By Ashley Prest,
Winnipeg Free Press
It could be a rallying point or a disaster but the Saint Mary’s Huskies will be without starting quarterback and Hec Creighton Trophy winner Erik Glavic when they face the Manitoba Bisons on Friday in the Vanier Cup national university football championship in Toronto.
The 6-foot-6 Glavic, who won the award Wednesday night, has been diagnosed with a torn anterior cruciate ligament and a deep bone bruise in his left knee. A prolific scrambler, the third-year pivot injured the knee on a 13-yard run during the second quarter of SMU’s 26-2 Uteck Bowl national semifinal victory over the Laval Rouge et Or.
Huskies head coach Steve Sumarah has said Glavic won’t play. However, the 21- year-old Glavic was to be examined for another opinion in Toronto by a surgeon who had treated the Pickering, Ont., native for a past injury.
“I was on the same flight with them (Tuesday) morning and I got a chance to talk to him (Glavic) briefly and he was on crutches. He’s not even bearing weight on it right now,” said John Bloomfield, head coach of St. Francis Xavier X-Men in a telephone interview from Toronto. Saint Mary’s edged St. F-X 25-24 in the Atlantic conference final.
Saint Mary’s is expected to use backup Ted Abraham, a more stationery quarterback who throws left-handed, against the Bisons.
“They are rallying already,” Sumarah told Halifax’s The Chronicle Herald. “If they needed a rallying point, Erik became the rallying point this week. They want to do it for him.”
Back in 2001, a Bisons team met a Saint Mary’s team in the Vanier Cup and faced a similar situation. The Bisons played with receiver Mike Faisthuber’s jersey draped over their bench in honour of the talented pass-catcher, who was hospitalized due to a serious illness that had affected his kidneys and left him unable to join them at the Vanier. He later made a full recovery but the Bisons sorely missed his offence in their 42-16 loss to SMU.
Here’s a look at the Saint Mary’s Huskies with comments from Bloomfield and Bisons head coach Brian Dobie, in his 12th Bisons season and second Vanier Cup appearance.
* QUARTERBACK — Glavic is a proven winner whom Dobie recruited as a high school player but then pursued current Bisons starter John Makie instead. Backup Abraham came into the Uteck Bowl against Laval after Glavic’s departure and was 0-4 passing.
* John Bloomfield: “The reason they won that (one-point) game against us was Erik Glavic. The fact that they’re going into the Vanier Cup without him is going to really be tough for them. Their backup doesn’t have much game experience but he’s a big, tall, left-hander.
* Brian Dobie: “If he doesn’t play, we know very little about the backup Abraham except that he’s a lefty. A couple of our Toronto guys know him and say he’s a real smart kid. It then (if Abraham starts) will become more of a pure systems emphasis for us, much like the Saskatchewan Roughriders against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers without Kevin Glenn.”
* OFFENCE — The Saint Mary’s offence can move the ball and led the CIS in team offence, recording an average of 529.38 per game.
* John Bloomfield: “Not to take anything away from Abraham, but Glavic is the meat and potatoes of their offence. If you can contain Erik Glavic, you can beat Saint Mary’s but I don’t know how you do it. We’ve tried everything but he’s pretty tough to defend. For him to not be playing is going to be very tough for them.”
* Brian Dobie: “We haven’t gone there yet (what the Saint Mary’s offence will look like without Glavic) because you do prepare (for opponents) versus (their) systems so really, nothing, and I emphasize nothing, changes for us against their offence.”
* DEFENCE — The Huskies also own the top team defence in the CIS, which allowed just 252 yards per game. Led by players such as linebacker Tim St. Pierre, (AUS defensive player of the year), defensive lineman Andrew Paopao, (son of former Bombers assistant coach Joe Paopao) and Andrew King (Dobie is recruiting his younger brother Ryan out of the Edmonton Wildcats junior team), this defence allowed an average of just 82 yards rushing against them.
* John Bloomfield: “They’ve got a very physical defence. They’ve got a couple of guys on the corner that are really good, Jeff Zelinski and Marc Beswick. They kind of invite you to run between the tackles and then they swarm the football. You can run the ball on Saint Mary’s but you have to be consistent in doing it, even when it doesn’t make the most sense like particularly in second-and-long situations, I believe they’re more vulnerable to the run than on first down.”
* Brian Dobie: “Their linebackers are very, very good, the entire front seven is very good. Their defensive backs are very athletic, one of their corners (Zelinski) is an all-Canadian. We believe this is easily the best defence we’ve seen this year.”
