REGINA

Winston Venable admits the uncertainly surrounding the Toronto Argonauts made him nervous.

The veteran defensive back signed with the Argos for two years on Feb. 15, even though the team had neither a head coach nor a general manager in place at the time.

“There was definitely a little unknown and that’s the part that’s a little scary because you don’t know who is coming in place,” Venable said Tuesday during a media day at CFL Week.

“A new general manager can come in and get rid of a bunch of people.”

Those concerns were instantly turned into excitement two weeks later when the Argos signed Marc Trestman and Jim Popp as coach and general manager respectively.

Venable played four seasons for Popp with the Montreal Alouettes and is very familiar with Trestman, who coached the Alouettes from 2008 to 2012 and the Chicago Bears of the NFL from 2013-14.

“Complete 360 when those guys were hired,” Venable said. “It was awesome. Fortunately for me I have a pretty good relationship with Jim Popp already.”

Venable, 29, said although the situation when he signed was unusual, it was his best option and he’s happy he moved forward with it.

“It has all worked out well for me,” he said. “It’s been positive.”

While the Argos struggled to attract fans at BMO Field last season, Venable believes he and all the other players can do something to change that.

“If I can help the team win, then there will be more fans that come to the games,” he said. “I know there’s a lot of things going on in Toronto, other professional sports that might not be in other cities in Canada, but when you win games, people get excited about that. When you have a product that’s entertaining, which I believe Marc Trestman will provide for us, the fans will come out and see us. Creating that culture will just naturally bring fans.”

STACKED ON DEFENCE

Simoni Lawrence couldn’t possibly be more enthused about the Hamilton Tiger-Cats defence heading into the 2017 CFL season.

“I am super excited about this off-season,” Lawrence said Tuesday.

“We got one of my favourite players in the league back in Emanuel Davis, added one of my favourite players to watch in Abdul Kanneh and we still have guys like John Chick, Craig Butler, Courtney Stephen.

“It looks like we’re loaded right now on defence and it’s a beautiful feeling.”

Lawrence, 27, was fourth in the CFL with 89 tackles last season and has been a dominant linebacker the last few seasons. He loves to be pushed though and believes this group of Ticats defenders will do exactly that.

“It’s going to raise everybody’s level of competition,” Lawrence said. “When you are surrounded by great players you don’t want to be the guy who’s not looking like a great player.

“That’s going to be super dope just playing against them in practice and just making everybody better.”

The Ticats don’t look too shabby on offence either, especially behind centre with Zach Collaros calling the signals.

“One way you win is you have a great quarterback and we know we have that,” Lawrence said.

CANADIAN CONTENT

Andrew Buckley scored eight touchdowns for the Calgary Stampeders, which is pretty impressive considering his birth certificate.

He’s Canadian, and not many homegrown quarterbacks have scored eight touchdowns in a season in the last few decades.

The rest of Buckley’s numbers, one completion on two attempts for 13 yards, and 49 rushing yards on 27 carries are more of the non-import variety.

Basically, he was a short-yardage man for the Stamps and he did it well.

But will there be a time when a Canadian quarterback actually starts in the CFL?

“I see it happening for sure,” Ottawa Redblacks receiver Brad Sinopoli said.

“I had my opportunities. I had two training camps, two preseason games. The timing has to be right. Bo Levi Mitchell came in my second year and took it by storm. That’s a tough guy to beat out.”

Sinopoli was drafted by the Stampeders in 2011 as a quarterback but after he failed to make the team twice, he converted to receiver. And a darn good one at that.

He believes the league and the Canadian quarterbacks need to keep pushing to get one or two in the game.

“The only thing is if you’re going to have a quarterback that’s Canadian, they should count toward the ratio,” Sinopoli said. “It’s a tough league to make as a quarterback in the first place. There’s only nine teams and that makes only 30 or so quarterbacks on rosters. It’s tough to crack.

“We play less games in university in the CIS, less high school games. We can’t just go outside in the winter and throw the ball around whenever we want. There are challenges but guys are starting to overcome those. It starts with the grassroots. We need the reps, we need the experience to be at the same level as when an American comes in.”

PLENTY IN COMMON

Winnipeg Blue Bombers quarterbacks Matt Nichols and Dan Levefour have plenty in common. They played college football at the same time, have been in the CFL for a similar amount of time and are now teammates for the first time.

They were also born on the same day.

“We are the exact same age actually, we have the same birthday,” Nichols said. “We both turned 30 a couple days ago (March 19).

“I don’t know him personally very well. We’ve had some conversations, but I’m looking forward to getting to know him. I have a ton of respect for him.”

It shouldn’t be tough to find a talking point.

twyman@postmedia.com

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