University of Western Ontario photo
Conference play is over.
With regional finals in the books, the U SPORTS university football season now enters its zenith: The Mitchell and Uteck bowls this coming week will decide which schools battle it out for national supremacy in Nov. 24’s Vanier Cup.
As it stands, the No.-1 Western Mustangs and No.-2 Laval Rouge et Or appear to be on a collision course.
The Rouge et Or shut down No.-4 Montreal 14-1 in the Dunsmore Cup — Quebec’s conference final — and now face a surging St. FX squad that will try to overcome the Atlantic conference’s traditional struggles at this stage of the playoffs.
The Mustangs, meanwhile, obliterated Guelph 63-14 in the Yates Cup (Ontario’s final) in a game that saw Western rack up 637 yards of offence and six rush touchdowns. Like most UWO games this season, the conference title was decided by half as the Mustangs led 39-7.
Their path to the Vanier Cup is a little more complicated than Laval’s, as Western will host the surprise Canada West-champion Saskatchewan Huskies.
Led by a nine-time CFL All-Star head coach in Scott Flory, those Huskies have bucked the odds in back-to-back weeks to beat UBC (31-28, OT) and Calgary (43-18) to claim the conference title; most impressively, they picked off Dinos QB Adam Sinagra — in the midst of a historic season — four times and made him look very average.
Also: Saskatchewan running back Tyler Chow racked up 222 rush yards and a pair of touchdowns. Wow.
Out east, Jordan Socholotiuk ran for 179 yards as St. FX’s rushing rampage through the AUS culminated in a conference title; while the X-Men are likely in for a rude awakening against Laval — no Atlantic team has made a Vanier Cup since Saint Mary’s in 2007, and the last four AUS champions have all lost the national Semi-Final by 26 or more points — it’s a season to be proud of nonetheless.
Our #UniversityBlitz panel had the same picks across the board — Saint Mary’s (x), Western, Laval and Calgary (x) — thus Anthony Coombs (Argonauts) has retained his season-long lead with a 30-14 picks record; 28-16 J.P. Bolduc (REDBLACKS) and 27-17 Nate Behar (Eskimos) still have outside shots at the title with three games left, while 25-19 Mike Benson (Lions) has been eliminated from title contention.
