There's one more date on the football calendar for fans of the Canadian version of football. Saturday afternoon Saskatoon hosts the Vanier Cup, Canada's college football championship.
This year's match up on the frozen plains of Saskatchewan features a Quebec powerhouse the Laval Rouge et Or, and the hometown University of Saskatchewan Huskies, who will be spurred on by the vast majority of the sold out crowd of 13,000. The two teams renew a rivalry that has been one of the more entertaining in recent CIS years. This marks their second match up with Laval having won the cup back in 2004 by a score of 7-1.
Since 1990 Saskatchewan has played in seven Vanier Cups winning three with Laval, while the Rouge et Or have played in three winning all three. Saskatoon returns to the Championship for the third time in a row, hoping that indeed three is the charm.
It marks the first time that the Canadian college championship has been held outside of Southern Ontario, a bid to take the game to other parts of Canada where the game is growing. No better location could be found than Saskatoon, though they probably were hoping for a warm westerly breeze or two instead of the Arctic front that has cruised south.
The cold temps should have an impact on the game perhaps making it more of a running affair than an aerial show. If that's the case look for Saskatoon to prevail by games end, this season the Huskies found great success with the running game, carrying that threat into the playoffs where they have run up a total of 800 yards in three games.
The college season celebrated its year of excellence this week with the awarding of the Hec Crighton award, which goes to the top college football player in the CIS, this years recipient was Daryl Stephenson of the University of Windsor Lancers, the first Lancer to win the trophy in 27 years.
Other award winners announced last night were Concordia middle linebacker Patrick Donovan, who was selected the nation's best defensive player for the second time.. The Waterloo Warriors celebrated achievement with tackle Chris Best, who was picked as the outstanding down lineman and from the University of Calgary quarterback Dalin Tollestrup, was named rookie of the year.
While the folks in Saskatoon huddle in the stands to keep warm, the rest of the country can settle into their LazyBoys and watch the match on television, The Score is giving the game the big time presentation, including HD coverage, a virtual yellow first down marker and a pre and post game program game time is 2pm ET (11am) PT for the pre game, with kick off at 3 pm ET, Noon Pacific. For those not near a TV, the game is being webcast by The Score through the universitysport link here.
No comments:
Post a Comment