Jim Barker had to have known that he was taking on an incredibly difficult task when he agreed to lead the Toronto Argonauts back in early 2010.
He was taking over a team that had gone 3–15 in 2009 and 7–29 if 2008 is thrown into the mix. There were numerous problems — the most obvious being the lack of a clear starting quarterback.
But Barker took to his job with a self-assured tenacity. He stood behind embattled CFL rookie Cleo Lemon at quarterback all year, even though there were many times when going to the reserves would have been justified.
And he got results. This year the Argos were, while not exactly masterful, much better than they had been in 2009. They fought to a 9-9 record and won a road playoff game against their arch-rivals, the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.
They were slaughtered by Montreal in the Eastern final, but it didn’t matter much. They had won a playoff game when most fans would have been satisfied with their improved season record.
Through it all, Barker had a poise to him that suggested he fully expected his club to be one win away from the Grey Cup. There’s no doubt that it wore off on the players, and he was rewarded for his efforts several weeks ago when he won the CFL’s Coach of the Year Award.
To put that into context, his co-finalists were Alouttes’ Marc Trestman and Roughriders’ Ken Miller, both of whom led their teams to the championship game.
So Ship Argo finally feels righted after several years lost at sea. Barker will be back, probably for as long as he would like to be, and will come out of the chute at May’s training camp expecting his team to be Grey Cup champions by season’s end.
And while that would be quite the upset, it’s not out of the question (which it surely was a year ago today). That’s what makes Barker’s accomplishment all the more notable, and what will make watching the Argos more fun in the years to come.
