Mac continues tour of bottom feeders

AT THE U OF T ON THURSDAY

Earlier this week, the McMaster Marauders moved up another spot in the national football rankings to sixth in the country. That was a nice pat on the back for a team riding a three-game winning streak.

Almost as pleasant is what comes next. Namely, a trip down the QEW to face the University of Toronto on Thursday night.

The scouting report on the Blues isn’t complicated. They stink.

They’ve been blasted by Laurier, obliterated by Guelph and eviscerated by the also-awful York Lions. Toronto’s lone win came in a squeaker against the almost-unfathomably bad Windsor Lancers (Mac gets them next week). It’s so rough that over the past two weeks, Toronto has lost by a combined score of 84-22.

If this isn’t exactly plumping up the hype and creating a must-see sporting event, well, sorry. This does, however, create an interesting good news-bad news scenario for the Marauders.

The benefit to McMaster’s three-week Tour of Terribleness — games against York, Toronto and then Windsor — is that the young maroon squad can work on some things without any real fear of taking a loss and can get its backups some playing time and experience.

The down side is that iron sharpens iron. Playing good teams makes you better. Playing lousy teams in glorified scrimmages has the potential to lead to bad habits.

That’s key because when this stretch is done, Laurier is waiting. A bye in the first round will almost certainly be at stake in that one. The playoffs begin the week after with a Vanier Cup berth on home soil hanging out there as a carrot.

Mac needs to be ready for that game if it wants to take advantage of this rare opportunity.

sradley@thespec.com 905-526-2440 | @radleyatthespec Spectator columnist Scott Radley hosts The Scott Radley Show weeknights from 7 to 9 on 900CHML.