The rocky road to the Vanier Cup starts here
McMaster’s record-smashing airborne offence plans on putting up some big numbers once again
There’s plenty of frightening stuff going on in the world these days that could easily keep you up at night with cold sweats. Ongoing terrorism. Bizarre politics. Rising taxes. The fact that Adam Sandler is still making movies.
If you’re a defensive co-ordinator in Ontario university football, you could add one more thing to that terrifying list: the McMaster Marauders’ offence.
We have no idea how the maroon will do in their new season which kicks off at home, Sunday at 7 p.m. They could dominate and play in the Vanier Cup at Tim Hortons Field or they could burn out in the provincial quarter-finals again as they did last season.
But they will score. Oh man, will they score.
“We’re definitely very confident coming into this year,” says receiver Danny Vandervoort.
That would be the same Danny Vandervoort who caught a schoolrecord 11 touchdown passes last season yet who’s worked out twice a day all summer to be even bigger, faster and stronger this season. It is his draft year, after all and he wants to impress.
It’s not just him. The McMaster Air Force also has Max Cameron, Josh Vanderweerd and Dan Petermann — who set a school record with 61 completions last season — returning.
That trio is, in order, already eighth, ninth and 10th on the university’s all-time receptions list. After Vandervoort who’s seventh. Plus, they’ve got a few young kids pushing them for playing time.
Meaning quarterback Asher Hastings — who also had a recordsetting season, setting a national mark with 31 touchdown passes and single-season school marks in most completed passes (203), completion percentage (71.5) and passing yards (2,586) while throwing just five interceptions — has a buffet of choices to make on each play with none being anything short of terrific.
“I’m extremely confident,” Hastings says. “I wouldn’t want to be on any other team in the country.” No doubt. Especially when we look even a little closer at what the offence did last year. Hastings’ first as a starter. In their six victories, the Marauders averaged 51.3 points a game. For those not great in math, that’s more than seven touchdowns a game. Nearly two per quarter. In half their regular-season games they eclipsed 55 points. Once they hit 67.
With all those receivers back and a year older, more experienced and more physically mature, that performance could simply be the appetizer. Honestly, some games they might need to add a third digit to the space on the scoreboard under Home.
Of course, scoring isn’t the only part of the game. The defence was third-best in the province yet it still allowed 101 more points than Western’s first-place unit did. That’s a huge gap that helps explain why the London team went to the Yates Cup and Mac was done early. That has to be better for Mac to contend.
Then there’s the unknown that comes with a new head coach.
As everyone recalls, Stef Ptaszek — the most-successful coach in school history — left in May to take over as the Hamilton TigerCats’ offensive co-ordinator. The guy who’d been McMaster’s defensive co-ordinator during the Vanier Cup years was hired to replace him.
Because of that time here, Greg Knox isn’t really unknown. But how he impacts the team from the top rung of the coaching ladder will be intriguing and critical. He’s not a carbon copy of Ptaszek. There will be adjustments.
The biggest one? Ptaszek was a receiver as a player and leaned toward the offensive side of things. Knox was a safety as a player and has always been a defensive specialist. That has to have an impact somewhere.
Offensive co-ordinator Jon Behie says it hasn’t affected anything he’s doing. In fact, with Hastings coming off another CFL training camp — he was in Ottawa with the Redblacks as part of the league’s quarterback development program — he says his pivot looks even better than he did last year.
Which raises the biggest question. What do you have to do to top what Hastings did? And Vandervoort? And Petermann? How do you top the records and the big points and the explosiveness that were on display so often?
“Well,” Behie says without a pause, “we win a playoff game.”
Or five. Playing in a Vanier Cup game at home would be really, really nice.