I think a round of applause are in order for Jim Barker. Maybe a couple of rounds.

Dear Jim Barker,

I write to you regarding my “colorful” letter I wrote to you just before the season started, regarding my distaste for some of the decisions you made since taking over as head coach of the Toronto Argonauts.

Anyway Jim, I think this time calling you Jim would be a little more appropiate than Jimmy, I started off my letter last time by expressing my belief that there were better candidates out there for the Toronto Argonauts to hire as a head coach this off-season, such as Scott Milanovich, offensive coordinator of the Montreal Alouettes.

As it turns out, I guess I was wrong. Your Argonauts are 5-2-0, tied for first place in the East Division with the Montreal Alouettes. This is following two consecutive seasons where Toronto missed the playoffs. Under your reign Jim, the Argonauts have gone from lovable losers, to an average team and finally to a contender. It would have been hard for another coach to duplicate that.

After that comment in my previous letter, I went on to criticize some of the moves you made in the off-season, such as not re-signing running back Jamal Robertson, who was the team’s biggest offensive threat last season. You eventually decided on Cory Boyd as your starting tailback. All he’s done is so far is lead the league in rushing with 711 yards and has also added four touchdowns. Woops, my bad.

But, Jim, the biggest concern I expressed was your decision to name Cleo Lemon as your starting quarterback instead of Dalton Bell.

Was I justified in this criticism? I think so. After all, Bell had more CFL experience than Lemon. In the preseason, Bell had gone 18/26 for 341 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions, while Lemon had gone 10/26 for 99 yards and one interception. Bell clearly outperformed him, yet you still called Lemon a great “practice quarterback”.

As with the Robertson comment, I have had to eat my words. On the season, Lemon has gone 112/185, with 1,467 yards, seven touchdowns and five interceptions. Not great, but then again, pretty good for a first-year CFL starter. The big thing though, as has been brought up a lot this season, is that Lemon has led the Argonauts to a lot of victories. ‘Elite’ quarterbacks like Ricky Ray, Casey Printers and, for the most part, Kevin Glenn, haven’t done the same.

Once again, my bad.

After that, the rest of my original letter gets kind of fuzzy. I might called you stubborn, said the Argonauts were doomed and predicted you would quickly be fired. But hey, we’re all good, right?

I’ll admit it, pretty much everything I said in that original letter turned out to be wrong. Sometime this season, Jim, we can grab a beer and laugh about this whole thing. Well, I don’t drink, but I could grab a Pepsi or something.

Best of luck on the rest of your season, that is, when you are not playing the Saskatchewan Roughriders.

Yours truly,
Jonathan Hamelin

Hamelin’s work can be followed on Facebook and Twitter.

Many of the media that cover the CFL and more importantly the Toronto media are figuring out what a few of us have already figured out,. Jim Barker doesn’t like it.

Cleo Lemon is 3-2-0 as the Argos' starter.

Barker’s choice to go with Cleo Lemon as the starter for the Toronto Argonauts at the beginning of the season was questioned by people in the media and everywhere. Dalton Bell had much better numbers than Lemon in the preseason, but I can understand Barker’s reasoning for the choice.

Barker wanted to go with experience. With Lemon 31 this year and having played for four NFL teams, Barker figured there might be a learning curve for Lemon and things would get better as the season progressed.

The season may only be five games in, but everyone who has questioned Lemon is questioning again and wondering how long it’ll be until Barker makes the decision to switch it up.

Apparently all the questions Barker has been receiving about the quarterback choice have caused him to flip his lid. He continues to back his choice and it seems the more frustrated he gets, the more his pride seems to kick in. The more his pride gets in the way, the longer he may decide to go with Lemon for a little too long.

How many times have we seen the NFL go with a quarterback justifying their picks and dollars spent and ruining the season because their pride got in the way. Remember Rob Johnson and Doug Flutie? Johnson probably averaged more times being sacked than passes thrown, yet Buffalo stayed with him in spite of the fact Flutie could get the job done and didn’t get sacked.

Dalton Bell was thought by many to be the clear winner of the quarterback competition before the season began.

Bell may not be extremely experienced, but he’s been around the CFL game long enough to understand the game more than Lemon. Now, Lemon has been thrown to the wolves and not fared terribly, but he hasn’t wowed. His defence has done extremely well and actually won two of those three wins for the Argos. So, even though Lemon is 3-2-0 as a starter, I have to wonder how many more wins the Argos will get this season. They’re is still a chance for another 3-15 season.

Now Jim Barker is a smart guy and he has an eye for talent, but coaching has not really been his strong suit. He is very loyal and trusting, but I wonder how much that loyalty is factoring into his decision here. To be honest, I don’t really even know why Barker is so hung up on Lemon. His career stats aren’t spectacular and other than “life” experience, Lemon hasn’t been the go to guy that should garner that much confidence.

In college, Lemon set school records for attempts, completions, passing yards and touchdowns. When you look closer you see that he threw 1,128 attempts and completed only 48% of them. He did have 48 touchdowns, but threw 33 interceptions. Even his best season in college his pass completion percentage was only 47%.

His NFL experience wasn’t any better as he only started eight games in three years. His percentage moved up to 55%, but he still threw seven interceptions to his eight touchdowns. Most of his time was with the Dolphins over two years and they were one of the worst teams in NFL history as they only won one game in 2007.

Lemon hasn’t had much luck in the teams he has ended up with, but he has also never used those opportunities to turn those teams into winning teams. This year’s Argos may not be the worst team in CFL history and Lemon still isn’t the factor that is causing them to win.

The Argonauts may not have deserved some of the wins they got so far, but a lopsided loss to the Alouettes last week showed them they have a long way to go before they will compete for the East.

Part of the problem Barker is having is that he’s not even using Bell to push Lemon. Bell has only thrown six passes this year and the longer he sits on the sideline without serious game action, the longer it may take to shake off the rust if his number is called.

If Barker is having trouble swallowing his pride and admitting that Lemon isn’t the quarterback he thought he could be, losses will pile up and team confidence could be shaken to a point where this potential shown this season goes right down the toilet.

Even though he was out played by Dalton Bell, you decided to name Cleo Lemon the starting quarterback anyway Jimmy.

Dear Jim Barker,

I write to you concerning your shocking decision to name Cleo Lemon as the starting quarterback of the Toronto Argonauts instead of Dalton Bell.

Before we get in to that, let’s backtrack a little bit Jimmy. Oh, is it OK if I call you Jimmy? Anyway, I was never a fan of your hiring in the first place. Don’t get me wrong, the Argonauts made the right choice in firing Bart Andrus – who guided the team to a 3-15 record in 2009 – but I thought there were better candidates out there.

I strongly felt that Scott Milanovich, who has been a very successful offensive coordinator in Montreal, would have gladly become the new head coach if Toronto had offered him a reasonable contract.

Still, I was eager to see just what you would do to turn the team around.

I am not sure how much of an impact you had on every decision, but soon after you arrival the Argonauts made some big moves. The team got rid of all of the quarterbacks on the roster. This was a move I could live with, though having no pivot on the roster hardly inspires confidence.

A move I wasn’t so thrilled about was the decision not to bring back Jamal Robertson. Robertson was Toronto’s only offensive threat last season Jimmy. He pounded out 1,031 rushing yards last season and nine touchdowns. Furthermore, the move left your team without a solid running threat.

Even though I didn’t agree with all of the moves, Jimmy, at least you seemed to have a plan in place to rebuild the team your way. You wanted to start over with a new quarterback and running back. To your credit, Toronto did add talented slot back Jeremaine Copeland.

But Jimmy, I lost all respect for you when you decided to anoint Lemon as your starting quarterback.

A move like that makes me realize why you went 5-13 as the head coach of the Calgary Stampeders in 2003.

During Toronto’s training camp, in which the quarterback battle seemed to take centre stage, three main contenders emerged: Bell, Lemon and Ken Dorsey. It was clear, Jimmy, that you were rooting for Lemon, as you compared him to “Henry Burris”, but it was also reported that Bell and Dorsey didn’t do too bad either.

Then, preseason rolled along and upon its conclusion the decision of who should be the starting quarterback should have been clear to you.

In the first game, a 13-10 victory over the Hamilton Tiger Cats, Dorsey and Bell both put up good numbers. Bell went 7/10 for 94 yards and Dorsey went 8/17 for 96 yards and an interception.

Lemon, on the other hand, stunk up the joint. He went 3/10 for 41 yards.

How you didn’t cut Lemon at this point was amazing Jimmy. Kent Smith, a hopeful quarterback for the Saskatchewan Roughriders who saw time in the first preseason game, went 2/12 for 32 yards and was subsequently released. That must be some love affair you and Lemon have got going.

Then, in the second preseason game, a 31-23 loss to Toronto, it was clear the competition was centered on Lemon and Bell, the only two quarterbacks who played for the Argonauts. Bell was very solid, going 11/15 for 247 yards a touchdown and two interceptions. Lemon improved from the first game, which wasn’t hard to do. He went 7/16 for 58 yards and an interception.

Just for fun, Jimmy, let’s look at both Lemon’s and Bell’s total preseason stats.

Bell: 18/26 for 341 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions.
Lemon: 10/26 for 99 yards and one interception.

I got to say, Jimmy, that’s a pretty close call…

While about 95% of CFL fans thought Bell would be named the starter after this game, you didn’t seem so sure in the post-game interviews. You were quick to point out that Bell played against Montreal’s second-string defenders and Lemon made some good throws.

Soon after, you named Lemon the starter.

All I can say is, after looking at how poorly Lemon played in the preseason, he must be one hell of a practice quarterback. I am talking about a guy who throws effortless 60-yard spirals play after play.

Seriously, Jimmy, your stubbornness was really surprising. You obviously put a lot of stock into Lemon and weren’t willing to admit your mistake, even when Bell completely outplayed Lemon during the preseason. Lemon is not the quarterback to turn your team’s sinking ship around. Bell has more CFL experience and seems ready for the job.

Of course, this is only my opinion Jimmy. Maybe Lemon will turn out to be a fine starter. If that’s the case, feel free to send me an email at roughriderfreek@hotmail.com and rub it in my face. I won’t be expecting an email…

To leave off, I would like to wish you the best of luck in this new season Jimmy. You’ll need it. Your Argonauts look terrible on paper and will likely be in for a rough season. As for you Jimmy, well, you are the fourth head coach of this team in two years. Don’t get too comfortable.

Yours truly,
Jonathan Hamelin

Jonathan Hamelin is an aspiring journalist, who has a freelance contract with the Regina Leader-Post and is a veteran online CFL columnist. He can be followed on Facebook and Twitter.