No, Dave Dickenson doesn’t feel like pantomimist Marcel Marceau doing his famous Walking Against the Wind routine.

Trying to make headway against a gale-force gust of change.

“Well, I am a little worried about head coach,’’ mused the bookish boss, with a soft, mock-exasperated head-shake.

“We may have trouble with that guy …”

With the 2018 Stampeders training camp opening Thursday for rookies and Sunday for the veterans, the list of departures, for a variety of reasons, is lengthy, and notable: Josh Bell, Roy Finch, Rob Cote, Jerome Messam, Tommie Campbell, Dan Federkeil, Joe Burnett, Andrew Buckley.

Not that it alters the objective one iota.

RELATED:

» With Buckley out, what’s the plan B in Calgary?

» Listen: Andrew Buckley on The Waggle

» Redemption Story: Jorden looking to ‘make things right’



The faces at McMahon are annually, to varying degrees, in flux.

What never wavers is the standard.

“We feel good about what we’ve done in the off-season, put a lot of work into it,” stressed Dickenson.

“We’ve lost a lot (of players). But I’m not going to short sell our team. I like our team. You don’t really force leadership upon anybody.

“They either are or they aren’t. You look for it, though. Leadership comes from within the room. Coaches don’t necessarily spend a lot of time in that locker room. If you come together as a team, it has to be the players. We lost some good leaders. Josh Bell won both of our awards last year. Rob Cote’s been a staple for us, for many, many years.

“Deron Mayo is another leader that we lost. But we’ve had other guys step up and we expect other guys to do that this year.

“For them, it’s a great opportunity.”

Heading into camp, there are a ton of questions to be answered, as there always is.

Does incumbent Terry Williams step into Messam’s sizeable shoes as feature tailback? Is Tunde Adeleke ready to inherit the safety slot left vacant by mentor (and now positional coach) Bell? Will the return game, in the absence of Finch, be more by committee? How does the defensive secondary shape up?

The slogan moving forward was obvious for all to see on Tuesday: 12 Strong, lifted from the title of a 2018 war drama starring Thor himself, Chris Hemsworth.

“I mean, there’s a lot of strong out there,” acknowledged Dickenson, modelling the slogan on a grey T-shirt. “But I saw the movie and honestly it made sense for me because of what we do in the CFL.

“There’s 12 of you on the field at all times. Essentially you should have to depend on each and every one of those. If I can look over at you, at you, can count on you and we’re all together, you should be a better team.

“I believe football is the ultimate team game. If we’re going to win we’ve got to be as strong as possible. And that’s all 12, each and every player.”

The retirement of Buckley at the geriatric age of 24 a week ago to pursue a career in medicine leaves 30-year-old Ricky Stanzi – eight pass attempts last season – in pole position to snare the No. 2 signal-calling job behind Bo Levi Mitchell.

“It’s a little different,’’ concedes Dickenson of the QBing shakedown. “But it’s okay. No one’s job was locked in except for Bo. So with Andrew retiring, Ricky’s a guy that should step up. We’ll give him that opportunity. We’re trying to find the right mix of a guy that can play and be a back-up quarterback and also look for some athletic guys that can potentially help in your short-yardage package.

“For me, the quarterback position … I was feeling very confident two weeks ago. But I’ve still got the best guy in the league.

“So I’m feeling pretty good there.”

The Stamps have represented the West in three of the past four Grey Cup games and will likely be installed again as an early pick to make it four-in-five.

“We think we’ve got as good a chance as anybody,’’ declared Dickenson.

“A favourite? Not at this stage. You know you’ve got to go out there and line up. I honestly feel like I’m looking forward to this season as much as any year I’ve coached, though.

“I just feel like there is a lot of change, a lot of new guys. We lost a tough Grey Cup and all of that makes me want to get out on the field, work hard and try and build something.”

Ah yes, that tough Grey Cup loss, 27-24 to the Toronto Argonauts at Ottawa’s TD Place Stadium …

“If you think you’re going to focus on a Grey Cup, getting back and avenging a loss, you’re going to miss out on a loss that’s happening right in front of you,’’ cautioned a man who’s lifted that big silver jug on four occasions over the course of a Hall-of-Fame career.

“And you’re not going to get there.

“I thought we did an excellent job of that last year, just getting better, making each week important, and letting things kinda fall where they fall.

“And we did get back there.

“We played a solid game, just we didn’t win. Ultimately we’d love another opportunity but we’d better look short-sighted, take care of our business right now, become the team we want to be.

“And it all starts in training camp.”