VANCOUVER – On the heels of back-to-back comeback wins, the UBC Thunderbirds head into enemy territory for the final time this regular season as they visit the Calgary Dinos Saturday, October 30th for a pivotal battle with major post-season consequences.
The T-Birds (2-2) currently hold down the fourth and final Canada West playoff berth with two games remaining in the season while the No. 10 Dinos (1-3) are in must-win territory if they want to keep their post-season hopes alive.
"Coach (Wayne) Harris and his staff, they know how to win, they're going to have their guys ready to go," said UBC Head Coach Blake Nill who is keeping his team focussed on the task at hand with so much still up in the air. "We're an improving football program but the reality is we're a couple plays from also being 0-4 too. There's a lot of work we still have to do, it's up to the coaches to make sure the athletes stay grounded and focussed on the next task which is a very formidable one for this program and that's going into Calgary and trying to beat the team that's arguably been the class of the Canada West for the past 15 or 20 years."
McMahon Stadium has been a house of horrors for the T-Birds since before Nill's own tenure with the Dinos. In fact, UBC has not registered a regular season win in Calgary since 2000, but did manage to defeat the Dinos in the 2015 Hardy Cup final en route to UBC's Vanier Cup championship.
But history matters not in the 2021 battle for the post-season in a week that holds major sway for both teams involved.
"I know this is going to be a massive undertaking competing against this program," added Nill. "We know their strengths, we know where we might have an edge, but ultimately we're on the road, we're going into a place where there just hasn't been a lot of UBC success over the last 20 years. If we're going to change that, we're going to have to do more than one or two things, we need an all-encompassing effort that enables us to come out on the right side of the scoreboard."
Thanks to a 134 yard game on the ground last week against Manitoba, T-Bird running back
Dane Kapler enters week five as a top five Canada West rusher. UBC has been able to establish a strong dual-threat on the ground with Kapler and fellow rookie
Isaiah Knight whose 375 yards on the season has him second in the conference.
Saturday has the potential for a high scoring matchup as it features the second and third most prolific passers in the Canada West with Calgary quarterback Josiah Joseph racking up 1223 yards while UBC's Garrett Rooker has accumulated 1136. Rooker's 100 completions and 148 pass attempts are both tops in the conference as is his 67.6 percent success rate.
While Rooker has spread the ball around to a bevy of receivers, Joseph has focussed heavily on the Philpot twins, Jalen and Tyson, the top two Canada West wide outs.
The T-Birds will need their offence to be clicking at McMahon as they go up against the stingiest defence in the conference as the Dinos have allowed a league low 362 yards per game on average.
Kickoff for week five action at McMahon Stadium is 1:00 p.m. PT. The game will be streamed live on Canada West TV.
