Hawks have high hopes in London
Laurier hopes recruits can overturn 13-game losing streak against old hometown
In this week’s instalment of True Confessions, we give you Laurier Golden Hawk linebacker Brandon Calver.
“For the greater portion of my childhood, I was a Western Mustangs fan,” Calver proclaimed this week. Gasp! The horror! Not so long ago, decked out in Western purple, white and silver, a young Calver dared not miss a game at TD Stadium, cheering for his hometown Mustangs.
They were and remain, ahem, Laurier’s fiercest rival.
Then came Michael Faulds, a game-changer before and after his time at the London, Ont. school.
The current Golden Hawks head coach refined his gridiron skills with the Mustangs from 2005 to 2009 where, as the team’s quarterback, he set Canadian university’s career passing record (since broken).
“I was a big fan of Michael,” Calver, 23, explained. “He is what every football player wants to be like. He is just so motivational and smart, with a great work ethic.
“A lot of London guys are all in the same boat as me. They see Michael as an ex-Mustang, so it would be easy to come to Laurier, too.”
So here Calver is, with the five other Londoners who’ve cracked Laurier’s dress roster this season, including the nation’s top rusher, running back Eric Guiltinan, fellow starters linebacker Scott Hutter and offensive guard Drew Mairleitner.
Now that they are with Laurier, maybe the London boys can do something about that 13-game losing streak the Hawks have endured in head-to-head meetings with Western since 2006.
That, by far, is the Hawks’ longest active losing streak against any team.
They get their shot on Saturday afternoon at TD Stadium, a showdown between the Hawks (No. 6) and the homefield Mustangs (No. 3).
“I think a lot of us circled this game on our calendar for a number of different reasons,” said Hutter, 19, whose Hawks fell 32-18 to Western in an Ontario University Athletics semifinal contest last year. “These are the types of games you come into training camp to prepare for.
“It was a long off-season for a lot of us. We kept that in the back of our minds, that eventually we would get another shot. This is the first test.”
It would seem the Hawks have adopted a bit of the Mustang philosophy in an attempt to get over that hurdle. Hey, if you can’t beat ’em and you can’t stomach the thought of joining ’em, how about appropriating some of their talent and methods?
Since he landed on campus, Faulds — whose arrival in 2013 (But, he’s from Western!) raised more than a few eyebrows — has rebuilt the Hawks with the Mustang blueprint in mind.
Faulds and his staff have tilled the fertile recruiting ground London’s high schools offer. And he hired former Mustang offensive lineman Irv Daymond as an assistant.
“Both teams are built similarly,” Faulds said of the Mustangs and Hawks. “Both are led by strong defences, and offensively both teams have the top two rushing attacks in the country.”
In fact, Laurier and Western are virtually indistinguishable when it comes to the ground game.
The Hawks have averaged a nation’s best 354.3 yards rushing per game. Western checks in at 300.2 yards per game, second on the same list.
Whatever the result, Faulds knows when two similar teams collide, sparks will fly.
“You never know how it’s going to go — low scoring or high scoring — but I do know it’s going to be a hard-fought game,” said the coach.
“Anyone who’s a fan of smashmouth football, that’s what you are going to see Saturday.”