Fresh start for Argonauts
Nick Arbuckle and the Boatmen set for home opener vs. Bombers,
It has been two years, three different teams and a new baby since Nick Arbuckle last started in the CFL.
He’ll get the start Saturday as the Toronto Argonauts look to shake up their offence against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in their long-awaited home opener. The 27-year-old quarterback expects some nerves, but also hopes the two-year gap will melt away once the opening whistle blows.
“It’s going to be exciting, I know that for sure, and there’s probably going to be combination of the excitement and nerves that creates those butterflies in your stomach when you go out there for the first play,” Arbuckle said after Friday morning’s practice.
“But once we get going, and once that first play happens, especially the first hit happens, and everything gets rolling, it’s just going to be football.”
Arbuckle threw for 370 yards and four touchdowns in his last start. It was Aug. 17, 2019. His wife Zakiyyah was pregnant. Their daughter Aaliyah is now 15 months old.
In between, the global pandemic erased the 2020 season. Arbuckle was traded to Ottawa and released without every playing there, before signing with Toronto as a free agent year.
The Argos (1-1) and Bombers (2-0) are meeting for the second time in as many weeks. In Toronto’s 20-7 loss last week, Arbuckle relieved McLeod Bethel-Thompson in the second half and led the Argos to their lone touchdown. He completed 10 of 19 passes for 96 yards and said it was an important reminder of “what it was like to play a football game.”
“Feeling what the game action and the game speed was like when I first got on the field and adjusting to that as the fourth quarter went on … that was the fun experience,” he said.
“It was fun being reminded of how fast the game plays but also how slow it plays, like from, you know, snap to whistle is really fast. But the process between the plays … you get to talk to your offence more than you probably do during practice when you’re trying to rush to get as many reps in, you know, the four and a half hours of time we’re allowed a day.”
Argos head coach Ryan Dinwiddie was pleased with his defence last week, but expects the offence and special teams to step up Saturday.
There’s familiarity between Arbuckle and Dinwiddie, who was the Stampeders’ quarterbacks coach during Arbuckle’s time there, that has made for a relatively painless learning curve.
“They’re both hard workers, they both study hard. (BethelThompson) picked up the offence in a hurry, which is very hard to do. This isn’t an easy offence,” Dinwiddie said.
“But Nick’s comfortable in it, he’s been in it forever, should be second nature to him. I just feel like that’s the best option right now, gives us a chance to stay on the field a little bit more.”
Arbuckle was speculated as Toronto’s starter out of the gates but was sidelined by an injury, which has become an early-season theme for numerous teams.
“It’s different in that it’s happened this early,” Arbuckle said of the injuries across the league.
“And you got to be ready. And that’s why you’ve heard Dinwiddie, he talked about it leading up to our training camp and training camp, you need two quarterbacks to win a lot of games in this league, you need two good quarterbacks, it’s not often you’re going to have one guy stay healthy all year round.”