The big dude with that Barry White bass voice and the black Calgary Stampeders ballcap angled fashionably, slightly, off-centre, won’t rise to the self-congratulatory bait.

“Look,’’ DeVone Claybrooks is saying, patience personified, as if explaining basic arithmetic to an easily-distracted child. “Football is football.

“It’s the same game we’ve all been playing since Peewee or Pop Warner. The game doesn’t change. Defences don’t change.

“The people playing it are bigger, faster, stronger, sure.

“But you’re still playing Cover-3, Cover-4 or Man. You’re still blitzing the house or falling back into coverage.

“I may be new in this job. But nobody’s re-inventing the wheel here.

“My mom could come in, watch game film and pick out the best players. All the wives could come in, watch game film and pick out the best players. The guy over at the bus stop could come in, watch game film and pick out the best players.

“Heck …”

Claybrooks tilts his head downwards, chin tucked into the sternum, regarding the ferret-like interrogator a few elevator floor stops beneath him.

“… even YOU could come in here, watch film and pick out the best players.

“And when your best players make the best plays …”

He extends his hands, palms upward, and smiles.

“Like I said …”

Yes, yes. Football’s football.

But the landscape, over and above Dave Dickenson’s elevation to head coach, has undeniably been altered down at McMahon Stadium.

On the defensive side of the ball, Juwan Simpson is gone. Another all-timer, Keon Raymond, too. The rise of rookie Ciante Evans meant Fred Bennett, a West Division all-star as not-so-long-ago as 2014, was deemed surplus goods and flipped to Saskatchewan.

Meanwhile, the man Claybrooks replaced as defensive coordinator is nothing less than a CFL legend. Rich Stubler is a guy who’s been concocting shutdown potions in this league since the days of leather helmets, high-top football boots and Sam (The Rifle) Etcheverry.

Or at least so it seems.

Yet despite such significant if not far-reaching change, the DE-fence under DE-Vone is still purring away like a cat mid-belly rub, surrendering the fewest points (161) and touchdowns (16) across the league as the CFL schedule nudges the halfway mark.

“You’ve got a football man in charge,’’ says safety Joshua Bell. “He played the game. He understands the game. We know him. There’s no feeling-out process.

“When you come right down to it, he gives us the tools we need to be as good as we can, as good as we have to be.”

Defensive line coach Corey Mace and defensive coordinator DeVone Claybrooks during a game on July 21, 2016 (Photo by David Moll)

Corey Mace, who retired from absorbing a pounding in the trenches to inherit Claybrooks’ old job as D-line coach, talks admiringly of the “energy” his long-standing comrade brings to the mix.

“It’s been,’’ says Mace, who played both with and for Claybrooks before retiring, “… I don’t want to say an ‘easy’ transition for me, but a ‘pleasant’ transition. And a lot of that is because Clay gives us coaches a lot of say. He’s not a micro-manager. He trusts us. And when someone does that for you, you don’t want to let them down.

“It’s been a good marriage so far.”

A marriage that shows signs of strengthening over time, well beyond the honeymoon phase. Over their past three starts, the increasingly stingy Stamps have yielded but 34 points, or a shade less than 12 a game.

“Did we carry over some things over from the past?’’ repeats long-time DB Brandon Smith. “Sure. Of course. D.C. has been here through three different defensive coordinators.

“But make no mistake, his fingerprints are all over this. It’s his show now. At the end of the day, we do things his way.

“We respect him. We know this is the new 2016 Calgary Stampeders’ defence.

“That’s what we’ve been harping on since camp opened.”

Wisely, Claybrooks has resisted the temptation that befalls many of his profession when starting a new gig: To march in, power-tripping, and rip everything apart in an effort to show who exactly who wears the sheriff’s tin star now.

“Some guys,’’ he agrees, shrugging, “are all about egos, I guess, all about putting their stamp on something or doing things the ‘right way’, which means their way, no matter what.

“The only thing that matters to me is winning games. That’s the way I was raised.

“Whether it’s 10-8 or 53-50. Win. All that other stuff …”

Pablo Picasso once famously quipped: “Good artists copy; great artists steal.” And so, in formulating his own defensive blueprint, Claybrooks has cribbed and borrowed, then refined and reworked.

“You institute your own ideas, your own philosophies, of course,’’ he acknowledges. “But the best part is that from Stubes and Rick (Campbell) and (Chris) Jones, my mentors, I took different aspects.

“One belief they all share – we all share – though, is this: When you’ve got good players, don’t overthink, don’t over-coach. Just let ’em play.”

Right now, the 6-1-1 Stamps are in another class. Like, they’re up at the front of the plane in business with the additional leg room and good chow while the remaining eight passengers are all in the back, huddled in economy seating.

“Everybody’s writing articles now about us being the best thing since sliced bread …,” scoffs Claybrooks with a laborious eye-roll.

“Man, that bread can get awful mouldy by November if you let it. So we take all that stuff with a grain of salt.

“You’ve got to show up every week and be better because this is professional football and if you aren’t better, you get left behind.”

Friday night at BC Place, the Stampeders defence put on a masterclass, shackling blossoming Leos QB Jonathan Jennings to just 153 yards passing in a 37-9 garroting of their prime rivals in the West Division.

Up next, Sunday at McMahon, every bit as difficult a test: The Zach Collaros-inspired Hamilton Tiger-Cats. In his second start since suffering a devastating knee injury a year ago, Collaros seemed to shed the layers of built-up rust with the ease of a snake shedding its skin.

He eviscerated the 1-7 Saskatchewan Roughriders 53-7 on 341 yards passing and five TD tosses.

“Yes, we’re on alert. There’s a reason you’ve got a No. 1 and No. 2 on the depth chart,’’ reminds Bell. “A major reason. He’s their Guy.

“You’ve got to respect Collaros. He can throw the ball from anywhere, from all kinds of angles, off either foot and with accuracy.

“As a defence, we have our work cut out for us.”

As a DeVone defence, he means. For even if he won’t rise to the self-congratulatory bait, the big dude with that Barry White bass voice and the black Calgary Stampeders ballcap angled slightly, fashionably, off centre, is the man in charge.

It’s his show now. His way. His fingerprints, as Brandon Smith says, are all over this.

“Trying to make it your own is really just trying to make it theirs, anyway,’’ reasons Claybrooks.

“As coaches, we just try and make it conducive to what they do best. That’s the job.

“The players do the rest.

“With a veteran group of guys and a first-year coordinator, they could’ve easy just said ‘Screw off.’ But the group I’ve got … they bought in right away, trusted what I said, believed in it.

“I’ve got to thank them for that.

“They’re my guys. We’re in this together.”

Defensive Coordinator DeVone Claybrooks during a game on July 21, 2016 (Photo by David Moll)