Bo Levi Mitchell 's first full year as the Calgary Stampeders' starting quarterback was about as successful as anyone could have predicted, ending with a Grey Cup victory and the game's most valuable player honours.

With all that, the 24-year-old from Katy, Tex., made himself a tough act to follow. He talks to The Globe and Mail's Jeffrey Jones about how he plans to improve on his performance and why community involvement is important in a city starting to feel the strains of falling oil prices.

He also tosses in his thoughts about the most talked-about play in a certain other big football championship recently.

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How do you set new goals for yourself after such a successful season?

Pretty easily, man. I'm not very complacent. I look at things that I can fix all around the board.

We had a great defence last year, so I think we can be much more productive on offence to help those guys out, and that starts with me. I'm going back and looking at the games where we didn't play well. I go in, and look at myself first, then the offence and where we slipped up. And I go back even into the games we played really well and find out how those could become great games.

How do you do that?

We find out parts of a play we can fix – if there's a different way to run it. That's what it's going to take, because that's what other teams are going to do with us. They're going to study the film and say, "Okay, so how do we stop these guys?" I've got to find out before they do so we can fix it. The system that [offensive co-ordinator] Dave [Dickenson] and [head coach John Hufnagel] have put in is a great one, and I have to make sure that I'm doing my part because I know they are.

You're spending much of the off-season in Calgary doing community work. What do you make of the economic situation?

I'm not a resident yet, but I'm doing my best to stay as much as possible. I'm really trying to commit to the city of Calgary because if the team and the coaching staff and the city are going to commit to me, then I need to do the exact same. The oil being the way it is – being from the Houston area I'm also seeing it down there – people are getting laid off and it's hard to see suffering like that when it's something they can't control. All I can do right now is try to get around in the community as much as possible, and try to keep hopes high.

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There are a lot of things I want to do in Calgary this off-season, and right now, Big Brothers Big Sisters is the one I'm really going after. I'm in the final process of becoming a mentor, so hopefully in the next couple of weeks I'll get to be confirmed on it.

Let's talk about the Seattle Seahawks' game-losing last play in Sunday's Super Bowl. If you were on the Patriots' one-yard line with the clock running down, what would you do?

There's not a chance of throwing the ball, I'll tell you that. The fact is that the Super Bowl's on the line, and you just ran it for four yards.

The Patriots are not doing what they're supposed to be doing by calling a time out – they're already helping you out.

To me, even if you do call a pass, the reason you call it is to run out some of the clock. I don't think a pass play is the worst call in the world, I just think it has to be a bootleg, a rollout – either somebody's wide open and you throw it to him or [Seahawks QB] Russell [Wilson] can run it in.

The call came from the head coach. How much leeway does a QB have to make another one?

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If I'm in that situation and the call comes in to throw a slant route from the one-yard line, I'm going to be hesitant to do it. It's tough, though. If you change it and you score, then it's "Atta boy. Good job. You won the Super Bowl." But if you make a call and something happens, there's a fumble or something like that, there's a good chance you're not going to be on the same team next year. But it's just not logical. They're worried about wasting time to not give the Patriots back the ball. I do understand that. But you're not going to risk your Super Bowl on throwing the ball inside, where there's a lot of hands. From my way of thinking, it's plain Jane – I'm getting the Super Bowl win right now. I'm going to run it in.

This interview has been edited and condensed.