September 21, 2018

Western Showdown: #UniversityBlitz Week 5

Calgary Dinos photo

A mouth-watering Saturday night matchup between No. 3 Calgary and a strong UBC program in Vancouver highlights Week 5 in the Canadian university football scene.

Also out west, No. 8 Regina pays a visit to No. 9 Saskatchewan with provincial bragging rights and potential home-field advantage on the line.

In Ontario, No. 5 Laurier visits an offensively-challenged McMaster team in Hamilton, while No. 1 Western visits a surging Waterloo team that’s fresh off a program-defining win against Laurier.

Quarterbacks will be the focal point of the week, as per usual: Calgary’s Adam Sinagra is averaging a ridiculous 462 pass yards per game, while Waterloo’s Tre Ford — a sophomore! — has 15 touchdown passes.

The matchup under centre between Regina’s Noah Picton and Saskatchewan’s Kyle Siemens should be a fun one come Friday night in the Canada West conference, too; Picton is fourth in the country in yards per game (364) while Siemens is fifth in touchdown passes (8).


#UniversityBlitz Matchups

Anthony Coombs continues to lead, but is going against-the-grain by picking Kyle Siemens and the Huskies in Saskatoon this week.

Acadia at No. 6 Saint Mary’s | Friday, 6 p.m. ET

The nationally-ranked Huskies (3-0) could take a large step towards locking up the AUS conference with a win on Friday night, as they host the surging Axemen (2-1) in Halifax. With St. FX (2-1) also still in the mix out east, a SMU victory could be a death blow to Acadia’s hopes of home-field advantage.

No. 8 Regina at No. 9 Saskatchewan | Friday, 8 p.m. ET

Talk about a tasty matchup: Provincial bragging rights on the line, and a Noah Picton (Regina)-vs.-Kyle Siemens (Sask.) quarterback battle that could provide us with a 45-40 shootout. The winner of Friday’s contest will be in the driver’s seat for a home playoff game — no small thing out west.

Queen’s at No. 10 Guelph | Saturday, 1 p.m. ET

Many people were surprised that Guelph (2-2) retained its place in the Top 10 this week after barely squeaking past winless Windsor 26-20, especially given teams like Waterloo (3-1) and Ottawa (2-1) were not ranked. Regardless, Queen’s (2-2) should be a good (read: even) matchup for the Gryphons, who still control their own playoff fate.

No. 4 Montreal at Concordia | Saturday, 1 p.m. ET

While the Carabins (2-1) and Stingers (2-1) own the same record as the former travels across town to play the latter, make no mistake: Montreal is a clear favourite, having knocked off Concordia 42-20 in last year’s RSEQ semi-final and owning a significantly better point differential (plus-60 to ConU’s minus-29) this season.


Week 5 Games

Friday, September 21

Acadia at #7 Saint Mary’s | 6 p.m. ET

#8 Regina at #9 Saskatchewan | 8 p.m. ET

Manitoba at Alberta | 9 p.m. ET

Saturday, September 22

St. FX at Mt. Allison | 1 p.m. ET

#1 Western at Waterloo | 1 p.m. ET

#5 Laurier at McMaster | 1 p.m. ET

Queen’s at #10 Guelph | 1 p.m. ET

#6 Carleton at Toronto | 1 p.m. ET

York at Ottawa | 1 p.m. ET

#4 Montreal at Concordia | 1 p.m. ET

#3 Calgary at UBC | 8 p.m. ET

Sunday, September 23

McGill at #2 Laval | 1 p.m. ET