VANCOUVER — UBC football fans would love it if the Michael O’Connor era could last forever.
Tag: U Sports football
Giovanni Manu: Pitt Meadows’ mammoth man-in-the-middle bids farewell to hoops as UBC football career awaits
PITT MEADOWS — On first glance, and for obvious reasons, 6-foot-8, 320-pound Giovanni Manu has a way of locking down your focus. Yet it’s what happens in the moments after he catches your eye that makes him an irresistible fan favourite.
Ten years after Billy Greene, UBC tabs another top B.C. quarterback prospect in Windsor’s Ryan Baker
VANCOUVER — The UBC Thunderbirds are bringing B.C. high school football’s touchdown maker to the Point Grey campus.And ‘Birds head coach Blake Nill is not holding back his optimism for the future of Windsor Dukes’ superstar senior Ryan Baker.“To me, Ryan Baker is as close to a can’t-miss prospect as you can have when you […]
TSUMURA: It’s all hands on deck for UBC’s decimated receiving core Saturday vs. Regina
VANCOUVER — Trivel Pinto and Alex Morrison are the veterans who know their time is now.
Like blue-collar Boy Scouts, UBC defensive backs Katsantonis, Lee came prepared, then stole victory from Manitoba Bisons
Like a pair of Boy Scouts living up to their famous motto, UBC defensive backs Stavros Katsantonis and Malcom Lee challenged each other in the week leading up to Saturday’s crucial clash at Manitoba to ‘Be Prepared’ for any and all eventualities. And when their turn came to turn a tight game on its ear, each […]
UBC’s Nill on Friday foes from Calgary: “They are the ones we have to measure ourselves against.”
VANCOUVER — The last time the UBC Thunderbirds won four straight Canada West conference football games was back in 2015 when Blake Nill was the team’s first-year head coach. History tells us, of course, that the ‘Birds parlayed that quartet of regular season-ending games into an eventual seven-game win streak that culminated with a Vanier Cup […]
Pinto-powered ‘Birds roll Huskies, UBC coach Nill: “I think he could be the No. 1 pick of the CFL draft”
VANCOUVER — Trivel Pinto is playing football like he is the best university player in country and on Saturday, one of the largest and most appreciative crowds in the history of Thunderbird Stadium headed to the exits convinced of the fact.For over three hours, in front of a UBC Homecoming crowd announced at 9,542, the […]
‘Birds boss Nill pulls no punches, announces gut-check time after UBC falls in penalty-fest fashion at Regina
It was a conference-opening effort that tried to dispel the notion that the UBC Thunderbirds had actually held practices before they took to the field on Friday night at Regina’s new Mosaic Stadium.Of course they had, and of course they remain one of the nation’s most talented teams.Yet the No. 7-ranked ’Birds (0-1) can’t exactly […]
UBC’s Alex Morrison returns to ‘Birds for football ‘finishing school’, new tight end gig preps him for CFL future
VANCOUVER — UBC’s Alex Morrison may not have made the final cut with the Montreal Alouettes this past June, but he’s determined to make the CFL his future, and the big man in his corner back home at Thunderbird Stadium is doing everything he can to help ensure that happens.To that end, ‘Birds head coach […]
TSUMURA: My ‘Top 5 takeaways’ from ‘Birds preseason football opener as UBC tops Alberta 33-30
The UBC Thunderbirds’ youthful ways led to some anxious moments on Wednesday.Yet its first-unit players, in all three phases, looked as devastating as they ever have as the Blake Nill-era entered its third season in the Southern Interior.With quarterback Michael O’Connor and a healthy UBC offence, bolstered by a deep core of running backs and […]