Vanier Cup: Calgary-Laval live blog, 11:30am ET Saturday

In the Calgary Dinos, we have a team from four provinces over who have won their conference three years in a row but both of the previous two years have lost, and watched their season end at PEPS. Their fifth-year quarterback and two-time Hec Crighton Trophy winner, whose coach thought he was done for the year months ago, is playing in his last football game, and his last chance to win a ring.

On the home side of the field, it's the undefeated Laval Rouge et Or, who dominated the QUFL this year. They won their regular-season games by nearly 40 points on average, crushed Bishop's 56-1 three weeks ago, and their coach was named coach of the year. They have won their two most recent playoff games by just seven combined points, but they're still playing at home for a championship, with many thousands of supporters in the stands.

(Fun fact: the last time a school won a Vanier Cup in their home city, it was the University of Toronto (1993). The losing team? Calgary.)

This will be the first of four Vanier Cups in our site's history without any of our staff on the scene (another point in favour of combining the Vanier with the Grey Cup), but we'll still be watching, chatting, analyzing, and opining on Canadian university football's championship game as always. Check out our predictions here, then join us below.

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2 comments:

  1. I think it is fair to say, that the shock and awe performance by Laval(seemingly not going quite full out in second half however, or alternatively Calgary played better) indicates there is no one near Laval in the CIS this year.

    The coaching staff of Laval also deserve credit for a decent game plan, and I am sure Blake Nill and staff would admit they could change some things to at least make a closer game if it were to go again say next weekend.

    While Western had a shot at knocking the Rouge et Or off last week with a ho hum Laval offense and snarling Western defense, the Mustangs and any other CIS team would not have competed yesterday. A fairly decent Calgary Dinos team also laid an egg yesterday with dropped passes galore and a defense that couldn't stop Laval when they needed to do so.

    Congrats to the Rouge et Or and their fans, and also to Calgary for getting to the "big dance" again this year.

    Bob from Burlington

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  2. You revised the fun fact and deleted my comment. It is now a fact, but still no fun for Dinos fans.

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