Argos hire Ryan Dinwiddie as head coach

Photo courtesy: Scott Grant/CFLPhotoArchive.com

The Toronto Argonauts are set to hire Ryan Dinwiddie as their head coach, per sources.

The 39-year-old flew to Toronto on Monday and he’s finalized a coaching staff with the double blue.

Dinwiddie has spent the past four seasons as the Calgary Stampeders’ quarterbacks coach. Dinwiddie joined the Stampeders in 2016 after three years on the Montreal Alouettes staff as the quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator. He’s worked closely with Bo Levi Mitchell and pending free agent Nick Arbuckle.

While Mitchell missed seven games with a pectoral injury, Arbuckle posted a 4-3 win-loss record. He completed 174-of-238 passes for 2,103 yards with 11 touchdowns against five interceptions and ran 27 times for 76 yards and four majors.

Mitchell earned the CFL’s Most Outstanding Player award in 2018 under Dinwiddie’s guidance as he threw for 5,124 yards and a league-leading 35 touchdowns. Stamps QBs led the league with a pass efficiency rate of 99.2 and had a CFL-best 44 completions of at least 30 yards.

Canadian quarterback Andrew Buckley was brought along by Dinwiddie and various personnel men believed he could be a starter in the league prior to retiring to focus on becoming a doctor.

In Dinwiddie’s first year with the Stamps, Mitchell threw for 5,385 yards and a league-leading 32 touchdown passes in earning the CFL’s Most Outstanding Player award. Calgary score a league-best 586 points. Buckley served as the Stamps’ short-yardage specialist and he tied the CFL’s single-season record for most rushing touchdowns by a Canadian quarterback with eight.

A former quarterback, Dinwiddie played five seasons in the CFL including three with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers (2006-08) and two with the Saskatchewan Roughriders (2010-11). His first career start came in the Bombers’ 2007 Grey Cup meeting with Saskatchewan and in his regular season debut as a starter — on July 24, 2008, against Calgary — he threw for 450 yards.

Dinwiddie succeeds Corey Chamblin as bench boss in Toronto.