Nagata tears up the field to lead UBC’s T-Birds over Bisons
Running back helps UBC corral Bisons with five receptions, pair of touchdowns
Kory Nagata got a chance to be the UBC Thunderbirds’ main weapon out of the backfield and ran with it. He caught on with it, too. Nagata rushed for 136 yards on 13 carries and wracked up five receptions for 93 yards to help the T-Birds to a season-opening 30-20 win over the Manitoba Bisons on Saturday at Thunderbird Stadium. His role increased after starting running back Ben Cummings went down with an undisclosed injury in the second quarter.
Coach Blake Nill says that Cummings “should be ready” for a showdown with the Calgary Dinos on Friday in Calgary. You still can’t help but wonder if Nagata’s performance against the Bisons, which included a 21-yard touchdown strike from quarterback Michael O’Connor in the third quarter and a 10-yard scoring run in the fourth, doesn’t have Nill pondering more ways to get Nagata the ball come Friday, even if Cummings healthy.
Nill admits that UBC did toy with the idea of making Nagata a slotback this summer.
“I’ve always been a Kory Nagata fan,” Nill said. “He’s come in in great shape. He’s lighter than he’s been before, and his speed has gone up substantially.
“You put the ball in his hands with space, and he’s going to be a tough, tough tackle for somebody. You’re very rarely going to see somebody make an open-field tackle on him.”
The five-foot-nine, 185-pound Nagata, a third-year running back, starred in high school with the Hugh Boyd Trojans of Richmond and did a two-year stint with the Okanagan Sun of the junior level B.C. Football Conference before coming to UBC. He ran for 258 yards for the T-Birds last season, with 120 of it coming on 23 carries against the Alberta Golden Bears in a Sept. 23 game that Cummings missed with an injury. Cummings, a fourth-year back out of Abbotsford, ran for 960 yards last season.
The Dinos, meanwhile, opened their Canada West regular season on Friday with a 49-35 win over the host Regina Rams.
Calgary was the No. 5 team in last week’s U Sports national rankings. UBC was No. 6. The teams have met in the past three Hardy Cup Canada West championships, including last year when Calgary won 44-43 at McMahon Stadium on a 59-yard field goal from Nike DiFonte at the buzzer.
On its way to winning the Vanier Cup national title in 2015, UBC beat then-top-ranked Calgary 3426 at McMahon in the Hardy Cup.
“It’s going to be a matter of us going in there and trying to dictate rather than trying to respond,” explained Nill, who coached Calgary for nine seasons before signing on with UBC for the 2015 campaign.
“Games like this are why you get into coaching. You want to play against the best teams in the country.”
Calgary pays a return visit to Thunderbird Stadium on Sept. 22.
The Dinos recruited heavily in B.C. this off-season. Among their newcomers are twin brothers Jalen and Tyson Philpot, running backs who are the sons of former B.C. Lions star Cory Philpot. They helped North Delta’s Seaquam Seahawks to a spot in the provincial triple-A quarter-finals last winter.
Tyson had a 47-yard gain in his one carry against Regina, while Jalen had a 14-yard run in his lone carry.