Who will be Barker's new assistants

Now that Jim Barker has finally been chosen to fill Bart Andrus's shoes, the speculation begins on who is left over for his assistants.
Just about all of last years guys have reported to have secured jobs back in the States. I haven't heard anything yet about the DC Durachek. He would be a good choice to continue in that role for Barker as the defense was pretty good last year and the players seem to respect him.
Danny Barrett is still out there as far as I know and he could fill the OC position. Then again Doug Berry might work for an older Head Coach like Jim Barker, and he is still available. Its going to be difficult getting good assistants this late in the game, as most will have been committed to other teams. Marcellus Simmons did a decent job as Special Teams coach under Pinball, so he might be considered for that job again. Some of the Winnipeg coaches will probably be let go. Charlie Carpenter always seems to be the spare O-Line Coach when one's needed, but his shelf life could be about past.
Might be time to bring in some former Argos to fill the assistant roles. Guys like Mike O'Shea, PeeWwee Smith and Orlondo Steinhauer. Maybe its time to have a look at some CIS coaches as well.

Other news being rumoured is that Greg Mohns will be replaced by John Murphy, late of Winnipeg as he has worked for Barker before.

would love to see Pat Sheahan (whether he is interested), or Greg Marshall (former TC coach) as assistants. Mike O' Shea would be nice as a LB coach.

Pinball for OC with help/tutelage from and for Damon Allen.

That would be awesome.

Mike O'Shea is rumoured to be Argos new special teams coach, with Orlondo Steinhauer coaching the DB's.

Nice to see some ex players given a chance for a change, instead of some guy from Tim Buck Too Div III who has to learn the Canadian game.

Besides Steinhauer and O'Shea:

The other coaching appointments included Chip Garber as defensive co-ordinator; Jaime Elizondo as offensive co-ordinator and quarterbacks coach; Cos DeMatteo as receivers coach; Stephen McAdoo as offensive line coach; Greg Quick as linebackers coach; and George Dyer as defensive line coach.

Elizondo was receivers coach for my Als in 2008. He left for (I believe) a college opportunity last year, but must have gotten canned following the 2009 season. He's had the benefit of working for Marc Trestman for at least one season, which can only help the Argos.

McAdoo's name rings a bell, but for the life of me, I can't figure out which bell that is. :wink: I want to say that he's a former Als O-line coach, but I don't think that's correct.

The other names are unknown to me.

Chip Garber rings a bell. . . but I don't know which bell either. . .

According to Drew Edwards, he’s worked as the DB coach for Toronto in the past. While the position of DC is new to him in this league, he’s got lots of CFL experience.

Turns out I was right. Kind of. McAdoo was our O-line coach from 03 to 05 and our co-offensive coordinator in 06 (with Strasser, I think).

I don’t know about this group of coaches. Not a lot of recent CFL experience, some have been out of the game for a few years, and a coaching rookie (O’Shea) as the teams coordinator. Barker obviously didn’t have a deep pool of candidates, given that the Argos waited so damn long to get the HC in place, so he’ll have to make do, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see some better-qualified assistants airlifted into Toronto in the coming offseason.

I hear you. . . but allow me to say this about the new Argos' staff.

It's bound to be light years better than what they had last season.

Yes, except for Kuharnek (sp). He ran a good Toronto D last season that was just on the field far too long. I’ve gone back and watched some of the Als-Argos games from 2009 and the scores don’t reflect how close the games were until the fourth quarter. Can Garber field a better defense than Kuharnek? Unknown, but my gut feeling says ‘no.’

I think this is a great mix. If they get along and can put processes in place that are efficient, this could be very good. Looks like Barker had everything ready to go for a while...

Call me crazy, but I wouldn't be surprised to see the following happen at the end of this season:

Rita isn't renewed.
Barker is kicked upstairs to the GM position.
Milanovich becomes HC.

1 and 2 I think stand a good chance of happening. . . something tells me that perhaps it was a condition Barker insisted on before signing on the dotted line that he could move up to GM; lord knows he’d be better than Rita in a player personnel role. As for #3, I’m not so sure. . . many things could change between now and then; Milanovich’s stock as a HC possibility may fall, someone else may rise.

True enough. Scott may not wind up in Toronto. I just think that next year, with ownership in place and a competent GM (Barker) presumably in charge, they’ll be in a position to move on Milanovich quickly this time and also make him a good offer, since I think Stubler’s contract will be off the books.

IMO the brass probably would have fired Rita this year were it not for dollars and cents. They’re still paying Stubler and Andrus, and probably didn’t want to pay two GMs at the same time.

Which makes financial sense.

If not football sense.

Might be a long season for Argo fans.

Everything seems to be pointing to a very long Argo season. No veteran QB as of yet, perhaps by early July we will be talking about the good ole days when Bart Andrus was running things?