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Mike (Pinball) Clemons is set to announce that his tenure as Toronto Argonauts head coach is officially over.
Two sources requesting anonymity said Monday that Clemons will announce he's stepping down during a news conference at the Rogers Centre on Tuesday afternoon.
The sources said Clemons, who retired as an Argos player in 2000 to become head coach, will head up the club's management team as either a chief executive officer or president.
The sources also said defensive co-ordinator Rich Stubler will take over as head coach, a move the Argos will officially announce at a later date, and Brad Watters, the former Ottawa Renegades executive who served as chairman of the 2007 Grey Cup committee, will join the Argos in an administrative capacity.
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Although their official titles won't be unveiled until Tuesday, Watters will report to Clemons, who will be the face of the Argos organization, sources said.
Keith Pelley served as Argos president for four years before leaving the CFL team last week to become president of the CTV-Rogers consortium that will broadcast the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and 2012 Summer Olympics in London.
Clemons' future with the organization was the biggest off-season question facing the Argos. He didn't have a contract for next season and had deferred any such talk until season's end.
Clemons, who led the Argos to a Grey Cup in 2004, guided Toronto to an 11-7 record this season, good for first in the East Division for the second time in three seasons.
After injuries resulted in a 2-6 start to the season, the Argos finished strong and captured home-field advantage for the division final. However, Winnipeg dashed Toronto's hopes of playing in the Grey Cup at Rogers Centre by downing the Argos 19-9 in the East championship.
His decision to step away from coaching is hardly a surprise. The overwhelming notion this season was that a big reason why Clemons stayed on through the 2007 campaign was the allure of trying to win a Grey Cup on home turf. But when the Argos were struggling earlier this year, Clemons did admit he thought about resigning from his post if the club had lost consecutive games to archrival Hamilton in September.
Clemons isn't heading into the Argos front office cold. He left coaching to become the club's president after the '01 season but returned to the sidelines during the '02 campaign when Gary Etcheverry was fired with Toronto languishing with a 4-8-0 record. Under Clemons, the Argos won four of their remaining six games to garner a playoff spot.
The 42-year-old Florida native has spent 19 years with the Argos as a player, club president and head coach. He was a finalist for the CFL's outstanding player award on four occasions.
Watters also has previous management experience with the National Lacrosse League's Toronto Rock.
Notes: League sources also said Monday that B.C. Lions player-personnel director Bob O'Billovich appears to be the front-runner for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats' general manager's vacancy.
