With only three weeks remaining in the Canada West regular season and facing a logjam in the standings to secure a playoff berth, the UBC Thunderbirds (2-3) head to Winnipeg for a battle of mammoth proportions Saturday afternoon against the Manitoba Bisons (2-3) at Princess Auto Stadium.

With both teams coming off disappointing losses and time running out, the result of this second and final meeting between the pair of 2-3 programs may just determine who will have a shot at playing into November and who will see their season end after eight short weeks of competition.

Since the T-Birds began the 2025 campaign with an impressive 21-9 victory over the Bisons, it's been a lesson in frustration for the blue and gold who have been on a one step forward, two steps back kind of track.

"From a UBC perspective, we just got to hold ourselves to a higher level of expectation, starting with the head coach, the coaching staff and then of course, the athletes," said UBC head coach, Blake Nill, dealing with his first 2-3 start to a season since 2022. "That's the only way you can get better and overcome setbacks is to go out, look in the mirror, determine what you can do better to impact the program and move forward."



With that week one win over Manitoba in the bag, a UBC victory Saturday afternoon would not only get the team back to .500 and in firm control of their own destiny moving forward, it would clinch a potentially crucial tie-breaker.

"The good news is that we still have the ability to impact our season ourselves," Nill said. "We're not yet relying on other teams to do different things, but if that's realistic, if we're able to do that, it's going to take a turnaround, maybe not a complete 180, but certainly a different approach, a different realization. That's what I'm going to be focussed on, trying to deliver that kind of message."

After an 0-2 start, the Bisons rattled off back-to-back impressive wins over Saskatchewan and Alberta before falling 30-8 last week in Regina. While Manitoba comes into this week's matchup as the lowest scoring team in the conference (17.2 points per game vs UBC's 19.2), the Bisons do boast a lethal run game clicking at nearly 200 yards on average, led by fifth-year Breydon Stubbs, one of just three Canada West running backs to eclipse 400 yards on the season.



"They're a team that's a more well oiled machine," said Nill, comparing the Bisons of week six to the squad UBC saw in late August. "They have their culture, it hasn't changed for 30 years, they go out, play the game hard, they have fun as a group, they play for one another. There's a lot I appreciate about the Manitoba program, we're going to be in for a very difficult challenge Saturday afternoon."

UBC's run defence has shown vast improvement the last two weeks. But forced to spend more time on the field than any other defensive unit in the conference combined with a relatively young roster has led to some struggles.

"Our youth has been a bigger challenge than I thought it would be at the start of the year, especially in the secondary. The other thing that's been a difficult realization is, I haven't seen the leadership step up like I envisioned it would. It's tough when the leadership always has to come from the head coach or the coaching staff. I just don't think there's that type of presence in the program yet, at least to the level we need it to be."



Last week at Alberta, UBC was forced to punt on their first four drives of the second half. But the offence has shown considerable signs of improvement, most notably the establishment of Toluwalope Ayedegbe as one of the conference's top rushing threats. Trey Montour and Shemar McBean remain top ten receivers. The ability is there for UBC, so long as self-inflicted wounds remain limited.

"It comes down in my mind to the mindset that if football's important enough to you, you're going to coach harder, you're going to prepare harder, you're going to train harder. When you have an opportunity to make a play on the field, that's going to be important to you. This isn't the first time I've been in this situation, we just got to look at ourselves in the mirror, everyone's got to do a little more and that's what we're trying to do."

Kickoff in Winnipeg is set for 10:00 a.m. PT Saturday, October 4. The game will be available live on Canada West TV.