Laval wins record 12th Vanier Cup in 25 seasons
Oakville's Kurtis Rourke sacked 5 times in No. 5 Indiana's 1st loss of 2024
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Welcome to the U Sports football offseason and Week 14 in college football south of the border!
In review: 59th Vanier Cup
For a record 12th time since 1999, the Vanier Cup’s reflection is red and gold.
Or, as Laval would say:
Rouge et Or.
The new Canadian college football champions didn’t score a single touchdown all day, but with the might of kicker Felipe Forteza’s six field goals — a new Vanier Cup record — and two safeties conceded by the Laurier Golden Hawks, the Laval Rouge et Or squeezed out a 22-17 win.
Laurier’s slow start was partly to blame, scoring a TD but only recording 106 passing yards in the first half. The Golden Hawks looked better in the second half, scoring the game’s only other TD.
And with seconds left on the clock, Laurier quarterback Taylor Elgersma had a chance to win on the final drive.
Does that sound similar to another situation his head coach, Michael Faulds, was in 15 years ago in the same city (minus the torn ACL, game and grass field)?
(🎥 theScore)
Unfortunately, Laurier’s decision to go with the short pass to rugby laterals play instead of a long, long Hail Mary didn’t work out.
And the Golden Hawks couldn’t complete the perfect season.
Original prediction (incorrect): Laurier beats Laval in overtime.
(🎥 CBC Sports via @USPORTS_FB/X)
More storylines
More rings than fingers: Laval head coach Glen “Constant” Constantine, who has coached the team since its inception in 1996 when he became defensive coordinator, now has 12 Vanier Cup rings — one as DC in 1999 and 11 as head coach. If my math is correct, he needs to find a place to put two of those, possibly more if those cold Quebec City winters ever got to his fingers.
Laval’s secret purple weapon: Rouge et Or linebacker Olivier Ruest transferred to Laval ahead of the 2024 season. Where did he come from, you ask? The Western Mustangs, where he played two seasons from 2022 to 2023, beating Laurier four times: twice in-season and twice in the OUA playoffs, including the 2023 Yates Cup. He knew everything Laval needed to know.
A 16-year curse lives on: Faulds lost to Laval as Western’s QB in the 2008 Vanier Cup. Eight years later, he lost to Laval as Laurier’s head coach in the 2016 Uteck Bowl. Eight years after that, he lost to Laval in the 2024 Vanier Cup. Eight years from now, will Laurier’s leader have exacted revenge against his Quebec foe?
ICYMI: Read last week’s newsletter recapping national semifinal bowl games:
More trophy talk 🏆
Hec Crighton: U Sports football’s most outstanding player
Elgersma won the Hec Crighton last Thursday, becoming just the second Golden Hawk to win the award and the first player from the program to win and play in the Vanier Cup in the same season. Former Laurier QB Bill Kubas won it in 1994.
Elgersma was the clear favourite to everyone outside of Quebec City, Que.:
Regular season (eight games)
2,659 passing yards
20 TDs
Postseason (four games)
1,352 passing yards
14 TDs
Combined (12 games)
4,011 passing yards
34 TDs
ICYMI: See my Hec Crighton picks from a previous Pressure Package newsletter:
Heading south ✈️
Performances by Canadians playing in NCAA football this past weekend:
No. 5 Indiana Hoosiers QB Kurtis Rourke (Oakville, Ont.) is on this list for all the wrong reasons: throwing for just 68 yards, scoring no TDs and getting sacked five times in the team’s first loss of the season, 38-15, to the No. 2 Ohio State Buckeyes.
(🎥 @CFBONFOX/X)
No. 12 Boise State Broncos safety Ty Benefield (Vancouver) made eight tackles — seven of them solo — a
nd had a pass defended in a Mountain West championship-clinching win over the Wyoming Cowboys 17-13.
Georgia State Panthers QB Christian Veilleux (Ottawa) broke a seven-game losing streak, throwing for 285 yards and three TDs in a 52-44 win against the Texas State Bobcats.
(🎥 @GeorgiaStateFB/X)
No. 8 Miami Hurricanes defensive lineman Akheem Mesidor (Ottawa) registered a sack and seven tackles — three solo — in a 42-14 beating of the Wake Forest Demon Deacons.
Bowling Green Falcons DL Ali Saad (Windsor, Ont.) had a strip sack on top of four solo tackles in a 38-13 win over the Ball State Cardinals.
North Texas Mean Green linebacker Jaylen Smith (Hamilton, Ont.) made a career-high 16 tackles — 10 solo — in a 40-28 loss to the East Carolina Pirates.
Montana State Bobcats tight end Rohan Jones (Montreal) scored a touchdown on 41 receiving yards and two catches in a 34-11 victory against the Montana Grizzlies and fellow Canadian wide receiver Keelan White.
Rutgers Scarlet Knights LB Dariel Djabome (Longueuil, Que.) made six tackles — four solo — in a 38-31 loss to the No. 25 Illinois Fighting Illinis.
BYU Cougars DL Isaiah Bagnah (Lethbridge, Alta.) made four tackles — three solo — in a 28-23 loss to the No. 21 Arizona State Sun Devils.
Preview: What’s to come from Pressure Package?
With the end of the 2024 U Sports football season comes the end of game recaps, previews and awards talk. But Pressure Package doesn’t go away when the snow falls.
I’ll still produce the newsletter on a weekly basis, covering the rest of the American college football season as Canadians continue to play down south. And even when that ends in November, you’ll be seeing more “fun-ish” content like profiles, features, untold stories, bowl game proposals to the U Sports — as a joke, mostly, but you never know — and statistical breakdowns.
If I miss a week, I’ll post something before on Substack notes, so follow along on my page.
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.