{"id":83720,"date":"2026-06-11T11:15:33","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T11:15:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/83720\/"},"modified":"2026-06-11T11:15:33","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T11:15:33","slug":"mike-miller-tuning-out-toronto-argonauts-doubters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/83720\/","title":{"rendered":"Mike Miller tuning out Toronto Argonauts doubters"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Mike\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhoto courtesy: Toronto Argonauts<\/p>\n

The Toronto Argonauts are the consensus last-place team<\/a> heading into their first regular-season game of 2026 but their rookie head coach is concentrating on other things.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not really focused on anything that\u2019s outside the building. Going into this, we\u2019re always going to be about us.\u00a0That\u2019s where our focus is, and we know how we want to play football,\u201d Mike Miller told 3DownNation on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe our players and our coaches and our veteran leadership have embraced it. We\u2019re just about working to improve each day, so whatever anyone says about us \u2014 good or bad \u2014 outside the building,\u00a0there\u2019s nothing that we\u2019re paying any attention to.\u00a0We\u2019re focused on each other, and again, we\u2019re going to get better every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The Argonauts missed the playoffs at 5-13 in 2025, leading to significant changes. Ryan Dinwiddie left to become the head coach and general manager of the Ottawa Redblacks, and nearly a dozen starters weren\u2019t retained, including Dejon Brissett, DaVaris Daniels, Sage Doxtater, Anthony Lanier II, Wynton McManis, and Branden Dozier.<\/p>\n

Toronto made several key additions in free agency, including the repatriation of defensive backs Adarius Pickett, Robert Priester, and DaShaun Amos. All three players were on the roster when the team went 16-2 in 2023 and should help secure a secondary that allowed a league-worst 35 passing touchdowns last year. Dakoda Shepley was also brought in off a long NFL stint<\/a> to shore up the offensive line.<\/p>\n

Miller declined to assess how this year\u2019s team differs from last year\u2019s, indicating he isn\u2019t spending any time looking backward.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t really like to get into comparisons.\u00a0All I can do is focus on 2026 right now, and I\u2019m pleased with where we are as a team,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a famous line that I got from Clint Hurdle,\u00a0former (Pittsburgh) Pirates manager, is that we\u2019re easy to please, but we\u2019re hard to satisfy. Guys have got to continue to work, continue to get better, and continue to respond, and we want to grow together as a team, so that\u2019s really what our focus is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Franchise quarterback Chad Kelly will make his first start on Friday since the devastating leg injury he suffered in the 2024 East Final. Coincidentally, he\u2019ll make his return on the same field where the injury took place: Percival Molson Stadium in Montreal.<\/p>\n

Miller and Kelly have a close relationship<\/a> that dates back to 2022 when the former was first hired as Toronto\u2019s quarterbacks coach. The 56-year-old has been a staunch advocate of Kelly\u2019s and likes what he\u2019s seen from the veteran passer throughout training camp.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like Chad\u2019s focus.\u00a0We\u2019ve had a good camp and a good week of preparation, and it\u2019s all about execution right now,\u201d he said. \u201cMaybe a thought (about returning where the injury occurred) would ever come across \u2014 it would probably be natural before the game \u2014 but we have no doubt: when the lights are turned on, Chad Kelly shows up to play.\u201d<\/p>\n

Toronto had the league\u2019s worst running game last year and appear to have a new starting ball-carrier in Sam Hicks, a scatback out of Abilene Christian University. The 25-year-old rushed nine times for 66 yards and three touchdowns during the preseason, leading to the release of veteran Peyton Logan.<\/p>\n

\u201c(Hicks is)\u00a0a rookie that has done some good things\u00a0and has also done some things that he needs to learn from\u00a0and continue to improve and get better.\u00a0Hopefully, we see that when he\u2019s called upon, but he\u2019s done some good things, and we\u2019ll just have to see,\u201d said Miller.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of us are works in progress.\u00a0Again, we\u2019re just focused on the next play, how we respond, and working to get better.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Toronto Argonauts (0-0) will visit the Montreal Alouettes (1-0) at Percival Molson Stadium on Friday, June 12, with kickoff scheduled for 7:00 p.m. EDT. The Argonauts were on a bye in Week 1, while the Alouettes are coming off an overtime victory over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.<\/p>\n

The weather forecast in Montreal calls for a high of 25 degrees and a 20 percent chance of rain. The game will be broadcast on TSN and RDS in Canada, and CFL+ in the United States and internationally. Radio listeners can tune in on TSN 1050 in Toronto, TSN 690 in Montreal, or 99.5 Montreal in French.<\/p>\n

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John Hodge is a longtime Canadian football reporter, insider, and podcaster for 3DownNation. Based in Winnipeg, Hodge is also a freelance television and radio broadcaster and curling reporter for Rock Channel.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo courtesy: Toronto Argonauts The Toronto Argonauts are the consensus last-place team heading into their first regular-season game…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":83721,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[349,350,7373,7374,351,352,24793,354,17466,32711,32712,32713,32714,48],"class_list":["post-83720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-toronto","tag-3down","tag-3downnation","tag-argonauts","tag-argos","tag-canadian","tag-cfl","tag-chad-kelly","tag-football","tag-head-coach","tag-kelly","tag-mike-miller","tag-miller","tag-sam-hicks","tag-toronto"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83720"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83720\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}