The Saskatchewan Huskies host the Regina Rams. The Saskatchewan Huskies opened up their season with a come-from-behind victory in Winnipeg. The Regina Rams lost to the 2022 Hardy Trophy runner-ups in the UBC Thunderbirds and now travel to take on last year’s Hardy Trophy winners for Saskatchewan’s home opener.
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Regina Rams (0-1) @ #3 Saskatchewan Huskies (1-0) 7 PM CST
Date/Location: Friday, September 8/ 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
Saskatchewan Season Tickets: Premium $200, Adult Regular $160, Youth Regular $80, U of S Student Reserved $96
Where to Watch: CanadaWest.TV
Regina Rams (0-1): Regina is coming off a 25-10 loss to a very good UBC team in which they allowed 431 yards of offense but only 1 touchdown. They have the strongest strength of schedule in the first 2 weeks of the season as they now travel to take on 2022’s Hardy Trophy winners in the Saskatchewan Huskies. The Rams will need to get Christian Katende and Marshall Erichsen going on the run game as last week they combined for 51 yards on 10 rushes in order to surprise the Huskies in their home opener.
Saskatchewan Huskies (1-0): Saskatchewan is coming off a come-from-behind victory in Winnipeg in which they trailed 25-7 at the half but pulled off a 30-27 win with 16 points coming in the 4th quarter. Saskatchewan put up 441 total yards of offense in week 1, 313 of which came through the air.
Rams to Watch
QB Noah Pelletier
Last week he completed 12 of his 28 passes for 138 yards. Pelletier showed good poise calmly making some plays in the face of pressure last week. Such as a short pass with pressure coming off the edge to an open Marshall Erichsen who picked up 14 yards on a 2nd and 10. He made a good quick read on another play when pressured for 6 yards and again with pressure down the middle to Rylan Sokul for 16 yards.
QB Bryden O’Flaherty
O’Flaherty came in later in the game at quarterback and completed 10 of his 16 passes for 94 yards and played well making quick reads and getting rid of the ball quickly in the face of UBC’s pass rush.
WR D’Sean Mimbs
Mimbs led the team in receiving yards last week with 6 catches for 92 yards. He caught a pass 28 yards downfield getting a foot in bounds for a 28-yard pass.
MLB Cameron Mah
Mah had 12 total tackles last week (2 solo) contributing many run tackles and also made a couple of tackles against short passes. He also had a QB pressure in the first quarter.
ZLB Chopper Hippe
Chopper made 2 run stops and also made many tackles against the run as he totaled 10 tackles, 3 of which were solo. Both Cameron Mah and Chopper Hippe had a quarterback pressure as well.
DB Carson Sombach
Carson Sombach had a run stop in the first quarter, provided good coverage on a short incompletion in the 2nd, and shared a run stop in the third. He had 3 good plays that stood out making tackles on short passes and another tackle on a run play.
HB Jackson Sombach
Jackson Sombach did a good job not allowing deep plays his way last week and also made multiple tackles against the pass and a couple on the run. In the third quarter, Sombach shared a run stop.
Huskies to Watch
QB Anton Amundrud
The lesson in Amundrud’s first start should be that it’s okay to take a sack. He threw 3 interceptions and they were all on throws that were hurried in the face of pressure. Amundrud completed 18 of his 31 passes for 313 yards and 4 touchdowns. He also rushed twice for 29 yards with the longest being a 19-yard run breaking a tackle on the way. He had a good throw in a tight window to Daniel Perry for 14 yards down the middle. His best throw was in the face of pressure he placed a ball very well to Daniel Weibe down the right sideline for a 49-yard touchdown in the 4th quarter.
RBs Ted Kubongo and Ryker Frank
Ryker Frank had 12 rushes for 70 yards. He broke a tackle on a 7-yard run last week.
Ted Kubongo had 11 rushes for 60 yards. He had a 9-yard run leaping over a defender toward the end. He also had a 5-yard run in which he broke 2 tackles.
WR Daniel Perry
Perry had 5 catches for 150 yards and a touchdown. His biggest play was on a slant that he took to the endzone for a 90-yard touchdown.
WR Daniel Wiebe
Weibe had 3 catches for 63 yards and 2 touchdowns. He did a good job going up for 1 of his touchdowns in the back left of the end zone.
LB Nick Wiebe
Weibe had 5 run stops, and a sack and helped with a couple of other tackles as well in week 1. Wiebe is ranked 15 on the CFL Scouting Bureau’s 2024 draft rankings currently.
LB Lane Novak
Novak had 3 quality run stops including a stop on 3rd and 1 in the 4th quarter. He had 1 QB pressure as well as a handful of tackles on other plays and had 7 solo tackles and 2 assisted tackles.
DB John Stoll
Stoll had a sack in the 2nd quarter, a pass breakup, and a run stop in the third quarter in addition to not allowing any big plays his way in coverage.
DE George Idoko
Idoko put pressure on the QB 4 times including a QB hit and a sack. He also had 2 quality run stops.
Prediction
If the Rams can get the run established and keep the defense honest I see the Rams having a chance in this game to surprise the Huskies. Armundrud is very early in his career as a starter and was thrown off his game in the face of a good pass rush. If Regina can establish the run and effectively rush the passer they will have a chance.
Last time these 2 teams met Saskatchewan won 23-20. Saskatchewan is the 2022 Vanier Cup winner and has a lot of its key pieces back this year. I predict Saskatchewan to win this game by a score of 27-20.
