Rouge et Or epitome of gridiron excellence
Nine-time Vanier Cup champions Laval ready to take on Dinos in Mitchell Bowl
They are the standard against which all U Sports football teams are measured.
The Laval Rouge et Or, except for a hiccup here and there, have consistently proven to be the class of the Canadian university game. They’ve won the most Vanier Cups, nine, since lifting the first one in 1999 and that includes last year at the expense of the University of Calgary by virtue of a narrow 31-26 triumph in Hamilton.
They will attempt to make it to another national final Saturday afternoon at McMahon Stadium at 2 p.m. when they take on the same Dinos in the Mitchell Bowl, with the winner advancing to the Vanier Cup next Saturday in Hamilton.
Eight of Laval’s titles have been under the tutelage of Glen Constantin, who joined the team as the head coach in 2001.
“I expect nothing but their best shot,” Constantin said of the Dinos. “They’re a very well-coached football team. The word that comes to me is retention. They’re able to keep their players in school and graduate. Their offensive line has a lot of fourth-year guys, and their D-line is the same way. They’re physical, very skilful at the receiver position. They have a younger quarterback who did a very good job last year so I expect him to be as good if not better.”
As with most championship games, the focus tends to turn to the quarterbacks and the qualities that make them successful. Saturday’s battle, as it was in last year’s Vanier Cup, pits Calgary’s Adam Sinagra against Quebec all-star Hugo Richard.
“He’s a big, strong, athletic quarterback,” Calgary head coach Wayne Harris Jr. said of the fourthyear Richard. “He definitely has a strong arm, he’s got great size, he runs with the ball, he has the ability to scramble which can give a defence all sorts of issues. He’s not a quarterback that’ll slide. He’s going to try to gain every inch of yardage that he can. They have running plays that go to him. He’s definitely got that experience factor that he brings to the game.
“And they have a big O-line that provides him with the time to find some really outstanding receivers,” Harris said. “They can attack you in a lot of different ways and the way he commands the game and the way he allows himself to not make a lot of mistakes really helps them in having success.”
Constantin also had words of praise for his signal-caller.
“He doesn’t have all these crazy numbers but he’s a game manager,” the Laval headman said of Richard. “What you can’t really quantify is, he’s a great leader and an ultimate competitor. He doesn’t like losing. He rises to the challenge and he makes people around him better.”
Richard is anticipating much of the same from the Dinos’ defenders as he saw last year, with a tweak here and there.
“I think mainly they do the same things,” he said. “Obviously, they have some adjustments. The same style of defence, but it’s playoffs, anything is on the table,’’ says Richard.
“We’re confident. Obviously, we’ve prepared well. We’ve had tremendous hours of meetings, more than we’ve probably ever had. We know that if we play well we can make it to the Vanier next week.”
Harris, meanwhile, expressed confidence in his own quarterback Sinagra, originally from PointeClaire, Que., who is in his third season with the Dinos.
“I think Adam’s continued to grow throughout,” said Harris. “He’s had a very strong year overall. His efficiency rating I think was No. 1 in Canada this year. He makes fewer mistakes. I think our systems are different and Adam fits in our system well.”
For Sinagra, this game is just another opportunity to show he belongs in the same conversation as Richard and the other top QBs in U Sports.
“I think a key component is being able to punch it into the end zone,” he pointed out. “We can’t be settling for field goals in big games like this. I think that’s what hurt us last year and almost hurt us last game. But we found a way to win and I think that’s what great teams do.
“I think their secondary is a little more confident. Their front is one of the best, but we have the best Oline in Canada, so it’ll be a battle in the trenches. It’ll be a fun game.”