CALGARY – Western Ontario. Calgary. Laval. Saint Mary's. The final four in 2008 CIS football reads like a who's who of the Canadian collegiate football world, with 17 Vanier Cups between the four schools. Three of the four teams are back from the 2007 Bowl games, with the glaring exception of the Vanier Cup champion Manitoba Bisons, and taking their place as Canada West representatives are the Calgary Dinos – who haven't been in this position in 13 seasons.
The last trip to a Bowl game for Calgary was in 1995, when they defeated Ottawa in the Churchill Bowl at home en route to the Dinos' fourth Vanier Cup championship. The program then fell into a dozen years of playoff futility and a seven-game post-season losing streak. But after a renaissance in 2008 with a litany of 'first time since…' performances, the Dinos are back on the national stage, one win away from a trip to Hamilton for the Desjardins Vanier Cup.
After their first 4-0 home season since 1995, their first Top 10 ranking since 2004, their first road win over Manitoba since 1998, their first No. 4 ranking since 1998, and their first Presidents' Award nominee since 1985 in linebacker Andrea Bonaventura, the Dinos finished 5-3 and earned the right to host their first playoff game since 2002. Calgary snapped its playoff losing skid with a 24-18 win over Regina in the conference semifinal – its first playoff win since the '95 Vanier Cup – then defeated Simon Fraser 44-21 to claim the Hardy Cup for the 10th time.
The final hurdle on the Dinos' journey, however, will certainly be a difficult one. Calgary, the CIS powerhouse of the 1980s, meets Laval, this decade's team to beat. The unbeaten Rouge et Or have been ranked No. 1 in the national media poll every week this season, and they will most definitely be a formidable opponent for the Dinos in the 2008 Uteck Bowl on Sunday at PEPS Stadium in Quebec City (10 a.m. MT, The Score, RDS, The FAN 960).
Sunday's game will be the first-ever contest between the Dinos and the Rouge et Or, the first-ever playoff game in the province of Quebec, and the first-ever game against a Quebec-based team. Calgary did play teams from the old Ontario-Quebec conference in the past, but all three of those teams the Dinos have played – Carleton, Ottawa, and Queen's – hail from the province of Ontario, and all are now members of the OUA.
While the program does not have a history with Laval, head coach Blake Nill and fifth year defensive lineman Josh MacDonald certainly do. As head coach at Saint Mary's from 1998 through 2005, Nill faced Laval seven times, posting a 2-5 record. Two losses were in Vanier Cups (2003, 1999), but Nill's Huskies were successful in the only Bowl game they played against the Rouge et Or, winning the 2001 Atlantic Bowl 48-8 in Halifax.
MacDonald played for three seasons at Concordia University in Montreal (2003-05) before transferring to Calgary for the 2007 season. He also played two seasons of CEGEP for Vanier College in Montreal before joining the Stingers. Fellow defensive lineman Deji Oduwole, linebacker Andrea Bonaventura, and defensive back Steve Truzak did play a game in 2005 against Laval in interlock play, but that game was played at Huskies Stadium in Halifax.
Calgary enters the Uteck Bowl on a high after their best all-around performance of the season in a 44-21 victory over Simon Fraser in the Hardy Cup. Quarterback Deke Junior led an offensive explosion for the Dinos, who put up 535 yards of total offence. Junior went 22-for-28 for 325 yards in the win, tossing four touchdowns against a single interception. The game completed the comeback of Anthony Woodson, who missed most of the season with a rib injury, as he hauled in two passes for 71 yards and added 47 yards on the ground, scoring two touchdowns – one on the ground, one through the air. Woodson was cleared to fly this week and will be able to join the team charter to Quebec – saving him a cross-country train trip.
Woodson, Junior, and the rest of the Calgary offence have their work cut out for them against a Laval defence that gave up more than 13 points just once this season – last week in the Dunsmore Cup against Concordia. The Rouge et Or has given up a miniscule 8.4 points per game this season, finishing first in the nation in allowing just 255 yards offence per game. A veteran defensive line led by Étienne Légaré, the Quebec nominee for the J.P. Metras trophy as CIS lineman of the year, allowed just 69 yards per game along the ground. They will go head-to-head with Woodson and Matt Walter, the Canada West Hec Crighton nominee, in the ground game Sunday afternoon.
The Dinos' defence has been their bread and butter all season, and they will need to bring an A effort against a potent Laval offence that averaged more than 515 yards per game. Quarterback Benoit Groulx is the QUFL nominee for the Hec Crighton after amassing 2,385 yards and a spectacular 75.2 per cent completion rate – a new CIS record. Meanwhile, running back Sébastien Lévesque put up a new conference playoff mark with 268 yards on 19 carries last week against Concordia in the Dunsmore Cup. With Laval's high-octane offence, coupled with the 15,000+ fans expected at PEPS Stadium on Sunday, the Calgary defence will get a chance to prove what it has maintained all year – that it is national contender-calibre.
The winner of the Uteck Bowl takes on the winner of the Mitchell Bowl, featuring Saint Mary's at Western Ontario, in the Desjardins Vanier Cup on Saturday, Nov. 22 at Ivor Wynne Stadium in Hamilton, Ont.
-UC-
