Catching up with Ken Dorsey for 5 Minutes

proCanes.com had the opportunity to catch up with Ken Dorsey last weekend after his Toronto Argonauts walkthrough practice before their game against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. Check out our quick 5 minute conversation with Dorsey, but also stay tuned in the coming weeks for our full in-depth “Tracking proCanes” feature with Dorsey.

proCanes: So we heard you had to wear an Ohio State Jersey for a couple of days this past week, talk about that.
Ken Dorsey: I lost a bet, and us Miami Hurricanes are men of our word, so I had to do what I had to do. But, I’m not going to say whether that jersey got used as a diaper for my newborn or not. That’s beside the fact. [Laugher]

pC: Who’d you lose the bet to?
KD: Rob Murphy. If we had won he would have been wearing some Miami garb.

pC: You didn’t head down to the game did you?
KD: No, I wish I could have. We were actually playing BC [British Columbia Lions] so I didn’t even get to watch the game.

pC: What did you think of the game? Did you watch the replay?
KD: I saw some of it, I didn’t get to see a lot of it, but obviously the turnovers hurt. It’s hard to beat solid teams like that with turnovers. I think that is more than anything what it came down to. They’ve got a good team, and we’ve got a good team, so that’s what happens.

pC: So you’re here in the CFL, and you’ve made it well-known that eventually you’d like to get into coaching. Would you say this move was made more-so to further your coaching career?
KD: I’d say it’s a little bit of both. It was a great opportunity to come up here and still get a chance to play and still be in football. Obviously it’s a different style of football than I have ever been in, and a lot of it is spread offense. To be able to learn that kind of offense is huge for me. Now I’ve got a pretty good understanding of the spread offense, and how to incorporate that style of offense to a more traditional offense.

pC: Because the CFL game is so different, you still think despite the difference it can translate to the college or NFL game.
KD: For sure, definitely. They’ve been running spread offense up here for years. The CFL is probably more of the inventor of that offense more than anybody else. It definitely translates, obviously it is different with the motions and the extra guy on the field and stuff like that, but there are definitely things you can take from this and take down there or coach up here. That’s not out of the realm possibility up here for me. It’s a blast up here. It’s been a great opportunity to learn about a different style of football.

pC: You’re almost like a 2nd offensive coordinator since you’re not the starting QB, talk about that.
KD: I get to help out coach with the game-plan and just basically being an extra coach on the staff. Up here you’re definitely short handed. There’s definitely not an overabundance of coaches like you have in the NFL. It’s a great opportunity not just to help, but also do something, and be a part of game-planning and have actual coaching responsibilities that I have to get done during the week. It’s a great thing for me to kind of learn, one, how to coach and two, the different things you have to do in terms of break downs of the game tape, or just doing cards on the defense you have to see the next day, to actually trying to scheme two-minute [drill] or third down [plays] or whatever it may be. All that has been kind of what I have been doing in terms of coaching here.

pC: Congrats to having a newborn. Is the whole family up here?
KD: Thank you. Yes the whole family is up here, we all travel together wherever we go. It’s hard to be away from family so it’s nice.

pC: From what I heard you did miss the birth of your latest child.
KD: Yea, well let’s see. My wife had the baby in Indianapolis where her sister lives. She stayed with her sister, so I flew out from here, to there, and just missed it, but stayed there a couple of days and then flew directly to Edmonton for our [next] game. It worked out well, unfortunately I missed it, but I still got there.

pC: There aren’t many proCanes in the league, but you do get to see a few.
KD: I saw Sherko [Haji-Rasouli] last week, which was cool. There are a few of us like Joe McGrath and Anthony Reddick. I get to see a couple of guys which is good, and they’re all doing well, they’re doing real well in this league

pC: Thanks Ken and we’ll be in touch.
KD: Thank you!

Stay tuned in the coming weeks as we will have our full Q&A feature with Ken Dorsey and see what he has to say about his UM days, days in the NFL, current state of the UM program and more!