VANCOUVER – The No. 10-ranked UBC Thunderbirds (2-2-0) will head east of the Rocky Mountains to take on the Alberta Golden Bears (2-2-0) in Canada West action this weekend. The game will take place on Saturday, October 3 at Foote Field in Edmonton, with the opening kickoff scheduled for 12 noon (PT).
 
The T-Birds will be looking to bounce back after suffering a 45-29 loss at the hands of the Saskatchewan Huskies last week. Huskies' linebacker Justin Filteau's 46-yard fumble return for a touchdown for a score brought the score to 21-0 at the end of the first quarter, and the T-Birds, though they fought valiantly, couldn't quite claw all the way back.
 
For T-Birds head coach Blake Nill, the way to attack the mental mistakes that have plagued his team in the first half of the season is relatively simple, but not easy.
 
"The thing we need to do is two-fold," said the first-year UBC bench boss. "As coaches, we need to do a better job of teaching the players, and the players must do a better job of being accountable on the field. The mistakes that we've made are fixable, and we'll need to fix them in order to compete going forward."
 
The mistakes come amidst some standout performances for UBC on both sides of the ball. Quarterback Michael O'Connor (Orleans, Ont.) has averaged 322.8 yards passing per game and connected on seven TDs through the air. Both of those marks are good for third in Canada West in their respective categories. On defence, free safety Taylor Loffler (Kelowna, B.C.) and linebacker Mitch Barnett (North Vancouver) rank second and third in Canada West with 8.4 and 6.8 tackles per game, respectively. Barnett has also racked up three sacks on the campaign, good for second in the conference.
 
The Golden Bears will be looking for a little redemption of their own this Saturday, as they attempt two halt a two-game losing skid. After starting out the season with a solid 2-0-0 record, Alberta was decimated by the No. 1-ranked Calgary Dinos by a score of 80-18. The next week, the Golden Bears faced the No. 8 Manitoba Bisons, who orchestrated a fourth-quarter comeback to win 42-32.
 
Despite their recent troubles, Alberta features a few players, particularly on offence, that are game-changers at the CIS level.  Foremost among those is junior running back Ed Ilnicki, who has been a workhorse all season, and averaged 109.8 rushing yards per game, fourth-highest mark in Canada West. Ilnicki also sits tied for second in the conference in rushing touchdowns, with four.
 
"We're going to have to match their intensity," said Nill. "I've been watching a lot of their film recently, and I'm really impressed with their offence. It's very dynamic and [Alberta head coach Chris] Morris has his kids believing in themselves and playing hard.  We have to be able to match that."