UBC football has had a struggling start this season and the team will need to step up its game if it wants to make a post-season run.
With the loss at Homecoming against the University of Regina Rams, the UBC football team now holds a 1-2 season record and is second-to-last in Canada West conference. Only five regular season games remain for the T-Birds and for head coach Blake Nill, it’s not a lot of time.
“There are five more games and we’ve got to get turned around here very quick,” said Nill.
The loss against Regina won’t be easy for the team to digest, but hopefully it will be a constant reminder to the ’Birds that they’ll need to play better and fight harder next time.
So what exactly has been going wrong for the T-Birds?
“It’s the inconsistencies with the young kids that we have,” said Nill.
UBC’s offence was actually quite strong during the last game against the Rams. The team produced more yards in total passing and rushing than its opponent. The T-Birds even had many good scoring opportunities, but ended up falling short of the touchdown zone each time.
The T-Bird defence was also remarkably strong during the Homecoming game, against the highest-scoring team in Canada West at that point. UBC was able to keep Regina’s scoring to only 20 points — quite impressive considering that key defensive players from last year have left.
Bottom line, the team has the potential and they showed it in the last game. The ’Birds need to vamp their consistency and Nill knows this all too well.
In the next game, the ’Birds will be travelling on the road to take on the University of Alberta Golden Bears. The T-Birds currently have a 10-game winning streak against the Bears — the latest victory being the season opener. The last time UBC lost to Alberta was back in September 2010.
So far this season, the Golden Bears have not yet won a single game and are last place in Canada West. Alberta currently has 53 points for and 110 points against for a point differential of -57. This is the lowest of all Canada West teams.
Alberta might not seem like a challenging team, but it certainly doesn’t mean that the ’Birds can expect an easy ride. One wrong move and the dream of going into the playoffs may be over. For the UBC football team, every game from this point on is going to matter.
The game against the University of Alberta Golden Bears will kick off on Saturday September 24 at 4 p.m. pacific time.