Canadians to clash in CFB conference championship, FCS playoffs
Hillock announces Western return, Bone shortlisted for Manitoba HC job
Pressure Package newsletter 🍁🏈🎓 | This is Alex McComb’s Canadian college football newsletter. Sign up below to receive Pressure Package in your inbox every Friday morning.
Welcome to trophy season!
But before we get to that … I think I promised you a surprise.
Well, here it is.
This week, I was offered the opportunity to be a guest analyst on TSN’s college football show, Gridiron Nation. Thank you to Jim Mullin and Gord Randall for allowing me to yap about ball on national television!
This week, we talk about:
College football’s flag-planting issue and what happened at the Michigan-Ohio State game this past weekend.
FCS playoffs and some of our favourite Canadians in the second round on Saturday.
Edmonton Elks hiring former Alberta Golden Bears linebacker and Calgary Stampeders assistant head coach Mark “Killer” Kilam as the team’s new head coach.
Coaching trees: Western Mustangs head coach Greg Marshall’s influence on leaders within U Sports.
The state of coaching in Canada at the post-secondary and high school levels, and what could be the light at the end of the tunnel.
The show will air today (Friday) at 2 p.m. ET on TSN1 and TSN5.
You can also watch the whole TSN Gridiron Nation show on-demand on YouTube below, and don’t forget to subscribe:
Now, back to regularly-scheduled programming.
Heading south ✈️
Top Canadian CFB storylines:
No. 10 Boise State Broncos safety Ty Benefield (Vancouver) will face No. 20 UNLV safety and fellow Canadian Jett Elad (Mississauga, Ont.) in the Mountain West conference championship Friday night — a rematch from 2023.
Rutgers Scarlet Knights LB Dariel Djabome (Longueuil, Que.) “tackled” a Canadian milestone on Saturday, reaching 102 tackles in the 41-14 season finale win over Michigan State. This marked the first time a Canadian NCAA player hit the 100-tackle mark since Amen Ogbongbemiga’s 2019 Oklahoma State season, where the Alberta native made 100 tackles.
No. 9 Indiana Hoosiers quarterback Kurtis Rourke (Oakville, Ont.) bounced back from the Ohio State Buckeyes loss almost two weeks ago, throwing a school record-tying six touchdowns for 349 yards in a 66-0 blowout against Purdue in the Old Oaken Bucket game.
No. 12 Miami Hurricanes defensive lineman Akheem Mesidor (Ottawa) won’t be playing in the ACC championship this weekend — nor is his team in the College Football Playoff — after losing 42-38 to No. 22 Syracuse, an unranked team a week ago.
This weekend’s second round of the FCS playoffs features 10 Canadians battling it out for a potential spot in the national championship on Jan. 6, 2025. Ones to watch: FCS No. 1 Montana State Bobcats tight end Rohan Jones (Montreal) and No. 14 Montana Grizzlies wide receiver Keelan White (Vancouver).
READ | For a full breakdown, and clips, of the top Canadian CFB storylines this week, review my latest Canuck U report for FanSided’s Saturday Blitz:
Back north: U Sports offseason headlines 🍁
Western QB Evan Hillock will return to London, Ont. for one last 2025 U Sports football season, the three-time Yates Cup champion announced on his Instagram account last Friday.
According to a Tuesday report from the At The 55 Podcast, the vacant Manitoba Bisons head coach position has a four-candidate shortlist: UBC Thunderbirds offensive coordinator Stevenson Bone, Manitoba defensive coordinator Stan Pierre and assistant coach Cory Waldbauer, and high school coach Ryan Karhut. A potential Bone hiring would mean Western’s Marshall would have three former players become U Sports head coaches — Laurier Golden Hawks head coach Michael Faulds and Windsor Lancers head coach J.P. Circelli are the current two.
Student shout-outs 📢
I got my start in multimedia storytelling and sports journalism at a student newspaper. It’s important for me to spread the love to those student journos finding new leads on campus fields across the country, just like I did a short time ago.
OUA
The Western Gazette (Western)
*My old stomping grounds!
The Cord (Laurier)
Imprint (Waterloo)
The Silhouette (McMaster)
The Varsity (Toronto)
Excalibur (York)
The Queen’s Journal (Queen’s)
The Fulcrum (Ottawa)
The Charlatan (Carleton)
Canada West
The Ubyssey (UBC)
The Gateway (Alberta)
The Gauntlet (Calgary)
The Sheaf (Saskatchewan)
The Manitoban (Manitoba)
RSEQ
Impact Campus (Laval)
*Covered Rouge et Or football in Vanier Cup
Quartier Libre (Montreal)
Concordia
The McGill Tribune (McGill)
Le Collectif (Sherbrooke)
AUS
The Xaverian Weekly (StFX)
The Campus (Bishop’s)
The Athenaeum (Acadia)
The SMU Journal (Saint Mary’s)
More Canadian college football coverage
U Sports football is covered by the media at a level not seen since theScore’s former television program “University Rush” covered Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS, the former name for U Sports) football up until the early 2010s.