Navacord BC Insurance Training Camp is winding down as UBC Football prepares to transition into preparation for their week one battle with the Calgary Dinos.
These last couple days of camp will remain incredibly important as the coaching staff makes some final decisions when it comes to the program's depth chart, slotting in athletes who have made some good impressions over the last 14 days.
"The evaluation has actually been fairly difficult as there's a lot of good athletes out there who are contending for significant roles with the team," said UBC head coach,
Blake Nill. "When you have the type of talent that we feel we have right now, as the head coach you have to trust your assistants because there's just too many guys to evaluate within the program.
"I like what I see from an athletic point of view, from the speed of the team. We have a number of freshmen who I believe will be in the lineup in game one while the veterans seem to have raised their level of preparation and urgency to make this a good year for us."
A pivotal moment in this past week was Wednesday's intrasquad game which provided an opportunity to both simulate a game day experience while also giving coaches a realistic look at who's ready to compete for real come September 4 in Calgary.
"We have very good battles at a lot of spots and there's going to be some tough decisions made," Nill said. "We want our kids to realize if you work hard, that's all you got to do, keep themselves in contention and then trust the coaches. Now, it's never going to be easy if you're not on the right side of that decision but hopefully the transparency we try to create within the situation pays off for us."
The T-Birds' 2026 season opener is now just six days away as the team will battle the Dinos at McMahon stadium Friday with UBC's home opener one week later against the Alberta Golden Bears on September 11 at Thunderbird Stadium.
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