With a post-season berth locked up the UBC Thunderbirds (4-3) football team heads to Calgary this weekend for their regular season finale against the undefeated #3 Calgary Dinos (7-0) in a possible Canada West semi-final preview. Kickoff is set for 5:00 pm (PST) Friday night at McMahon Stadium.Â
Heading into the weekend the Dinos have already wrapped up first place overall, while the Thunderbirds, Manitoba Bisons, and Saskatchewan Huskies all have identical 4-3 records. Manitoba plays Alberta this weekend, while the Huskies square off against their provincial rivals from Regina. If all three teams remain tied with the same record following this weekend, the tiebreaker is their head-to-head record versus the other two teams and UBC would end up finishing in fourth place with a 1-2 record.
Friday marks the second meeting of the season between UBC and Calgary, the Dinos defeated the Thunderbirds 41-31 in the first week of the season at Thunderbird Stadium. A game in which the Thunderbirds were leading in the fourth quarter. However, needless to say a lot has changed for both teams since then.
"It's been so long for both teams that we have both developed different identities," said UBC head coach Shawn Olson. "This is a great chance for us to stand toe to toe with one of the best teams in the country and see how we measure up and obviously there is a high probability this is going to be a 120 minute game."
Olson of course is referring to the fact that his team could very well be back in Calgary to play the Dinos in the Canada West semi-final next weekend as well.
Friday's game will feature two of the premiere running backs not only in the Canada West conference, but in the entire CIS. UBC's Brandon Deschamps is second in the conference in rushing yards (846) and first in the conference in average yards rushing per game (141.0). Calgary features Mercer Timmis who is first in the conference in rushing yards (973) and second in average yards rushing per game (139.0). Last week he set a new Canada West record for touchdowns in a season, scoring his 18th of the year in just seven games.
"Every year the Canada West is producing top flight running backs, but this year's seems to be even better with Brandon, Timmis, and Manitoba's Anthony Coombs," said Olson. "We are in a run first conference and the key to controlling the game and the clock is establishing an effective ground game and that is what the majority of teams in the Canada West look to achieve."
Also keep your eye on UBC receiver David Scott who is playing the best football of his career. Over the last two games he has 18 catches for 337 yards and three touchdowns. In the previous five games, he had 18 catches for 203 yards and no touchdowns.
"David is coming off two of the best weeks possibly any receiver has had at UBC," said Olson. "Two weeks ago we moved him from field side receiver to the boundary side receiver because we wanted more production out of him. He was eager to show his ability and to prove his consistency and needless to say he has embraced the role."
On the defensive side of the ball Calgary and UBC are ranked 1-2 in points against. The Dinos are surrendering on average, a league best 23.7 points per game, while the Thunderbirds are giving up just 25.9 points per game.
