By Chris Cariou,
Winnipeg Free Press
TORONTO — Brian Dobie is a very emotional man. And on Thursday night, after his University of Manitoba Bisons finished their final full practice in preparation for tonight’s Vanier Cup championship against the Saint Mary’s Huskies, he could barely contain those feelings about what a win would mean.
In fact, that’s what he talked about in the Herd’s post-practice huddle — a victory would be a means of exorcising, in some sense, the demons from a 42-16 loss to these same Huskies right here at the 2001 Vanier Cup; and a way to end the 37-year drought since the Bisons last won a Canadian university football championship, in 1970.
“That was the emotional part of ending our day,” Dobie said. “I talked about the ’69 and ’70 championship teams when the Bisons won the Vanier Cup, I talked about the ’73 team (he played on that squad) and I said we’re going to win it for those guys and we’re going to bring back that tradition. “I held up my hand — no ring — and for all the guys that struggled through the program in the really tough years for almost 25 years,” he added of what victory would bring.
“Then when our staff came in, we struggled, our team struggled. The first three years, we were 0-8, 3-5, 0-8, and then we took off. And we’ve never looked back.”
And they’ll compete in front of the majority of Winnipeg Blue Bomber players who are here to play in Sunday’s Grey Cup game against the Saskatchewan Roughriders.
Led by Bison alumni Matt Sheridan, the Bombers are expected to show up in force and wearing Bison gear for tonight’s game (6:30 p.m., The Score) at Rogers Centre.
Almost 40,000 tickets have been sold and the Bisons, who’ve outscored their three previous playoff opponents 127-30, are considered favourites — particularly since Hec Creighton trophy winner (national MVP) Erik Glavic, the Huskies’ 6-foot-6 quarterback, is out with a torn ACL and will be replaced by little-used backup Ted Abraham.
Dobie said the absence of Glavic — whom he tried to recruit — could almost make the Huskies more dangerous opponents to face tonight. He equated Glavic’s absence with the absence from the Bombers of No. 1 QB Kevin Glenn (broken arm), who’ll be replaced on Sunday by Ryan Dinwiddie, a sophomore who’ll be making his first CFL start ever.
“It’s a tough situation that Saint Mary’s is in, but it’s the same situation the Blue Bombers are in,” said Dobie, who expects the Bombers to win Sunday. “And I don’t see anybody from the Blue Bombers folding their tents. And nobody from Saint Mary’s is folding their tents.
“You know what’s going to be said in the locker-room. The defensive guys are saying ‘It doesn’t matter, we’re going to win this.’ The offensive linemen are in another corner, going ‘We’re going to dig in deeper, we’re going to dig in harder.’ And what we’re going to face (tonight) is a team that’s going to be fired up about the intrinsics.
“And they’re going to come out just fired up and flying. And that’s probably what the Saskatchewan Roughriders are going to face in the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. Then time will tell as the game moves on whether those two teams have the capabilities to operate without the starter at quarterback.”
