Toronto Argonauts quarterback Ricky Ray and his offence have been nearly perfect as of late.

Last week against his former Eskimos team, Ray started the game completing 17 of 17 passes — which tied a club record — and he finished with 413 passing yards and three touchdowns on 30 of 35 passes for a completion percentage 85.7.

Stamps defensive coordinator Rick Campbell spent seven years on the same team as Ray when the two were members of the Edmonton Eskimos. Campbell knows Ray very well, but says that won’t give him much of an advantage game planning against the Argos on Friday.

“I know what Ricky’s like personality-wise,” says Campbell. “But as far as the offence Toronto is running, it’s a little different than what was going on in Edmonton so you definitely have to scheme your defence and it’s going to be tough because he’s been on a tear lately.”

Ray is known for always being calm, cool and collected no matter what is happening on the field, so getting him rattled is nearly an impossible task.

“I don’t think it’s about getting him riled up emotionally because that’s not Ricky’s style,” continues Campbell. “But you definitely have to do something to try to either create some confusion or do something to cause some type of duress because if he knows exactly what’s going on on the field, he’s so accurate that it can be ugly for us. So we just need to make sure we mix things up enough that we keep him off-balance.”

Calgary defensive back Keon Raymond is familiar with Ray as well, having played against him several times over a four-year period when Ray played in the West Division.

“I think he probably throws the corner route better than anybody in this league and that’s probably one of his favourite throws and one of his favourite routes,” says Raymond.  “We need to go out there and make sure we do those little things. He’s a good quarterback; he’s probably the best right now in this league.”

Stampeders defensive tackle Kevin Huntley was teammates with Ray last season in Toronto and agrees that Ray is hard to unnerve.

“Ricky Ray is really one of the only quarterbacks throughout my career that I’ve sacked that I’ve never really said anything to because he doesn’t say anything to me throughout the game,” says Huntley. “So it’s really not necessary to say anything to him. He kind of makes that grimace in his face — that’s satisfaction enough, so it’s all good.”

A member of the Double Blue for the last four seasons, Huntley was a surprise cut late in training camp this year and joined the Stampeders four days later. But he says he has no hard feelings and is looking at this like any other game.

“Anybody that’s a competitor wants to show their old team that they were definitely wrong in their decision to let you go, but at the same time I’ve moved on, they’ve moved on,” says Huntley. “All things happen for a reason. I’m with another great organization. Really, I’m just out here just trying to go contribute and help my team win a game on the schedule.

“They are a good team that we’ve prepared for throughout the week. They pose a great challenge on offence. Our coaches have game-planned to put us in a great position to be successful. I’m just looking forward to being out there on the field. I haven’t been able to play the past few weeks so I’m just excited in general to be able to play football again.”