Linking the country: Could the Gee-Gees use Hechavarria instead of Etcheverry?

York beat Ottawa.

Wait, York beat Ottawa? Yes, it would appear so. Final score was 47 to 36. 47! York outscored their entire 2008 in one game. That's actually true. Not to get too far ahead of ourselves here, but York has Laurier away and Waterloo home in the next two weeks, and a 3-1 start is not out of the question. 2-2 is certainly possible. The last time York finished with more than one win was the 2005 season. Meanwhile, the Beckwith Gee-Gees are 0-2. Just like adding a CFL coach didn't turn Waterloo around, adding a CFL defensive co-ordinator hasn't stopped Ottawa from allowing 1,122 yards of total offence in two games. Some defensive improvement seems crucial.

Maybe Blake Nill was onto something. His team, and the team he (presumably) voted for top spot in the Canada West coaches poll, are the only 2-0 teams in the conference. This win will solidify Manitoba's spot in the top 10 (they're on my ballot this week) but let's point out that the Huskies didn't have a terrible game, and credit them for going for it on 3rd and 2 early in the game when most teams would not. (Neither conversion worked, and they didn't try it again until the end of the game. But: baby steps.) Also, if I'm reading this right, the team with the wind outscored the other by 52-7. David Larkins picked Manitoba to win 28-24, but they actually won 31-28. Slacker.

Case in point about how you can't just use transitivity to evaluate teams: Mac beat Guelph by 41. Guelph beat Windsor by 19. Windsor beat Ottawa by 45. That doesn't mean McMaster will outscore Ottawa by 105 points next week. Though I'd kind of like to see that. Anyway, there was not even a touchdown from the Lancers yesterday. QB Austin Kennedy (23-45, 244 yards, 77 rushing yards) told Bob Duff, "It’s a game where you can’t blame anyone but yourself."

It's a few days late, but our Evan Daum has a follow-up from CJSR's Nick Frost on U of A football coach Jeff Stead's comments about Canada West officials. Stead believes it's too inconsistent, not just from Vancouver to Winnipeg, but between the West and Quebec and Ontario and so on: “At some point Football Canada needs to understand that officiating in our game needs to be the same.” You'll hear very similar comments about basketball officials in this country as well.

The UBC men's basketball team has just two players left over from 2010-11, but Howard Tsumura, after watching them drop a close one to Eastern Washington, was pleased with what he saw, and talks about the promising rookies on this T-Birds squad.