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The Vanier Cup Final will be in Quebec City for the very first time tomorrow.
The Calgary Dinos, the Canada West Champions, will take on Queen's University, the Ontario Champions.
It would have been the second time the two schools would have played against each other for the university championship. The first time was 1983 when the Dinos defeated the Queen's Golden Gaels 31-21. Dinos running back Nick Petros was named Team MVP.
Petros would go on to have a productive career in the Canadian Football League before venturing into the gourmet pizza industry, where he has become extremely successful.
The Dinos have won the Vanier Cup four times (1983, 1985, 1988, and 1995), while the Golden Gaels have won the trophy thrice in 1968, 1978 and 1992.
The Dinos have gone through the CIS season with an impressive 10-1 record. Their only loss came to the University of Saskatchewan in their opening game on September 4, a 34-33 overtime loss in Saskatoon. Since then, they have mustered ten straight wins, including playoff victories over the University of Alberta Golden Bears, the University of Saskatchewan Huskies in the Hardy Cup and the University of St. Mary's Huskies in the Uteck Bowl.
Queen's equalled the Dinos with a 10-1 record. Their only loss came to the University of Laurier, a 25-13 defeat on October 24. The Gaels then went on to win playoff matches against McMaster, Western in the Yates Cup and then Laval in the Mitchell Bowl.
The Dinos will be led by star quarterback Erik Glavic, who won the Hec Crighton Trophy for CIS Football MVP. The social sciences student led the Canada West with 14 touchdown passes and 503 rushing yards. They will also expect a lot from rookie defensive tackle Linden Gaydosh, who won the CIS Rookie of the Year, running back Matt Walter, who was second in the CIS with 1103 rushing yards, and wide receiver Anthony Parker, who was third in the CIS with 816 receiving yards.
Queen's will be led by quarterback Dan Brannagan, who was second in the CIS with 368.6 passing yards per game, wide receiver Scott Valberg, who led the CIS with 913 receiving yards, and Jimmy Allin, who recorded 490 kickoff return yards, which was good enough for second in the CIS.
So, clearly both teams have explosive offenses.But I feel the teams defenses are underrated, so don't expect a very high scoring game from Quebec tomorrow morning. Queen's raised many eyebrows by hanging on to beat Laval 33-30 a week ago on home soil. Now they will have to go to the territory of their last opponent, which will be no easy task. The Rouge et Or fans will get behind the Dinos in my opinion because of this, and the Dinos will use their stronger running game to their advantage and win 27-18.
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