Rams feeling the heat to build on fast start

Canada West football season a sprint, not a marathon, and every game counts

In many cases, the three-game mark of a football season is not a time for urgency.

The saying “it’s a marathon, not a sprint” can be applied in the CFL, for example, because each team plays 18 regular-season games.

But a Canada West team is in a different spot.

The University of Regina Rams, winners of two of their first three games, will reach the midpoint of their regular season — already — when they oppose the University of Manitoba Bisons on Saturday, 2 p.m., at Mosaic Stadium.

“There’s a sense of urgency coming out of the blocks with an eightgame season,” Rams head coach Steve Bryce says. “It’s almost a paranoia that you’ve got to start strong and, if you don’t start strong and get a couple of wins really early in the season, it’s almost, ‘Hey, let’s start prepping and planning for next year.’ That’s how crucial that strong start is.”

It seems that the season can go from start to finish in a heartbeat.

“It’s unbelievable how quickly the season goes,” Bryce marvels. “It totally is a whirlwind because you’re completely engrossed in it.

“From the minute you wake up, you’re on the phone. There are emails. The recruiting is a constant process, but you also have the emails and the business side of it. Then you get into the office and then you’re here until about 10:30 at night. Then you get up and start it all over again.

“It’s so engrossing, but it’s an exciting and a fun thing to be engrossed in.”

Especially when a team has a winning record.

“Even our loss, you try to take away something from it,” says Bryce, whose team lost 46-26 to the host University of Calgary Dinos in Week 2. “Being 2-1, it’s a whole lot better than 0-3.

“Taking something out of that loss, we battled with them. We lost the battle, but we know that we can hang and we know that’s a winnable game if we play our best game.”

Bryce was the first to suggest that the Rams didn’t play their best game last Saturday, when they defeated the visiting University of Alberta Golden Bears 28-18.

“I try not to get too one-sided, as far as too up or too down, after the game,” he says. “It’s never really that good or bad when you watch it on film.

“There were some outstanding plays. Our run blocking has gotten better. I thought our receiver blocking needs some work. I think some of our younger receivers need a little bit more polishing on their routes and the finishing of their routes.

“There are little things that you

There’s a sense of urgency coming out of the blocks with an eight-game season. It’s almost a paranoia that you’ve got to start strong.

can take away that you can fix easily to get better. There are things that you can’t notice during the game. I think I noticed one of those many things live when it was happening.

“But when you watch it on film, because you’ve got that rewind button, you see the play 20 times in a row and things become very evident that you can’t see live. It allows the opportunity to go back and fix the small things.”

With some urgency, of course.