Huskie Outsider

In case you missed it, Dallas had an excellent preview yesterday on the Huskie Outsider.

What’s on the line: Although it’s the first game of the season, this one could decide first place and home-field advantage in the playoffs, just as the first game last season did. This game isn’t quite as important as the 2009 season opener, as these teams will square off once again on October 15 at Griffiths, but a win against your closest rival is always important.

Kevin Mitchell of the Star Phoenix took a look around the Canada West yesterday.

Outlook: The Huskies haven’t gone four straight years without a Vanier Cup appearance since the 1980s; they need to topple favoured Calgary to keep that impressive streak alive.

Mitchell also takes a look at the Huskies and breaks down the team position by position.

According to Huskies head coach Brian Towriss, the team has “nine or 10 receivers who are ready to play.” That depth is a nice luxury for the team, which graduated slotbacks Scott McHenry and Cory Jones.

The hard-working Mitchell also had a story on the long rivalry between the Huskies and the Dinos.

“In the late ’80s and early ’90s, with Calgary and us . . . you’d beat the hell out of each other,” Towriss said this week while preparing to play the Dinos in today’s conference opener for both teams. “Sometimes even if you did get out of the conference, you were so beaten up you wondered if you could go on. But you were also battle-hardened.”

Huskie Athletics previewed the game on their site.

For the third straight season, the No.3 ranked Huskies and No. 1 Dinos will open the Canada West football season against each other. This time the matchup is on the Dinos home turf Saturday in Calgary at McMahon Stadium. Since 2000, Saskatchewan and Calgary have met 15 times, including twice in 2009. The Huskies defeated the Dinos 34-33 in the season opener in overtime in 2009 before losing 39-38 on a missed last minute field goal. Both games were played in Saskatoon.

Rita Mingo of the Calgary Herald says that there is little that separates national powers on gridiron.

Dinos versus Huskies has become one of the great rivalries in Canadian university sports and, just as a scant border separates them, there is little that separates the two football teams.

Wes Gilbertson of the Calgary Sun looks back to last season’s games between the Huskies and Dinos to set the stage for tonight’s match-up.

From a pure entertainment standpoint, Saturday’s Week 1 showdown between the Dinos and the Huskies (7 p.m., McMahon Stadium, ShawTV) likely won’t match their season-opening slugfest at Griffiths Stadium Sept. 4, 2009. The Canada West rivals were locked in a 20-20 stalemate after 60 minutes and traded touchdowns on the first offensive set of overtime.

The Regina Rams defense got off to a good start in their CanadaWest opener against the Manitoba Bisons in Regina last night says Ian Hamilton of the Leader Post.

The University of Regina Rams’ defence had three touchdowns to the two put up by the U of R’s offence on Friday in a 45-11 Canada West football victory over the University of Manitoba Bisons at Mosaic Stadium.

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