Golden Bears, Wildcats, Huskies look for home wins
Despite 0-4 slate, U of A feeling confident facing Thunderbirds
University of Alberta Golden Bears football head coach Jeff Stead is tired of looking at life through rose-coloured glasses.
Although the Bears are 0-4, improved showings the last two weekends — including a 24-17 halftime lead before suffering a 51-38 setback against the Manitoba Bisons — have been steps in the right direction.
But the time for moral victories is long gone, according to Stead.
“In Manitoba, I just said, ‘Guys, I’m getting tired of walking in here and talking about how we’re close, how we’re getting better, but we still haven’t won.’ I meant it, I’m tired of saying that stuff,” Stead said. “I want to walk in there and celebrate with them once.
“The confidence level in the room is very high right now, even though we’re 0-4, but I think it would just be huge to win and see what these kids could do once they experienced success.”
Alberta’s next opportunity to try to break into the win column for the first time since a stunning 31-30 playoff victory over the Saskatchewan Huskies in November 2010 comes at 1 p.m. Saturday at Foote Field against the 0-4 University of British Columbia Thunderbirds.
While the matchup against another winless team looks encouraging, Stead is wary of the T-Birds.
“I’ll be honest, I thought we were going to win last week,” Stead said. “They scare me more than Manitoba scared me and the reason I think that is because their offence is that prolific. For us going in, we’re trying to really preach to our team that this isn’t an 0-4 team and they’re as good offensively as any team in the nation.”
Alberta’s depleted defensive unit won’t have much margin for error against the reigning Canadian Interuniversity Sport player of the year.
“Billy Greene is the Hec Crighton Award winner and, in my mind, is still the best quarterback in this conference,” Stead said.
“Like I told the guys, if we blink, they could put up 60 on us in a heartbeat. They’ve got a lot of weapons on offence.”
While the Bears’ struggles after going 0-8 on the field last year doesn’t come as a shock — they were picked to finish last in the Canada West’s pre-season coaches poll — UBC’s fall from grace certainly does.
The Thunderbirds averaged more than 30 points while compiling a 6-2 record and earning a trip to the conference final last year. Those results, including two wins over Alberta, were later erased by forfeit due to an ineligible player.
This year, Greene has been among many T-Birds who have been unable to live up to high expectations.
“I thought that they’d be coming here as one of the favourites in the conference,” Stead said. “We knew they had graduated quite a few players on their defence, but they had a good recruiting class.
“It looks like the same thing is going on over there that’s happening with us, that’s being decimated with injuries.”
Alberta lost its opening two games by a combined score of 97-6, but could have had a different outcome at Winnipeg last weekend save for some late first-half mistakes.
“We had numerous opportunities to put them away. We were up 24-17 at half, but really we could’ve been up 31-17, 3817, and leaving those points off the board was the biggest difference,” Stead said. “That’s just understanding when your opportunity is to put your team away, and some guys don’t get it that it could be in the first half.”