Shop talk helped coaches to big game
Campbell, Dickenson groomed for head coaching jobs together in Calgary
They’ll be on opposite sidelines as Grey Cup adversaries Sunday, but Rick Campbell and Dave Dickenson are hardly strangers.
They became good friends working together as assistants under Calgary head coach John Hufnagel in 2012 and 2013 before Campbell left for the Ottawa Redblacks’ head coaching job. Dickenson remained and succeeded Hufnagel as the Stampeders’ head man this season.
Both are after their first Grey Cup title as a head coach Sunday when Ottawa faces Calgary at BMO Field. And while the two often spoke about football during their time together, Campbell admitted Wednesday at the annual Grey Cup coaches’ news conference they didn’t always talk shop.
“We usually talked about music or our celebrity crushes, things like that,” Campbell said with a smile. “Not specifically about the Grey Cup, I guess maybe about how crazy it would be to be head coaches.”
But they didn’t always agree, especially when it came to Campbell’s love of grunge rock. “I’m not in love with his music choices,” Dickenson said.
As for football? “The one thing I can tell you about Rick was I’d say, ‘Rick, what if I did this, what would happen?’ ” Dickesnson said. “He’d say, ‘Well, there’d be a conversation as a defensive guy.’
“That sort of banter back and forth allowed me to be a better coach because I’d come up with some things that can cause conversation because, when you cause conversations, indecision, that’s how I think offensively you can sometimes have an advantage. I think it’s pretty cool to be coaching in the game against him and that both of our teams have had success.”
Dickenson, 43, and Campbell, 45, come by their present jobs honestly.
Dickenson’s father, Bob, was a football coach. Dave, a former star quarterback, became a coach after spending 10 of his 12 pro seasons in the CFL.
Campbell’s father, Hugh, 75, led Ed- monton to a record five straight Grey Cups (1978-82) as head coach and also coached the NFL’s Houston Oilers. He was the CFL’s coach of the year in 1979. Rick Campbell followed in his legendary father’s footsteps last year when he was named the CFL’s coach of the year. He is a finalist this year with Dickenson.
Dickenson led Calgary to a league- best 15-2-1 record, the 15 wins being the most recorded by a rookie head coach.
“I feel like I’ve been prepared for a while,” Dickenson said. “Huf gave me a year to think about it.”
Dickenson had to deal with tragedy, though. In September, Mylan Hicks, a defensive back on Calgary’s practice roster, was fatally shot outside a Calgary nightclub. “There were some tough moments and there still are, it’s not over,” Dickenson said. “I didn’t have a template, I didn’t know what to tell the coaches, the players . . .
“I can’t say that I handled it well but I just did my best and the guys certainly have a purpose. We play for more than ourselves.”