The undefeated UBC Thunderbirds travel to Saskatchewan to take on the Huskies in a rematch of the 2022 Hardy Trophy which Saskatchewan won 23-8. It is the only scheduled meeting between these two teams during this season’s regular season. Last year they played each other twice with the home team winning both games.
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#6 UBC Thunderbirds (4-0) at #8 Saskatchewan Huskies (3-1)
Date/Location: Friday, September 29/ Griffiths Stadium, Saskatoon, SK
Kickoff Time: 7 PM CST (8 PM ET, 5 PM PT)
Ticket Price: Premium $27, Adult $22, Youth (ages 4-18) $10, USask Reserved $10, Student and New Alumni $0
Where to Watch: CanadaWest.TV
#6 UBC Thunderbirds (4-0): UBC is coming off a 54-37 victory over the Alberta Golden Bears in what was a meeting of 3-0 teams. The Thunderbirds’ offense has looked unstoppable so far this season as they have scored 180 points in 4 games. Garrett Rooker is leading the conference in yards with 1,303 and 10 touchdowns with only 1 interception. On the ground, Isiah Knight is 2nd in rushing yards in the conference with 432 yards and 3 touchdowns.
#8 Saskatchewan Huskies (3-1): The Huskies are coming off a win but will likely need a much cleaner game from their quarterback Anton Amundrud who passed for 171 yards last week with 0 touchdowns and 4 interceptions. The Huskies had 169 rushing yards and 2 rushing touchdowns from their runningback duo Ryker Frank and Ted Kubongo. The defense had a big game against Calgary limiting Calgary to 76 passing yards and 78 rushing yards.
Thunderbirds to Watch
QB #11 Garrett Rooker
Rooker has simply been elite so far this season. He has completed 84 of 106 passes (79.2%) for 1,303 yards and 10 touchdowns with only 1 interception. He has 12.3 yards per attempt. The starting QB with the second most yards per attempt ins Eli Hetlinger who has 9 yards per attempt.
RB #5 Isiah Knight
Knight is coming off of a monster performance in which he rushed 21 times for 185 yards and a touchdown and added another 34 receiving yards on 4 catches. His longest rush last week was a 24-yard play in which he hit the hole with a lot of speed and exploded through the second level.
WR #33 Dane Kapler
Kapler had the most receiving yards last week catching 7 passes for 90 yards.
WR #83 Sam Davenport
Davenport had 3 catches for 78 yards and 2 touchdowns last week.
DL #96 Taaj Jhooty
Jhooty had a solo tackle and 3 assisted tackles last week. He had 3 QB hurries and a run stop.
LB #42 Mitchell Townsend
Townsend spend a lot of time in Alberta’s backfield last week hurrying the quarterback 6 times and hitting him once. He had 3 solo tackles and 5 assisted tackles last week.
HB #15 Ben Sangmuah
Sangmuah broke up 2 passes last week and had 2 solo tackles. He did not allow any big plays his way.
K #9 Kieran Flannery-Fleck
Last week Flannery-Fleck made all 4 of his field goals and all 6 of his extra points. His longest field goal was for 34 yards.
Huskies to Watch
QB Anton Amundrud
Amundrud’s first season as a starter has been rocky at times. He had a very big game in week 2 in which he completed 39 of 40 passes for 391 yards and 4 touchdowns and 1 interception. So far this season he has completed 62.6% of his passes for 1,141 yards and 9 touchdowns with 10 interceptions.
RB Ryker Frank
Frank rushed 14 times last week for 101 yards (7.2 average) and a touchdown.
RB Ted Kubongo
Kubongo rushed 15 times last week for 83 yards (5.5 average) and a touchdown. Kubongo also caught 5 passes for 47 yards last week.
WR Rhett Vavra
Vavra caught 5 passes for 40 yards last week.
DE #50 Nathan Jule
Jule had 5 solo tackles and an assisted tackle last week. He had 2 QB hurries and 3 run stops last week.
DL #99 Charlie Parks
Parks had 3 solo tackles and an assisted tackle last week. He also had 2 QB hurries and a run stop last week.
LB #43 Nick Wiebe
Wiebe had 3 solo tackles and 5 assisted tackles last week. He also had 2 QB hurries and helped with a run stop.
CB #9 Katley Joseph
Joseph broke up 2 passes last week and did not allow any big plays his way. He also had 2 solo tackles and an assisted tackle.
Prediction
Saskatchewan’s defense has been quite strong only allowing 14.7 points per game in the last 3 games. However, Anton Amundrud has at times been reckless with his passing especially when pressured and there is no margin for error when playing a quarterback who has been as efficient as Garrett Rooker has been so far this season.
I predict UBC to win 39-27.