VANCOUVER — If you spent any amount of time sniffing around UBC’s fall camp in August, it didn’t take any time at all to realize just how deep and talented the 2023 ‘Birds looked on paper.That, of course, is the net effect of ringing the bell from top to bottom for what looks like four […]
Tag: U Sports football
A Sunday Read: Like Miami Dolphins’ Tua Tagovailoa before him, UBC quarterback Garrett Rooker puts gruesome hip injury behind him and lifts Thunderbirds to national title relevancy!
VANCOUVER — All similarities are of course unintentional, yet it seemed there were so many times this past Friday night at a sold-out Thunderbird Stadium that the cocked arm of UBC quarterback Garrett Rooker had an overflow crowd of 7,100 in the same state of rapt anticipation normally associated with a maestro’s baton at the […]
UBC football 2023: As Rooker’s return & Sudden Sam’s arrival spark impressive 25-10 road win over Rams, Thunderbirds’ young linebacking core takes giant step forward in Regina!
On a night when lofty preseason prognostication had put them in a place to answer the most elemental question of all, the UBC Thunderbirds provided a resounding response.So, was the latest edition of Point Grey’s gridiron Blue-and-Gold worthy of their co-No. 1 ranking to begin the Canada West football wars this season, right alongside the […]
UBC Football Notebook 10.19.22 edition: An O-line overhaul sparks ‘Birds run game ahead of Huskies’ Saturday visit, plus more football Thunder Bolts!
VANCOUVER — A UBC football team able to define its identity through the ground game.As easy as it is to over-complicate the modus operandi, it’s always been that simple when it comes to predicting success or a lack thereof for the 2022 edition of the gridiron Thunderbirds.Today, as we open up the notebook from the […]
UBC Football 2021: Postmarked ‘Texas’, Garrett Rooker emerges from ‘Birds deep talent pool to be named starting quarterback ahead of Saturday’s opener at Alberta!
VANCOUVER — Sometimes, stuff happens that makes you want to thank your lucky stars.For UBC Thunderbirds head football coach Blake Nill, one of those days was May 8 of 2020.“Some days are better than others,” wrote Nill that day on his official Twitter account in announcing that quarterback Garrett Rooker, a 6-foot-3, 205-pound quarterback out […]
UBC’s Dane Kapler: How the ‘Birds freshman running back and son of San Francisco Giants manager Gabe Kapler found the vision to blaze a football path to Vancouver!
VANCOUVER — Dane Kapler has always been able to see the forest for the trees.In an allegorical sense, there he was Tuesday, the UBC freshman running back and forestry major taking a hand-off at the team’s fall camp and bursting through a seam from behind the Thunderbirds’ thick-stumped offensive line.And, of course, in a twist […]
W.J. Mouat’s Nelson Lokombo: Why a position switch “switched” his perspective and elevated Saskatchewan Huskies’ star DB in eyes of CFL scouts!
He’d enjoyed a Canadian Football Hall of Fame career along the offensive line of the Montreal Alouettes, and now, a few years after returning to his alma mater to begin a new one along the sidelines, he was being elevated to the role of head coach of the Saskatchewan Huskies.Yet as Scott Flory is the […]
VL podast 01.27.21: UBC head football coach Blake Nill on celebrating the tradition of Blue & Gold and the promise of a 2021 fall kick-off!
The UBC football nation, just like all of the other tight-knit, tradition-laden programs across Canada, mourned the loss of 2020 university football season. Thunderbirds’ head coach Blake Nill, however, is excited and hopeful for the prospects of a 2021 campaign… that much is obvious as the three-time Vanier Cup national championship-winning coach joins host Howard […]
VL Podcast series debuts Monday: UBC’s Billy Greene, SFU’s Bo Palmer on Shrum Bowl’s 10-year absence and their own lives in and out of football!
LANGLEY — Plans for the resumption of the best football rivalry game in the province of B.C. were not actively underway when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March.Put it all together, and the fall of 2020 marks the 10th straight season that the Shrum Bowl, that formerly annual crosstown clash between Simon Fraser and UBC, […]
Simon Fraser’s Bernd Dittrich: A decade-plus after the iconic quarterback’s passing, a former teammate pays homage to his remarkable spirit and courage
ABBOTSFORD — Mathis Baumbach remembers how he never felt like a stranger in the summer of 2008, even though he had flown halfway around the world from Germany to join his new teammates on the Simon Fraser University football team.And all of that was due to the presence of one of the most iconic athletes […]