Dave Dickenson will return as head coach and general manager of the Calgary Stampeders in 2025 despite the CFL club's worst season in two decades. "He's earned the right and the opportunity to turn this around in 2025 and he has our full support," Stampeders president Jay McNeil said Monday at McMahon Stadium. "Dave and I have worked incredibly hard over the past three weeks to build a plan for success in 2025 and we believe in that. "We will be aggressive in how we build our team for next year." Calgary (5-12-1) finished at the bottom of the West Division with the worst record in the CFL after 18 consecutive seasons of reaching the playoffs.
But the Stampeders made the playoffs in 2023 with a 6-12 record and have finished well under .500 in back-to-back years for the first time since 2003 and 2004. "It's been incredibly hard," McNeil said. "We expect to win every time we take the field, and we haven't done that enough over the last two years, and we've got to get back to fixing that. "Losing has been tough, and I know the organization feels that way, from our ownership group right through our players and our business operations." Dickenson will enter his ninth year as head coach and third as GM in 2025.
The former CFL quarterback has been on Calgary's coaching staff for 16 years. He navigated Calgary to a Grey Cup win in 2018 in the team's third straight appearance in the championship game.
Dickenson's regular-season record as Calgary's head coach is 84-53-3 and 4-6 in the playoffs. "I have a plan. I do expect it to work," Dickenson said Sunday in a video posted on team's website.