Football: 'Stangs accuse SMU slotback of talking trash

There is nothing wrong with a little pot-stirring before a bowl game.

Western is making a show of being aggrieved about post-game comments Saint Mary's slotback Carl Hardwick made after the Loney Bowl last week. Hardwick, according to the UWO press release (the article's been Googlewhacked), told the Halifax Herald, "We feel we are the elite conference. "We think we can beat Ontario. I’ve never played an Ontario team, but watching them on TV and seeing their personnel we really think we match up well against them."

(That must be why SMU plays Friday night home games. It ives them a chance to do some scouting on Saturday afternoons.)

In Metro Halifax, Hardwick was quoted, “We think we’re a better conference, and I think we’re going to show that next week.” It was also the last line of Matthew Wuest's gamer.

Thirty-one players on the Huskies roster are from Ontario. One can only assume that Hardwick, a Haligonian, was articulating some sentiments that had been expressed in the locker room. The Atlantic conference is not elite, but it is more generous with scholarships for student-athletes (hence all the Ontario players) and Saint Mary's has won the last three times it met an OUA team in the national semi-final (1990, '99 and '02). Coincidentally, the last two OUA teams to make the national title game — the 1995 Mustangs and 2005 Laurier Golden Hawks — each played Acadia in their bowl game. (The '94 Mustangs beat Bishop's -- the deal should have been that the winning team had to change their colours.)

Western, of course, can back it up on Sunday, but Hardwick was not saying anything which has not been said by others — including a few media folk in Ontario. It should be a good one Sunday.

One hopes this theme will come up Friday when Western QB Michael Faulds appears on The FAN 590's The Bullpen with Mike Hogan. The interview is scheduled for 11:20 a.m. Eastern.

Related:
Huskies receiver Hardwick causes stir (westernmustangs.ca)