KINGSTON, Ont. – The press conferences are over, the awards banquet is done and dusted and there's just one thing left to determine this week in Kingston, Ontario: who will hoist the Vanier Cup Saturday afternoon?
Back in the biggest game in Canadian university football for the first time since 2015, the UBC Thunderbirds are hoping for a repeat of 2015 where they defeated the same Montréal Carabins program they face this week at Richardson Memorial Stadium.
"The team that comes out of Quebec, they're so fundamentally sound, you just have to raise your game," said UBC head coach
Blake Nill who makes his 10
th Vanier Cup appearance, ninth as a head coach. "Coach Marco at Montreal has done a tremendous job with his program. They look elite in so many areas, I'm quite impressed with the game film, they're strong everywhere and we just got to adjust our level of compete and realize this is a different type of opponent than we've played. We have to go out and match them as best we can."
As was the case in last week's Mitchell Bowl against the St. FX X-Men, the Carabins present a unique challenge by way of a group of players who have never set foot on the same field as the T-Birds before.
Saturday's Vanier Cup is UBC's seventh in program history with four of those previous six resulting in a championship victory. Montreal is back at the dance for the fourth time – all in the last ten years – and first since losing to Calgary in 2019.
The Carabins are nothing if not battle tested. Coming out of an extremely tough conference, Montreal defeated Sherbrooke 54-3 in their RSEQ semifinal before downing Laval 12-6 in the Dunsmore Cup to advance to last week's Uteck Bowl where they once again held the opposition without a touchdown in a 29-3 victory over Western.
While Montreal is indeed an elite team, Saturday is a showdown between the top two teams in the country with UBC boasting plenty of elite talent in their own right. The difference in what is widely seen as a contest too close to call, could very well come down to a small number of monumental plays.
The big game pits UBC's Canada West leading offence against Quebec's top attack. T-Birds quarterback
Garrett Rooker and Montreal's Jonathan Sénécal, the latter of which was named the 2023 Hec Crighton Award as U SPORTS MVP, have boasted nearly identical numbers over the course of the season with Rooker holding the slight edge in yards per game (283.3 vs 276.9), completion percentage (70.2 vs 69.6) and touchdowns (16 vs 15).
While last week's Bowl Games saw similarly dominant victories for the Vanier Cup finalists, the Carabins relied heavily on a strong defensive effort with three interceptions while limiting the Mustangs to 317 yards on offence and a single field goal.
UBC, meanwhile, got it done on both sides of the ball, but also saw one of Rooker's best performances as a Thunderbird throwing for over 300 yards on 84.6 percent passing with four touchdowns and no picks.
Ultimately though, Saturday is as simple as a one game take all scenario where the past doesn't mean a whole lot.
"You're going to have a couple young guys who either make a play or fail to make a big play and that's going to ultimately determine it," said Nill who's seen his fair share of both over the course of his storied career. "I've lost a couple where we weren't necessarily beat. And, you can always use a little luck."
Both teams have tremendous Vanier Cup experience on their respective coaching staffs, but little when it comes to the roster itself.
"I've been talking about it all week, don't let the moment be bigger than you are," Nill added, sharing some of the advice he's giving his charges. "Take this opportunity, do everything you can with it and just don't leave here saying 'I wish I could've done more'."
Kickoff for the 2023 Vanier Cup is 10:00 a.m. PT Saturday at Queen's University's Richardson Memorial Stadium. The game will be live on CBC TV,
CBCSports.ca and
CBC Gem.
