiar with blowing people up all over people field all over the canadian football league here's linebacker with the argos witt and mcmanus what's up winn how you doing hey how you guys doing it's great to see you man thanks for coming in. Thank you. Happy to be here. Absolutely. Are you used to doing a lot of media just before the game or is it more you want to just relax and get ready for a big one tonight? I haven't done a lot of media before the game, but man, this is exciting. This is fun.

You know, this is new. Man, I'm just ready to get out and hit somebody like I was just saying. When do you start cranking it up on the field and how much of what goes on in the warm up is just for show for some of the fans that are here or how much of it is actually necessary? Man, honestly, I wake up ready. I wake up ready to go. I don't do a lot of I'm warming up before the game. I get up early. I like it. I work out.

And then as you saw me, probably sitting back there, I sit on the bench until, you know, it's time to go in there and get dressed, man. But other than that, I'm ready to go. You never seen a cheetah or a line stretch before they hunt. I love it, man. So it's all about mentality more than anything else. Yeah, man. You just got to be born ready and warm-blooded.

So the suns out, guns out. That's right. I love it. I love it. So you should be on the radio, man. Yeah, exactly. We need you to be here with us all night. forget the football game.

But you mentioned it like getting up ready to hit somebody. Like that's a mentality. I guess you had to cultivate that when you were younger. When you got into football, did you always see yourself playing the position you're playing? Or did you think maybe you'd be on the offensive side of the ball at some point? Or did you always want to hit even a 10-year-old, 11-year-old, 12-year-old down in Memphis? Even when I, well, when I first started playing, I was a quarterback.

I think everybody kind of starts off, especially if you're kind of athletic and I could throw the ball really well. Why would you leave that position, man? I play both sides. I think I stopped growing, but I played both sides growing up. And I think, like, my time I spent playing quarterback helped me be a better linebacker. And, you know, just understand the game and schemes and what offenses are trying to do in the way they attack. So, you know, man, but I still, you know, if I get the chance to get the ball in my hands, I'm going to try to score like offensive bad.

Are your trash talker out there? Big trash talk. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I talk a lot. That gives me going. I talk and practice my teammates will tell you, coach you tell you. I talk all day, man. I just think, you know, it's the keyest game.

I tell everybody it's the same game. You grew up playing. So, you know, never let that fun die, you know, never let that just fade away. So in terms of kind of picking your spots, I don't know if you do or not, but I'm guessing the quarterback gets some noise. Maybe the running back gets some noise

if he's coming downhill and you're looking to stop him. Do you look at the offensive line or do you keep quiet with that? I talk to everybody. I talk to everybody. That's good. I don't know. I talk to everybody. Do they talk back?

Are they ready for you? Some of them talk back. You know, you've got some guys try to act like they're locked in or try to act like they don't hear me. I'm going to make sure you hear me. I'm going to find your eyes. I'm going to make sure you look at me and all of that, too. I love it.

Win McManus with us. And, you know, you mentioned chasing that ball down. And if you get it, you're going to try to score. You know, and the position you play, we always talk about it with quarterbacks and kind of us, you know, more on an amateur level, analyzing how they're playing. But we always hear, you know, different guys in the booth where it's CFL, NFL, NFL, college, saying,

you read the eyes, read the eyes. Like, is that what you're talking about? Like, when you played quarterback, you understood that's what they were looking for when it came to you. And you translate it on this side. Like, if you got McLeod going tonight, how much of your detailing is simply, I got to watch what he's watching for, like where he's looking, and then I can read on how I'm going to play this. So like you said, about the eyes and, you know, reading that, and I got a lot of that for my film study and just, you know, you kind of pick up on tendencies that way.

But as far as just understanding the offenses, it's understanding. the defense as well and understand this game and what we're trying to stop when the coach makes a call we're trying to stop something specific so i have that in the back of my mind too as well and i play into that into the offense on what they're giving me based on alignment down the distance you know there's a lot of factors it's just going to uh making a play or even just you know running a single play on on on the field so how much do you feed off the coach because he's pretty uh he's pretty intense out there and and you know i don't know if you saw the all the altercation with the elks the other day?

I mean, what did you make of it and what do you make of his intensity? Man, I just make it as, man, he brings that every day, though. Like, he's not putting it on. That's just who he is. He's a fiery coach, but he loves his players. He loves his guys. He loves the sport. Man, you know, I wouldn't trade him for anything, man.

It's just, like you said, his emotion might get the best of him sometimes. But, man, you know, he's able to recognize that and pull back and understand that. And, you know, he can do that. And he knows his team rise behind him. You ever give it back to him? Yeah, when we were in practice, you know, we can talk, we can have some friendly banter back and forth. But he's still the head coach.

Absolutely. Yeah, he is the head coach in the end. Well, and you guys have had, you know, you've won three games in a row now, you know, and he was pretty outspoken early in the season. My understanding is you were outspoken at times, just among your own guys, trying to get everything riled up. Like, you guys take it personally earlier in the year

when you guys were losing ball games, and there was a lot of chatter throughout the CFO calling out the defense in particular on his team, how personal did you take it and i guess your whole crew very very personal um you know we we hold ourselves to a very high standard here and and um you know we built a culture that's built around winning and and playing actually good football and a lot of those games um that we lost they might have been close but there were times that we weren't playing good football and complimentary football to each other as a team and uh you know that what what our standard was so

we had to get back to that and you know a lot of those those talks for just making sure that everybody understands that we all have a job and we're just here to do that man and the more we can be right we can never be wrong absolutely so how do we stop mcclbethel thompson tonight man be right be right try to make them uncomfortable um you know i was got to stop the run first we start there all the time and um you know if we just play together as a defense complimentary football man i think i think we'd be pretty all right that's all that's the main staple everybody says stop the run first right always stop the run first make teams one dimensional you know a lot of teams like to start you know you can do a lot off of the run game with play

action and Saturday game and things like that so you know if you kind of start there see a little see a lot and you know work your way from there so we had Ryan dim whitty on right before you came on and I asked them we asked them like what do we need to know with went and coming in he said make sure he knows Boise over Memphis how do you respond to that uh nowhere in the books has that been written nowhere um his ass scene he told me he said something about that I just kind of take that up on, he's riding on a pregame high right now. That's right. He's feeling himself at this point.

Yeah, he's feeling himself, but, you know, Memphis Tigers all day. Okay, I like that. Well, we'll be tracking you tonight, man. Thanks for joining us. We really appreciate it. Great seeing you. Thank you. I appreciate you all having me on.

You got it. There he is, Wynton McManus, a linebacker for the Toronto Argos. Again, we're live at BMO Field Argos and Al's tonight. And, you know, he said it, man. It's all about the mentality. Exactly. It's all about the mentality, and it's about making sure you get out there and hit guys. And that's what he intends on doing.

What you're saying, be right so much, you can't be wrong. How does it go? Be right, and you can never be wrong. That's right. It's a very simple. Very simple. We're going to apply it the rest of the show. Great seeing you.

We'll let you get back out there. Great business. Thanks for seeing you. Thanks for coming by. There is Wint McManus. I like it. Got the toothpick going and everything, too. That's his look.

Oh, he's got a few for us? All right. Oh, look at that. Send them around. All right. I love this. Don't steal them all, noodles. No, no, I'm going to pass it.

Just make sure you send a couple down. There's one more. Oh, beautiful. Thank you. They got a flavor. They got booze on it. Don't get crazy now. All right.

Thank you very much. Thanks, man. Appreciate it. Wyton McMahon is joining us. Pretty good vibes down here. He scared me with the lots of flavor. I don't know. I know.

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