VANCOUVER – UBC Football is back.
That statement carries more weight than ever before after a lost 2020 season and all that the last 18 months has provided.
23 months less a day since the T-Birds last hit the gridiron for a Canada West game, they're back in action as they visit the Alberta Golden Bears at Foote Field on Saturday, September 25th.
UBC Head Coach Blake Nill addresses his team before the 2019 home opener (Photo: Rich Lam/UBC Thunderbirds)
"We're excited here," said UBC Head Coach Blake Nill who enters his seventh season in charge of the T-Birds. "We've been on the field since the spring, it's going to be very interesting to go through the process of getting these kids organized for the trip, the travel, all that stuff. But ultimately we're excited to be playing football again and going into a place like Alberta, where coach (Chris) Morris has done a great job with the culture of his program, building his program. I think it's going to be a very good showcase of Canada West football."
In many ways 2021 is a season of unknowns. The schedule is a bit shorter, six regular season games as opposed to the typical eight, and massive roster turnover across the league.
While UBC boasts some key returning players with the likes of linebacker Jaxon Ciraolo-Brown, defensive lineman Lake Korte-Moore, and receivers Edgerrin Williams and Lliam Wishart, the vast majority of Saturday's starters will be playing their first university football game, including projected starting quarterback Garrett Rooker.
Jaxon Ciarolo-Brown at Calgary, 2019 (Photo: David Moll/Calgary Dinos)
"All you can do is just focus on what you know," said Nill, the three-time Vanier Cup champion coach. "We know a few things about Alberta, they know something about us, but ultimately we're very unsure about their roster. They're not going to know a lot about our athletes because of such a large turnover. Ultimately, you just have to take care of your own business, do what you can do to best be prepared and take it from there."
In such a short season and with so many players hitting the Canada West field for the first time, simplicity is the name of the game for UBC Saturday afternoon.
"We're just focussing on fundamentals, making sure we're organized. Making sure we're taking away as much of the distraction of the game as we can so they can go on the field and perform as simply as they can. We want them to play fast, play with effort, with aggression."
Both the Thunderbirds and Golden Bears enter week one with plenty to prove, projected to finish sixth and fifth in the conference, respectively, based on the
preseason coaches poll. But perhaps more than anything, this weekend is a time to celebrate the return of the Canadian university game.
"It's the flagship program of U SPORTS. We need football in this country, we need football on campus. I'm happy and very eager to do our part here at UBC to showcase this program to our student body, to our faculty, and continue to move forward as part of this university."
Kickoff is 12:00 p.m. PT at Edmonton's Foote Field and will be streamed on Canada West TV.
