VANCOUVER — The pre-game buzz last Friday in the hour or so leading up to kick-off at Thunderbird Stadium?
How about the fact that UBC’s game-changing fifth-year senior outside linebacker Jaxon Ciraolo-Brown wound up as an 11th-hour scratch due to injury and had thus been shelved for the team’s Homecoming Game against the Saskatchewan Huskies, one eventually won by the 38-24 by the hosts.
What was UBC defensive coordinator Pat Tracey’s solution to what looked like a pretty un-winnable situation?
Try next man up, as in fourth-year Cochrane, Alta., native William Hunter, one of those guys talented enough to start anywhere in U SPORTS but part of a crowded back-nine within the UBC defensive schematic.
When the dust had settled, all Hunter had done while lining up as both a strong- and weak-side linebacker was have a direct impact on erasing two Saskatchewan scoring drives.
And the kicker?
Both of them came in the fourth quarter, and both of them kept the ball out of the hands of the Huskies’ biggest weapon, receiver Daniel Wiebe, who nonetheless led all pass catchers with nine grabs for 150 yards and two scores.
“Will is a blue-collar player for us,” said UBC head coach Blake Nill in the post-game of the 5-foot-10, 190-pound linebacker/defensive back whose 7.5 tackles and one interception made him the Canada West’s Defensive Player of the Week. “He does everything we ask of him and he does it with full effort, full commitment. He got a surprise start. We only found out Jaxon would be out yesterday, and he started in place of him.”
Assigned to patrol Wiebe’s neighbourhood, which was essentially being told to defend the most prolific Saskatchewan threat on the field, Hunter put a head-snapping level of athleticism and dynamic understanding on display.
And coming off a third quarter in which the Birds skunked the Huskies 17-0 to assume full control of the proceedings, Hunter’s heroics proved to be the comfort blanket the team needed to win its second straight game ahead of Saturday’s 1 p.m. kickoff at Calgary (Canada West TV).
Just under two minutes into the fourth, with Saskatchewan trailing 38-17 and scrimmaging first-and-10 from the UBC 28-yard line, Huskies’ quarterback Anton Amundrud, looking to move his team into the red zone, fired a pass to Wiebe which Hunter timed perfectly, going vertical to tip high into the air at his own 18.
Cesare Rednour-Bruckman, from his halfback spot, was dialled in and caught the Hunter tip at the 11-yard line to end the threat.
Then, with 2:49 left, and Saskatchewan trailing 38-24 while scrimmaging first-and-10 from its own 51-yard line, Hunter gave the sell-out crowd a signature moment.
Amundrud, firing out of the shotgun, looked inside for Wiebe, but Hunter snuffed the route right in front of the Saskatchewan receiver with another show of lift and anticipation, this time going high to pick off the pass to seal the victory.
As impressive as anything was the fact that Hunter, listed as a defensive halfback but equally adept at creeping to the line of scrimmage to rush the passer, was able to pedal and pivot through the lower half of his body so effortlessly into pass coverage.
“He made the most of it and that’s what you want your veterans to be able to do,” said Nill of Hunter. “Step up when your number is called and get it done.”
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