OverDrive - OverDrive - September 19, 2025 - Hour 1 - Ryan Dinwiddie/Wynton McManis

Episode Date: September 19, 2025

Join Bryan Hayes, Jeff O'Neill and Jamie McLennan for Hour 1 from BMO Field! The guys discuss the Alouettes and Argonauts' matchup, the Blue Jays looking to clinch a playoff spot against the Royals, the Bills' undefeated stretch beating the Dolphins, Morgan Rielly playing on the top power play and Max Domi on the first line. Toronto Argonauts head coach Ryan Dinwiddie joins to discuss the matchup against the Alouettes, his clash with the Elks and his coaching mentality for the season and Argonauts linebacker Wynton McManis joins the guys to dive into his role for the team and the team's winning run.

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For the first time ever at Budweiser stage, October 4th and 5th, featuring Renee Rapp, Casey Musgraves, and more. Stream now, online, on your smart speaker, and on the free IHeart Radio. app. This hour of overdrive is powered by Fandul. Fanduil, bringing you everything from the opening line to the final score.

All right, here we go, overdrive, off and running. Look where we are. I can't even finish the intro because this is so cool. We're at BMO Field. Look at that shot, man. If you're watching on TSN4 or streaming live on YouTube live on TSN's YouTube channel, this is big time. Big time.

Big time. We are field side. Argo's alouettes tonight, CFL on TSN. a right in the danger zone as well. Someone's throwing a football over here. 100%. And by the way, is the temperature not like it got winter here like in the last four minutes? Yeah, it's cold. It's freezing in the shade.

But I didn't realize we're going to have a camera from behind. We're going to get the bald spot. We've got to tell like Eddie. I was worried about that. Dial back on that as well. We don't need that. I almost called for an audible because they were in my ear right before I was starting. And they're like, there's going to be a shot coming through.

And the first thing I thought of was noodles. Yeah, you can't have that. That's an aggressive way to start. But it's a beautiful night. We're live at Bimo Field again ahead of the Argos Alouettes. Big game tonight, big playoff implications. We've got Ryan Dinwiddie coming up and talk to the coach before the game. He's going to sit right beside you noodles.

Love it. Yeah, he's fired up, though. He's a fiery guy. We'll get him going. He was going at your Elks last week when they found a way to. Kicking out. Yeah, he wasn't happy with basically the whole operation. Well, listen, you're saying my Elks.

Listen, that's your home team. I grew up watching the, at the. At the time, it was called the Eskimos, Evanton Eskimos, now it's the Edmonton Elks. I worked for the team. I was the laundry boy when I was 15, 16, 17, and then when I turned pro, I kind of moved on. I was only there for two weeks. Joey Moss was my boss.

It was awesome. That's amazing. It's great. And you saved that place, right? Like you have written about that, you've told us all about that story. We'll get into that story later. I did save Commonwealth Stadium. You did.

You personally found a way to save that. Yeah. I noticed my party's not here either, prepping. He's nowhere to be found. Yeah. Luke Wilson, there's an aura about Luke. Like, everyone knows he's coming here tonight. It's Friday night football.

Wherever it happens to be, that's where he's going to be. And he's here tonight. What is it going to come down the tunnel? Like the macho man? I don't know what his entrance is here. And I'm with you. We've been here for a couple hours. The three of us got here really early.

Almost too early. Well, I was worried about traffic getting down. Obviously, the gardener is what it is right now. There's some messes there. The gardener's a mess. The lake shore is a disaster. there's always a lot of people down here it's a Friday night there's concerts going on across the street at Budweiser stage everything there's an atmosphere yeah there's there's an atmosphere but

you're right I have not even seen Luke oh and he's going to join us he'll be here in studio with us in like 90 minutes think he rides his bike down here that would be a hero movie I wouldn't be surprised I wouldn't either man he would do that type of thing yeah he would and bother people and act like the cool guy carrying the helmet in with the tights on right yeah yeah I wonder Maybe he gets to leave a seat, like a suit here at BMO. Maybe. Possibly. He's got that kind of clout.

Or he could ask the trainers to kind of lock it up and, you know, bring it around type of thing. Like, I don't know. That'd be aggressive if he asked the Argos if he could use the showers before the broadcast tonight. Like if he biked down here and he was, you know, obviously a mess because it's like we'd take a long time to get here. Because there were guys who used to do that. I remember we used to do shows. We'd do remotes down here at the X. Yeah.

And Dave Pullen would do that. Pooley, I'd be doing a sit-down with Pooley and Pooley would ride his bike down. Wasn't that green bike? It was called like Betsy or something like that? He rode his bike around. Yeah, and he'd be like sweating. He didn't wheel it right into the boot. No, he didn't wheel it up there in the booth.

Yeah, he did. Yeah, he'd pull it, like it would be right beside noodles, chained. Yeah, chained like somebody's going to steal it. Right. There's 50,000 kilometers on that bike. And Gord Miller used to claim he would bike up to Agent Court to do shows. That's what he claimed. I don't believe he ever did it.

I think that's fake news. He claimed he would bike from Young and Eglinton in Toronto to the Scarborough Town Center. It's aggressive. Now, Gord's in great shape. He just turned 60 and like I see him in the gym on the road all the time. He works out hard. But he's in there every day. I'm calling him.

I'm calling fake news. I don't think he ever did it. I think he talked a big game. I never witnessed him do it. No. Or he said he did it and he had actually bike. He had chained his bike up down. street yeah exactly that would be the kind of move he would pull off it's like a marathon runner that

took the cab in new york city or whatever right subway drive it all the way there and then bike it it in when people see you coming yeah like that that might be something gourd would pull off might be cord yeah it's going to be a fun one tonight and it's i mean it's a big weekend in sports the jays technically have a chance to clinch tonight if they win and two of the tigers the guardians or the red socks lose tonight champagne they might have a party this evening And they should. Do you agree with it? Like if they make it regardless, you're trying to lock up the AL,

but I'm saying if they make the playoffs tonight, it's champagne. Oh, you get it hard, man. You do multiple parties. Yeah. Every night until the end of the season. Yeah. That's how baseball works.

Like if you, once you clinch, you party. Yeah. Do you win the division, you party? Yeah. I think if you maybe win the American League, you part, they might have three parties in 10 days, which is great. I love it. Nobody parties like the Phillies, though, man.

well nobody they like to get down and dirty and kit after yeah they do and every year ever since harper arrived they go to the playoffs every single Philadelphia's kind of had a nice little run here with some sports teams hey like it's that kind of went was quiet for years and then you know the flyers are what they're doing what they're doing but you know the eagles you're right the eagles Phillies like they're they're good teams right they are they are the sixers i mean they got to figure out what joel m beads ever going to do in the future but you're right The Eagles had never won a Super Bowl. Now they've won two in the last six or seven years.

That's a party there. I don't think they're going anywhere either, man. The Eagles. I don't think they are either. By the way, you went away from your divisional game last night. In terms of our theory and how to bet. Yes, yes. You got just so fired up on the Buffalo.

About the number? Or how bad Miami is. I would have taken Buffalo. I think everybody would have taken Buffalo on this planet. Yes. And they won the game. Yes. Like they didn't cover the 11 and a half.

If they won by 10, if Prater, who just arrived two weeks ago, hits a field goal in the first half, maybe it's a different story. But what happened last night was an example of, it doesn't matter the sport. There was no way the bills were losing, and there was no way the dolphins were winning. And I know it was close at times. I know the bills, like, to put this into perspective, the bills win by 10 last night, they're not happy. Yeah. Right? It's one of those games where you're like, you're unhappy.

I think they're happy. They just wanted to get it done. But you know what? I'm talking about, like, the, you know, the defense wasn't great, too, it carved them up at times, and the offense was a bit stagnant early. It's just, it's so, you're so confident, it, it seeps into arrogance where you're like, man, we should have crushed that team and we didn't. Let me ask you this.

Is it a different game, though, that roughing the, ruffing the kicker call, that's your TSA turning point. That was the game. That was the game right there, because I, Miami was hanging around. They were, to their credit, because they were desperate. Yeah. You know, it was a divisional game. like you said, McDaniel's coaching for his life, two is trying to keep it together.

Yeah. You know, Tyree Kill, I don't know what he's still got in the tank, but it was, you know, that's it now. It was over anyway from Miami, but your own three, you're done. Yeah. But the bills are three and oh, and they're in the driver's seat. Yeah. So it's them, the Eagles, it's, but the Ravens are going to be really good. They're a good team. Like the bills

didn't, they didn't look worried. There was no panic in their game. That's my point. That McDaniel speech. He had another doozy last night. I missed that one. did he say i missed that one he was just what was he said he doesn't know what he's saying anymore he does not know what he's saying yeah i can't believe you guys didn't see it i did not i missed that after the game yeah oh yeah i missed that i i missed it as well because i i just i turned it off

when the game was over i'm like i don't need to hear from this guy like unfortunately he's reached that point yeah it's not something that's necessary because you understand where this is going he's not going to likely be down there Was it like George Bush type of thing? It was. He was like, you kind of want your quarterback, J.P., you must have this. There's got to be something. It was insanity.

Okay. I missed it because usually that's something. A clip will come up, you know, your Twitter feed or whatever saying, listen to this guy here. You knows he's done. I just, I didn't see anything on him. I just assumed. Now, I don't know, he didn't get his, he didn't get his walking papers today. No, he didn't.

No, he didn't. They played pretty, I thought Miami played a pretty good game. They showed some fights. last night. They did. They showed a little bit of fight. And I'm not calling for the guy's head. I'm not saying I want to see him fire. I'm not a dolphin fan. I don't care. It doesn't make a difference to me. But now you've got a bit

of a longer week. They have a buy week late in the year. You might wait to that point. In the NFL, they just don't fire coaches a lot. Like, you've got to pull an Urban Meyer to get fired early in the season. Or you can have an owner that's just crazy. Yeah. You know, that's like that's the balance.

You either have someone that doesn't get on the team playing and then goes to a bar and starts dancing, dancing and tickling and doing stuff that he shouldn't be doing. Or you have an owner that just has so much money and is way too invested and way too emotional and just says, fire this guy. If you don't have either of those two things, and by all accounts, that doesn't apply to Miami, then who's ready to go in there with NFL coaches?

Like, the hiring process is so complex. It's like you've got to bring so many people in. And that's the point. That's why once you've gotten through camp and you've established everything, There's no one out there. It's very difficult to do it. So they're probably just going to wait the year, and then they'll go a different direction next season. There isn't an elite coach out there that has been let go somewhere else that's just waiting in the wings.

There's always guys. I mean, there's Belichick who's still out there, clearly. He's got his own problems. He has his own problems. And that's quieted down immediately, right? Like, North Carolina had that first big game where Jordan showed up and LT, and everyone was focused on them, and now no one cares anymore. Yeah.

Like nobody cares about North Carolina. In terms of a national audience. I haven't heard one thing about that. Or him or anything. You'll only hear if something goes sideways in a negative way. If they win, you're not going to hear one word. People are dying to watch the car crash. They want him to have an 0-4 season.

They want the girlfriend to be on the sidelines, you know, trench coat, like all of these things. They want that. They do not want Belichick to be rattled off a bunch of wins and for everybody to settle in because it doesn't fit the narrative with what people want to watch. And like I say, I haven't heard anything since that first game, but I haven't really paid attention.

It's quiet a doubt. I mean, he had the beef with the Patriots. With the Patriots and Mike Grable shot back at him. And that's about it. But, you know, they're trying to turn over that program. It's going to take time. We'll see what happens with Belichick. But, again, we're live at BMO Field.

We're going to be here all night. Luke Wilson will join us. Keith Pellie will join us around the table. So the president and the CEO of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, he's got a lot going on. He does. You know, obviously, with the Leafs in camp, and I saw it today, I guess the big news is Morgan Riley is going to get that opportunity on PowerPlay 1. I think we all saw that one coming.

And there's no... And Domi's going to slide in on that top line, and they're going to work things around there. And I was thinking about it today. And I think Tree Living spoke to this, and I'm pretty sure Barube has as well. By the way, are you surprised that Riley going on the Power Play Hayes? Like, who else was going to do it? Well, if they were going to stick to five forwards, who would it be? do you give michelle i don't have that answer okay maybe 10 games in if it's not working or they

they have not work is the wrong word if they don't have as much jam or maybe need to mix it up if that mitchelli is settled in apparently he's a nice passer so let's see but again i don't think you do it the thing with mitch so he was so defensively that's the point that's exactly that's where i was going to go Mitch marner it was really good defensively so they trusted him to be you're not having mitchellie back there you don't know how he is defensively and he's got great anticipation and a great stick. That's what Mitch Marner, I said this before, there is going to be the trickle-down effect.

They will adjust. There's a lot of talented players. Morgan Riley used to run that power play. So I think it's going to help his season because he's going to get some extra points in the power play that he didn't get last year. Helps with confidence. It helps with handling the puck.

He's lighter. He's more focused. All of this type of stuff, it's fitting the narrative of him having a great year. I hope he does. Well, yeah, they need him to do that. They need him, and we love. They need him to have a big, big season.

But, but at the end of the day, like, you are going to see, you know who the mainstays are. JT's a mainstay, Nealander's a mainstay, Matthews, and Nyes. Really? I mean, those guys are, I think that's what their power play is. Morgan Riley just goes back, distributes the puck. The Puck. The Raleigh, maybe it's Ekman-Larsin at some point possibly. Oh, he's got a big shot.

Yeah. Thing is, I love the big shot back there. I do, too. I do too, because you don't, if you have a shot. And he dishes the puck well enough, too. Yeah. But if you have a shot, all of your penalty kill has to go, okay, we've got to respect that. We'll give that.

But, you know, there's certain power plays that establish the shot. Then you start working it lower and have talented guys that can take it to the net. But you have to have established that shot. OEL is a really good shooter. He's got a great shot. If Morgan Riley can have that snapshot from the point, establish a shot, get it moving around, they'll be fine. Well, he's a veteran. He's been in the league for a long time.

He's played the power play a lot. It's just each day something else is kind of trickling out in terms of what their plans are. And, you know, he was, you know, Berube was asked again about Machil and Domi and Domi may be back on the ice this weekend. And it does seem like they're pretty committed to giving Max that opportunity with the two guys with Nyes and Matthews. And I think the way they're setting this up is like there's four lines and there's going to be pairs on each. It's going to be Matthews and Nyes. It's going to be Willie and Tavar's. It's going to be Waw and Joshua and probably Lotton and Lorenz.

I would think. Yeah. And that leaves Domi, Machelli, McMahon, Cowan, Yarncroke, Robertson. Camp, possibly. Like, that's seven guys

who can fill out four more roles and you're going to have a very specific spot. Like, you're finding a way to play with the two other guys who are basically defining what the line is. Yep. There's too many bodies. Trees set it to us the other day.

It's a good problem to have. They've got a lot of NHL players. Now you decide who's going to force their way in. You know, the luxury with a guy like Cowan, that he doesn't need waivers, right? So if you feel like you want to keep other guys around, no problem, then you can find a spot for Cowan. But if Cowan's other guys around them, we talked about it last year, like, what are you going to do with those bodies that are just those guys?

Well, you either, you put them on waivers and you get them to the Marley's if you can. And if not, you lose maybe a player on waivers. It's happened before. I mean, the Leafs have the tradition. It feels like they lose somebody on waivers. Yeah. I think they might be okay with that if you lose, you know, David Camp, for something like that. The question is exactly

what player, you know, the cap hits coming off you. Exactly. Like, what player would you be fine with, you know, maybe, okay, if another team took a chance on and moved away from you, you know, exactly. Cap hit, another contract, all of that type of stuff. Yeah, and you would think if there was a market out there for them,

they'd probably be taken by now. That's the thing. Like a guy like, yeah, Camp kind of played his way out of Barube's kind of system last year. He's got two years left at 2.5. It doesn't come back. He's not going to wake Generally doesn't, but how many teams in the league are looking for a guy at 2.5 million that is a 13th forward in the league?

Yeah, probably not. But then, you know, there are teams. I still feel this is maybe a little bit of a unique summer. We didn't see it. People go crazy in free agency. We didn't see a lot of PTOs. We are seeing PTOs trickle in, but now it might be, hey, let's look at what waivers are going to do. Teams might be looking to flush out.

Everyone thinks they've got their own player in that spot. hey, we got a young kid that's going to slot in there. Training camp will sort that out. Yeah, that's a beautiful. That kid's not ready. We're going to grab somebody off waivers. Start playing this weekend. Yeah.

Like the Lisa in Ottawa on Sunday night. There's a Sunday, yeah. Yeah, Sunday they're playing. And so you got hockey going. Rappers are going to be in town in the next couple of weeks. You get the Argos playing tonight. Big, big playoff implications. It's a big game.

At the NFL, you get the Rider Cup next week. Got the coach stand in there. We better get him in here. Yeah, he's going to see. See, I can't see behind me. He's giving us the desk there. So let's move it along. He was like, let's get moving.

Exactly. I thought it might be security because this guy walked on the field earlier. I don't think he was allowed to do that. I wanted to see him. Dude, you told me, you said that other guy's on the field. Well, that guy's an employee. He walked out there and dress shoes in a suit. I was waiting for him to do the Rob Ford.

You were doing the old school, like I'm back in the pros, 50-yard line, touching the grass. That grass is just so perfect. It does look for the most perfect grass. What would happen if he dropped his headset and just went for a sprint? Why don't we try to do that? No way. Why don't we try to do it? We'll bring Dinwiddie in, turn the break.

See if you can get to the 50-yard line and back. Oh, dude, I'm not going to the 50. Why not? What's a 20? Okay. O's going to the 20-yard dash. All right, I'll do a... Oh, it's going to the 40 and back.

No way. There's a guy over there that will, like, knock you out. They're on the field, man. They're on the field. There's like a lineman that's going to knock him out. You'll be waiting for him. All right, well, ask Dinwiddie. Ryan can tell you if he can do it or not.

But if you get the green light, 40 yard and back. High stepping. We'll put cameras on it. We'll post it online. Everyone can see it. I'm not doing it back. Just give me 40. And I'm in a suit.

You're going to walk it anyway. Are you going to run it? I'll run it. Okay, 40-yard dash in the break. Ryan Dinwiddie, head coach of the Argos. We'll join us next. Mail it in Friday is brought to you by Boston Pizza, Canada's favorite sports bar. Enjoy $15 lunch at BP where you get an entree a site and a drink and you'll get it all in 20 minutes or less.

A fast lunch doesn't have to be fast food. see you for a $15 fast lunch at your local Boston pizza. All right, overdrive continues, powered by Fandul, bringing you everything from the opening line to the final score. We are live on location, Bimo Field, Argos, Alawettes tonight. This is a field trip, man. This is what you're looking for. And we are right here at the end zone, and you've got some players starting to come out,

I believe. You get the cheerleaders cooking tonight. And there's the head coach Ryan Dinwiddie joining us around the table. How are you doing, Ryan? I do well. Thanks for having me on. Great to see you, man. is it's okay with you i know it's a game day prep we're not throwing you off all good as

all the receivers don't have pat and go they know we're getting one right off the dogging yeah we're waiting for that we're i told one of our quarterbacks to make sure one you know flies by guys right in your deal so that's our concern is someone's going to come out here and see us and be like we got to take a shot at these guys but uh it's great to see you and you can't ask for anything better than that this man the weather's beautiful it's a big one for you guys tonight. Yeah, absolutely. I think, you know, it's an opportunity for us to get back in the standings, right? We obviously haven't played our best football early in the year. We're starting to get going, you know, building confidence and understand the team that we can be. So game day prep right

now, I mean, we're interrupting it pretty much. I mean, as a coach, are you just kind of relaxing before the game, or is it all systems? You have systems meetings, everything like that, talk to the players individually? Yeah, so I just got done. I put the call sheet together. I like to put some of our The one-word footballs, you know, we always write it in this one word, right? We go fast. It's our fast football stuff. So we put that down on the call sheet, got that in there as far as down the distance. And, yeah, the player is starting to circle in and, you know, get in the building.

So, yeah, I think we're ready. I think we're ready for Noel to be aggressive offensive offensively, right? And then Jason is going to take shots. We don't Mac can throw the ball down the field. So our corners, right, going to have a big game. And, you know, we got to stop the run. So looking forward to it. it. It's been a tough stretch, but I think that now we're kind of growing into the football team that

we believe we were at the start of the season. You wheel out there in the field now. You'll oftentimes see coaches like little pump-up sessions with all the guys while they're stretching or whatever. Do you do that or you just stay away from that? I really don't. I know I know last week's in a different different thing. We're going to get to that. We're going to get to that. Yeah, so I normally don't, I don't, you know, go shake their hands. I did a few different times. We always lost. So I feel like our work prep through throughout the week. You know, certain players you talk to a different way as far as motivating those things. But I think at this stage, you know, let's go out, play football and feel comfortable going out there and playing with confidence.

So what were the Elks doing last week? Was it bothering you? Were you getting fired? You were getting fired up with that team, man. It was a big win for you guys. But take us through the whole kind of process of going back and forth with the Elks and then what happened at the end of the game there. Well, I'm emotional guy, right? And my players know that, right?

throughout the week like you guys get to see it on game day when it's on TV but I'm like that all the time so um you know ownership gave us the opportunity especially with me to be the leader of this franchise right very appreciative of opportunity want to win more great cups right like you know we want two here but like every day if you don't go out to win one you know as far as your process each day right to give you your opportunity to do that that's very important to me especially the city of Toronto too I really love this city. You know, I think there's a lot of different cities across Canada that you really want to work for, but this one really, you know, takes onus with me and, you know, I had the opportunity

and our players, you know, really feel that too. They want to rock for the six, right? So, you know, we stutter our toe, like I said, early and, you know, now we're trying to get back to where we normally were, right? So a lot of hard work to do. In terms of the interactions with other players, like the Alouettes, if they're going at you tonight, how do you, how do you respond to players during the game. We're in the other jerseys. Yeah, I don't think I have to expect that too much. Obviously, learn from that, right?

Like I said, I live my life a certain way. I'm emotional, you know, I have my heart on my sleeve. I think our players, you know, like that as well. Some of my players didn't even know what happened after the game. They came out to the coach are crazy. I'm like, I know. But I think they understand that, right? They appreciate that.

But at the same time, we got to be respectful for our opponents. You know, Jason does a great job. Noel does a really good job, right? So Noel Thorpe on defense, he's going to give us some headaches. So we've got to be ready for that. But, you know, it's going to be a hard-fought game. This will be a very physical game. And, you know, I hope both sides talk with their pets.

Is that the biggest challenge, too? Like we've had Luke on quite a bit talking about the CFL and talking about him being here. But he said one of the biggest things he's noticed, which was difference from where he came in the NFL was both teams are on the same side. And it's literally, you know, a little not even a divider. so obviously plays happen guys run by there's a little chirp and there's always trash talking in pro sports so i think as you mentioned the emotions get high all of that type of stuff but the fact that you're so close makes it probably a little bit easier to interact in a positive or negative way yeah sometimes it's positive sometimes it right um you know i think both sidelines is tough but we obviously make that decision as a league as far as advertisement and those things and you know um you got to understand that going into it but yeah i think the you know the you know the the tempers and the motions of the football game can get the better of you, especially towards the end. And again, I got to do a better job at that.

But I think at the same time to let my players know, like, we're in here to win it. And we're in a tough spot, right? So each day is more important for us collectively to, you know, the details and the things we have to do as far as our process to be better each day to find a way to be successful on game day. If somebody went up to you and said you got to find a spot for the three of us, to go on the field position like where would you put us you think well i think we'd have one kicker one holder and then you'd be our long snapper what yes a hundred percent the long snapper are

grit grinders aren't they like they're just that's a quad xl uni yeah right just a massive helmet with one bar the holder that's you that's laces up isn't i know he's a hockey guy right and i'm learning hockey as i go yeah being uh in canada well gets laugh you know um the brother obviously the hockey player. Yeah, of course. Amazing. Great player. Well, Chris used to run routes like he had skates on. It was just so amazing to see. So, you know, I got to give him some respect as far as the way he ran routes. I'm like, dude, were you on hockey skates? Yeah, no kid. He was a good player, man. The Getslapp brothers, they're true, true athletes. Ryan Dinwiddie with us, head coach the Argos, Argos, Alouettes tonight here at Pimo Field. You guys have won now

three in a row. And, you know, you mentioned it since you've been here, you've won two great cups. You've got a third string quarterback now, Knicks out. Obviously, Chad hasn't been available to you all year. How would you compare in contrast, you know, how much you've had to coach this year in terms of inspiration, in terms of, you know, hitting the tape room, in terms of trying to get your guys up off the mat. Because there's been years where you guys have been cruising. I mean, a couple years ago, you had one of the greatest regular seasons of all time, maybe the greatest. You've won multiple great cups. Again, this year, almost since day one, it feels like you guys have been grinding a little bit more.

Have you felt that in terms of your own coaching experience? Well, I think each week's different, right? I think even the 16 and 2 year, you know, maybe I could have had a better job to get us, you know, through the East Final in that week. You know, those ones always live with you, especially with the opportunity that you had with such a great team, right? But, you know, I think, you know, where we're at this year, we're just grinding, like trying to find ways to win.

Maybe we were a little bit more confident in the early weeks, thinking we can get it done. It's been a progress, right, and a process for us. And I'll tell you one thing about a locker room. I think some people, you know, listen to what I say in the post-game stuff. And, you know, like I said, I'm an emotional coach. But those guys have never, like, wavered, ever. And I have a great relationship with them. But they know I'm going to push them hard.

And, like, if I wasn't pushing them hard, how are we going to win football games, right? Like, how do you make it back when you push them hard and you lose your mind and you go crazy in the media? Like, how do you get back to kind of level to kind of make things right again? or you just don't bother you move on. No, I did the first time, right? I said, look, guys. I mean, I know it's a big league. You're not going to say sorry I said that.

No, but it was in the media, right? And that's one of the things I say we don't, you know, we keep everything in-house, right? Then I went out of house with that one trying to send a message. And I always tried to, right? But it probably wasn't the right message at that time. But then those guys responded. And they understood it. And they know who I am.

I'm pretty authentic, I would say, with them each day. You know, and I like to go into work in this building. I mean, it's fun. You know, I know we've had some tough times. We're, you know, we're struggling, and we're not where we've been the last four years. But, you know, you get a chance to play professional football and coach professional football, right? And those guys understand who I am. So tonight you got Jared Deggie playing quarterback for you.

As I mentioned, Arbuckle has been great this year. Chad hasn't been available to you. When you're dealing with a quarterback who's coming in in a situation like this in a big, big game, How do you balance between letting them play, you know, letting it loose, but protecting them? How do you handle that tonight? Yeah, so we were talking about it yesterday. So the one thing I like to do is a play caller is let our quarterback's play, right? So now we might have to shrink the package a little bit.

I can't ask him to be Nick, right? Nick's to the, you know, playing an MOP level, moving the pocket, different things, right? I think, you know, Daegie can as far as using his legs. But, like, we got to get the ball of the sand. We got to do different things. We've got to run the football. Might have to screen him a little bit early. We can't put it all on his shoulders.

You know, we run the ball first down. You're stuck in second and long forever. That's the hardest thing for young quarterback, right? So, you know, every coordinator wants to do that. Let's run the football. Let's run the football. Well, every defense coordinator is going to stop the run. Right.

Right. Let's get him a second long. So if you want to live in that mindset, and I'm not going to handcuff him by any means. We're going to let him go play football. Well, it's a big one tonight. Again, you're right there with the al-O-West. next week you're at BC you kind of compete with teams in the West as well in terms of possible

crossover this year then you got Hamilton at home then you finish at Saskatchewan at Calgary it's tough schedule do you allow yourself to look ahead or you know every coach is going to say we stay in a moment but I mean this one feels like it's about as big as it can get well it is I haven't you know try to tell our players that right I just want them to go play football you know it's another football game let's go compete right um you know you never know I mean And, you know, we still got five games left, right? We got to probably win three to five, potentially four out of five. That's just where we're at.

So I just want those guys go have fun, play football, you know, compete, you know, understand the down and distance, some of the, you know, stuff we teach all week. And, you know, I mean, laid on the line. You know, I don't want them playing tight by any means. I want them to go out there. If we're going to make a mistake, let's make it, you know, full speed. And we also got to understand we're going to make mistakes, right? It's a full 60.

But the end of the 60, let's stick together. let's find a way to win the football game. Love it. We've got Winton McManus coming in in about 10 minutes. Anything we need to be prepared for? No, he's one of my favorites. You know, we get after Witton, you know, we always make fun. He thinks Memphis football is the best.

I think Boys is a better football club than Memphis. So that's about it for him. All right. We'll make sure he knows that when he joins us. Great seeing you, coach. Thanks for doing us. Good luck tonight. Yeah, appreciate it, guys.

You got it. There is Ryan Dinwiddie, head coach of the Argos, joining us. Again, Winton McManus will join us around the table. Keith Pelly coming up into Hour 2. Luke, somewhere. We don't know where Luke Wilson is, but he's somewhere here. Yeah, he's on a bike. Probably biking down the lake shore right now on his way down to BMO Field.

But we're teeing up the game tonight. Argo Zals, two pack of games on the CFL on TSN. Tonight overdrive continues. TSN 1050 and on TSN4. All right, Luke Wilson will join us around the table in about 15 minutes. Keith Pelly coming up at 530, President, CEO of MLSC. Bimo Field, the head of the Argos and the Alouettes tonight. Brian Hays, the

O'Dug, Jeff O'Neill, Jamie Noodles, McClennan, some players start to pour out and you just realize how massive some of these guys are and, like, the idea of just being blown up. I know. Like, just trying to, like, come across the middle, think you're so cool. It's so hard. And just get

destroyed by one of these guys. I can't imagine, man. Just monsters. It's such a different mentality. Like, you guys, in the NHL, it was, there were monsters and there were guys out there to hurt in our day yes there were guys that were you know quote unquote tough guys that were scottie stevens yeah i played a tony twist he was six feet 250 right but he's looking to fight too like he's looking to knock your head off like it's

different now you look at nchl players now they're they don't carry extra weight lean tall lean fast it's all speed here you're looking at alignment who can actually run a what a 4 440 or that's the amazing whatever it is yeah when you see the clock on some of these guys running a 40 at like just absurd speeds yes and you realize exactly what you're dealing with yeah you're trying to like break through a tackle or something and this guy's right behind you yeah but i do wonder if that's going to swing back you know in the nchel where like size and muscle mutants you see players fluctuate like matthew nize this year's added weight he's a big dude already yeah he's six three man two 23 yeah he's a massive massive guy yeah

And then you see other players who they're trying to lose 10 or 15 pounds. Yeah, Stuart Skinner. Exactly. Now, he plays a unique position. But still, if you carry weight like you have to be good in your position, you think a guy like Nyes, oh, I want to maybe lose some weight be faster. He's already tremendously fast. You add another five pounds or seven pounds of muscle onto that. That's just going to, he's going to win a lot more loose puck battles in the corner, like little things, details of his game.

Right, which is still where physicality matters. Exactly. You know, like, you can't clutch and grab anymore, and that's why a lot of the guys back in the day were so huge. They just take up space and they grab and you wouldn't, you couldn't go anywhere. You couldn't do anything. Dary and hatchers of the world just grabbing. And that took away a lot of the hits back in that day because it slowed everything down. There was no, like, now they, like, if you really wanted to crush some guys out there now, you could do some serious damage, but it doesn't happen a lot.

Well, also, you're putting yourself in the danger zone by throwing a hit. Well, the guys flying through the middle of the ice. And there's nobody holding up and they're moving, man. You've got to time it, though, because if you hit him and you hit his head or whatever, like, there's, nowadays, it's an art. Back then it was just, it seemed like everybody in the corner just pile on. And you mentioned the Scott Stevens of the world. They're waiting for you to come across the middle. And they were there.

Well, that's the thing. Like Stevens, his biggest hits, Lindros, notwithstanding, who, Lindrosse was massive. He was bigger than Stevens. Who was it? But Korea, he got Vyatislav, Kozlov, coming through the middle of the ice in Detroit. There was helmet was sideways. He got Ronnie Francis and Carolina, Shane Willis in one playoff series. Yeah.

Like those are not like massive guys and they weren't flying. They just didn't, they weren't ready for them. They had their head down and he came through and was like, I'm getting you, man. Yeah, I'll be waiting for you. I'm waiting for you. Yeah. And like that kind of, that doesn't really exist anymore. Again, because of rule changes, because of what we know about, you know, concussions and safety and the speed

of the game and the idea of like trying to step up and stop a guy with a hit you get burned now goes the other way you got to go back to the bench and explain that to your coach and you look like an idiot do and get caught flat-footed you know if the guy walks you exactly like everything is now spacing and force everything to the outside like the lack of physicality now we see it in the playoffs all the same the game still matters all of a sudden the game shrinks yeah and and you know the physicality is there on a tuesday in november not so much but in the playoffs it means something well that's it with like football we had din whity on and he said it's going to be it's going to be a hard hit and like tough game man yeah that's the trenches

yeah like that's that's big boys battling and yeah like we're here on the field and you guys have all been up close and personal for football games to hear these guys 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 amazing. Absolutely. Speaking of which, a guy who's very familiar with blowing people up all over Pimo Field, all over the Canadian Football League, here's linebacker with the Argos, Witt and McManus. What's up, Wynne?

How are you doing? Hey, how are you guys doing, man? 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

to 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. I'm just ready to get out there 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 warming up before the game. I get up. I like it. 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 lion's stress before they hunt i love it so it's all about mentality more than anything else yeah man you just got to be born ready and warm-blooded so suns out guns out this ride 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 yeah um 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

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 played both sides. I think I stopped growing, so I can't.

But I played both sides growing up. And I think, like my time, I spent playing quarterback, helped me be a better line. 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 guy. Are you a trash talker out there? Big trash talk. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I talk a lot.

That gives me going. I talk in practice. My teammates will tell you, coach, tell you. I talk all day, man. I just think, you know, it's the keyest game. I tell everybody's the same game. You grew up playing. So, you know, never let that fun die, you know, never let that just fail.

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 to keep quiet with that? Okay. I talk to everybody.

That's good. No, 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 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 translated 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 reading that and I got a lot of that from 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 that's just going to making a play or even just, you know, running a single play on the field.

How much do you feed off the coach because he's pretty intense out there? And, you know, I don't know if you saw the altercation with the elks the other day. I mean, what do 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, 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're in practice, you know, we can talk.

We can have some friendly bouncer back and forth. But, you know, he's still a head coach. Absolutely. Yeah, he is the head coach. yeah um well and you guys have had you know you've won three games in a row now you know and he 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 this 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, you know, we built a culture that's built around winning and playing actually good football and a lot of those games 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, you know, what our standard was. So we had to get back to that.

And, you know, a lot of those talks are 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 McLeod-Bethel-Thompson tonight? Man, be right. Be right. Try to make them uncomfortable. You know, I always got to stop the run first. We start there all the time. And, you know, if we just play together as a defense complimentary football, man, 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 Dinwiddie on right before you came on and I asked him we asked him like what do we need to know with Winton coming in he said make sure he knows

Boise over Memphis how do you respond to that nowhere in the books has that been written nowhere 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 so that's right he's feeling

himself at this point 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 y'all having me on. You got it. There he is. Winton McManus, a linebacker for the Toronto Argos.

Again, we're live at Bimo 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 or yeah well how does it go be right and you can never be wrong that's right it's a very simple philosophy hey I'm very simple we're gonna apply at the rest of the show great seeing you man we'll let you get back out there great business thanks for seeing you but thanks for coming by there is went McManus I like it got the toothpick going and everything too that's exactly that's his look oh he's got a few for us all right oh like at that send him around all right I love this don't steal them all no no I'm going to pass it let's make sure you send a couple down One more.

Oh, beautiful. Thank you. They got a flavor. I got booze on it. Don't get crazy now. All right. Thank you very much. Thanks, man.

Appreciate it. Wynd McMan is joining us. Pretty good vibes down here. He scared me with the lots of flavor. I don't know. I know. I think there's... What kind of flavor are we talking about?

I think the spear has been dipped a little bit here. I think there's a chance. There's a little bit of booze on that. I don't mind that. I'm trying it out right now. I don't know if that's true or not, but I will be trying that out myself. but I love those mentalities like old school guy

he's been around the game for a long time yeah he's not out here doing stretch like he'll stretch and he'll prepare and he's going to hit the gym and mentally he's going to be ready to play you can see there are some guys that are doing so much unnecessary stuff out there it's ridiculous it's fluff and to me he's a gamer

that's a difference that's a gamer goes to play comes to play every night like that's the difference and you're right we've all played with guys who you know there's a lot of window dressing to it hey look at me you know cameras over there I'm going to stretch you to do all that. Like, I got to admit, I love the warm up.

Like, I love the warm up in my day. No bucket or no? No, you had to wear a helmet, you know, H.I didn't. Only the NHL, you could go, no helmet. But what about it did you love? I don't know. It was just skating around. Yeah, skating right.

Exactly. Pretending like you were doing something. Yeah, he's looking at himself in the glass. Exactly, because people would start pouring in. Like, you would have junior warmups. You guys all did it. And like the home team, he got out there first. He'd skate the whole ice and completely unnecessary stuff.

Oh, it is. No chinny, no chinny, just wheeling around. Always no change. Did you guys have separate warm-ups in Junior? No, we, not when I was playing. We did. Yeah, I know. You've told us that because everyone's a lunatic.

Yeah, there was fight, too many fights. So we had to have separate warm-ups. We always did five-minute difference. Yeah. Yeah, it was usually like 15 for the home team and 10 for the road team or something. So the road team got less to warm up. Well, and that's what I remember. You might remember this, too, is you would, because they wouldn't like you skating down in their end,

guys would do it in their home building and if they were lining up waiting to be able to come on that's when they'd start chirping like the other team would be like get the hell off our side of the ice oh yeah and then you'd be a hero and a tough guy until they came on and then all of a sudden like yeah carkner comes out peterborough like i'll just get right back yes where i'm supposed to be lining up appropriately i don't miss those junior warmups they were scary like we had some yeah you guys a legendary the westernly we got up but there are massive fights like the guy like that would be a good list because we've done the of, you know, all-time talent

between the Q and the O.HL and the WHL. And I think, though, you put all-time fighters, like Probert, Domi, Ray, they all played in the O-HL. Yeah, they all had. Well, you're going to go down that road with a Western guy? I'm just saying. Listen,

the O had some tough guys. The O had had Marty McSorley grew up playing in the O. Although I just, I think maybe there was a difference, there might have been more. It may not have been the elite tough guys in the west, but I think, you know, that every team had like five or six guys who were fighting that night. Yeah. Like I, I remember my first year pro with the capital island, capital district

islanders. We had like 10 tough guys and 10 skilled guys. Like there was no end. That was the balance. That was in the AHL. And it was like, okay, we've got, there's a bunch of monsters on that team. We've got a bunch of monsters and they'd fight and then our skill guys would like go and score. Yeah. It was a weird mix. Interesting with the leaves. Like Ryan Reeves not here this year. Yeah. Yeah. And I don't. don't know who i don't know who i would consider to be their tough their toughest player like who's if there's a if there's a drive-by a little drive-by which we like that hey everyone's comfortable we're in we're not this is in our house yeah we're in

her house we're she she's probably here every single night probably the coat of joshua isn't he's a big dude oh joshua's oh we're getting back on the rails and talking about the fighting yeah joshua would you consider him a heavyweight though i don't know i think like he will fight. He can fight. I think what he does is he would fight up. What I mean by that, you don't have Ryan Reeves, but he's a guy who can handle tough guys, but he also, you know,

he can play. Let's be real. We're talking about one situation. It's in Madison Square Garden. It's when Rampi starts running around. That's when you're going to be wondering, what are we going to do about that? That's right. But he's still there. Maybe there is a couple more guys now. Because everyone else in the Metro kind of had to find a guy to deal with

him. Yeah. So I think Luchich might be back in what, St. Louis Louis. Geno, is he in Boston now? I think. Tanner, Geno,

yeah. Yeah. So, like, you know, Reeves beat him up pretty badly a couple years ago. Yeah.

Yeah. But he's tough. You know, like, again, you're not in, you're right, though.

Rampi's a perfect example of it. Rempey, they love him in New York. They sign him to an extension. Designated. But not only that, he goes out there looking to hit people.

Yeah. Like, if he can catch you, he's going to catch you. Now, he's not going to be on the ice a lot with Matthews. No. him necessarily but i do think if he is out there and he gets a chance to get him he'll get

him yeah and that is where you wonder where the modern game mixes with the old school yeah where who who takes care of business if need be what what i was as of now i don't see anybody on the leaf roster that would do that no but what i would say is team toughness you've got benwa you've you've got macab i like that got carlo there's not god's no fighting you've got wah who's a big guy. You've got all these guys now that have some, a little bit of bite to them. So that's where, you know, Josh was a guy who's got

some bite. Nise is a big guy. I think it, it doesn't matter if it's one guy. If you have a team toughness mentality, you're not, I think it's way more important. I agree. I totally agree that. Strengthen numbers. Absolutely. And especially come playoff time, that's probably one of those rules

Aaron Eckblatt was talking about last week. Yeah. It's like if anyone's in there, we're all in in. That seems like a pretty good rule to have. Great rule. But there may be exclusive scenarios where someone's going to have to go, just the nature of the sport. Right? You get embarrassed.

Someone did something to you. I'm not sure who that will be, but I guess we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. Yeah. All right. Luke Wilson just pulled his bike up. He's here. Yeah.

His bike has been chained right on the, what, 30-30-yard line. The lady and the green. Yeah, the lady that walked by. That's Luke. There she is. There she is. She's just cruising around here to help. Hour two coming up, live from Bimo Field, Argo's Alouettes, tonight.

Luke will join us around the table. We've got picks for the NFL. Keith Pelly coming up as well. Overdrive continues. TSN 1050 and on the TSNF. You've been listening to Overdrive, powered by Fanduel. Fanduel, bringing you everything from the opening line to the final score. TIF 2025 was star-studded, and IRRA radio was on the red carpet for all of it.

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