CALGARY – The University of Calgary Dinos football team starts the second half of the Canada West slate with a home game this Saturday, hosting the UBC Thunderbirds for a 2 p.m. game from McMahon Stadium.

HEADLINES

• The Dinos nearly pulled off an incredible last-second win against league-leading Manitoba last weekend when Jack Gutek appeared to make a sideline catch in the back of the end zone as time expired, but he was ruled out of bounds as the Bisons escaped with a 22-17 win over the Dinos.
• Isaiah Knight led UBC to a win over Saskatchewan last time out with a career-high 187 yards rushing to go with 26 yards receiving and two touchdowns in a 38-24 win over the Huskies during the T-Birds homecoming game.
• Saturday's showdown marks the first time these two teams will face each other this season before squaring off again just three weeks later in Week 7.
• Calgary and UBC faced off two times a season ago. The Thunderbirds claimed a 45-15 win in Vancouver in Week 2 before the Dinos responded with a dominant 20-6 win in McMahon Stadium in Week 6. After seeing UBC's high-powered offence churn out over 500 yards in their home win, Calgary's defence held them to under 300 yards in the rematch and held them off the scoreboard until 18 seconds left in the game.
• The Dinos snapped a two-game skid against UBC with that dominant win at home last season. In fact, Calgary has completely owned the head-to-head series with the T-Birds outside of the last two seasons, winning nine of the last 11 regular season games and 26 of the last 29 overall dating back to 2006.

Calgary Dinos (1-3)
Next week: at Regina

• Calgary's offence continued to improve yet again last week, racking up 430 total yards - 270 through the air and 166 on the ground. The Dinos' quick-strike offence was on display once again against the Herd, tallying seven plays of 20 yards or more, including a 40-yard score by Matthieu Clarke.
• Last week marked the first time all season the Dinos' defence didn't record a takeaway. Calgary still ranks third in the nation in interceptions with seven this season and first in defensive touchdowns with four.
• While Nate Beauchemin has grabbed many of the headlines for his nation-leading three interceptions (two returned for touchdowns) this season, edge rusher Liam Reid is quietly having an impressive season of his own. So far, Reid leads the Dinos with three sacks and five tackles for loss to go with one fumble recovery at the edge rusher position.
• The Dinos head to Regina for a rematch of the season opener next Saturday afternoon.

UBC Thunderbirds (2-2)
Next week: at Alberta

• After a surprising 0-2 start to the season, the Thunderbirds have bounced back with wins over Regina (14-12) and Saskatchewan (38-24) to improve to .500 at the midway point of the season.
• The defending Hardy Cup champs were picked second in this year's preseason coaches' poll.
• UBC has the second-leading passer in Canada West in Garrett Rooker (283.3 yards/game) and the second-leading rusher in Isaiah Knight (108.3 yards/game) at the midway point of the season.
• The T-Birds return to Alberta for the second straight weekend, traveling to Edmonton for a rematch with the Golden Bears next Friday.

-UC-