WATCH THE GAME
VANCOUVER – The UBC Thunderbirds football team looks to protect home field in its first game on campus in 2011, taking place on Saturday, September 17 against the University of Alberta Golden Bears at Thunderbird Stadium. Kick off is scheduled for 2:00 p.m.
UBC is coming off a split of its first games of the season, both on the road against ranked opponents. After beating Regina 21-10 in week one, UBC nearly pulled off another upset in Calgary against the Dinos last Friday night. The Thunderbirds led 25-24 late in the game only to give up the game-winning drive to fall 30-25.
Quarterback
Billy Greene (Surrey, BC) was impressive once again for UBC, completing 29 of 43 passes against Calgary for 355 yards and three touchdowns. He also rushed for 102 yards on the ground.
On defence,
Connor Flynn (Vancouver, BC) recorded 7.5 tackles and a sack.
But one of the most glaring statistics from the Calgary game is the 351 rushing yards surrendered by UBC.
“Anytime you have a game like that, then you can expect the next week to be more of the same as far people trying to expose the same thing,” said UBC head coach
Shawn Olson. “So we're definitely going to have to be better in that regard.”
“It's week three, and I don't know if it's too early to have any trends or any strengths or weaknesses on a weekly basis,” said Olson. “We're just going to try and continue to get better and see if we can hold a team under 200 yards rushing.”
Olson is hoping his offence can get better too.
"Our run game hasn't been great,” said Olson. “We need to be more physical up front. We need to be a bit more efficient in the passing game. That being said, I thought (quarterback)
Billy Greene had a very good game, but we still missed some opportunities that I thought were easily makeable or we could have given ourselves a better chance at making those situations in the passing game.”
The Alberta Golden Bears are 0-2 coming into Saturday's game after losing 38-7 to the Saskatchewan Huskies in the first week of play and then dropping a 22-20 decision to the Manitoba Bisons last Saturday.
Bears' kick returner Jess Valleau was named this week as the Canadian Interuniversity Sport special teams football player of the week for gaining 142 return yards in the Manitoba game, which included a 100-yard touchdown on a kickoff return.
A win over Alberta would give Olson his first ever victory at home as UBC coach. His team went 0-4 last year at Thunderbird Stadium in his rookie season.
“We probably played the four worst games of our season at home,” said Olson. “So we need to make sure that we're focused on preparing the right way and putting the distractions aside and just focusing on the football side of things. You know, the execution, the alignment and the assignments, all that kind of stuff that we need to do on game day. “
Kickoff is 2:00 p.m. and the game will be broadcast live on CiTR 101.9 FM and on canadawest.tv.
NOTES: Members of UBC's 1986 Vanier Cup-winning football team will be on hand at Thunderbird Stadium on Saturday as they will be honoured for their exciting 25-23 win over Western Ontario in the national title game 25 years ago. The Vanier Cup itself will be at the Stadium, as well. Vancouver is hosting the 47th annual edition of the game on November 25, 2011 at BC Place. Tickets can be bought at http://www.2011greycupfestival.ca/tickets/vanier_cup
