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September 23, 2016

Bisons Week 4 Preview

University of Manitoba Bisons' quarterback Theo Deezar caries the ball against the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds', during the first half of their game, Saturday, September 19, 2015. (TREVOR HAGAN/WINNIPEG FREE PRESS)

Brian Dobie has got a whole repertoire of pre-game speeches, all of them tweaked, edited and updated in a lifetime of playing and coaching the game.

But the University of Manitoba Bisons head coach does have a particularly heart-felt one he trots out for the program’s annual Homecoming Game, which comes this Saturday at 1p.m. at Investors Group Field against the Saskatchewan Huskies.

Bisons Huskies“It’s very personal,” said Dobie this week. “I’m an alum at the University of Manitoba, my degree is from here. This is my home. This is my job and it’s obviously a huge part of my life.

“I’m representing thousands of alumni in that statement, and I’m not just talking about athletes, over the years. Homecoming represents one of the biggest parts of anyone’s life who goes to university. Those three, four, five, six years of university are significant because you’re going between the ages of 18 and 25 or in the neighbourhood. We’re fortunate to have the spotlight in the Homecoming Game. I get to experience the best of all those worlds.”

But that’s not the meat of Dobie’s pre-game chat with his players. The game is big in the Canada West standings – Manitoba is 1-2, the Huskies are 2-1 – but there’s a big-picture take he wants to hammer home to his players as well.

It’s about where the program has come from to where it was today. And he’s got some powerful and compelling evidence to make his point on the grounds between their old park and Investors Group Field just to the east of it.

“I’m very big on the tradition in our program,” said Dobie. “It’s about the players that went before us and I’m very aware of Bison history all the way through… the ’69 and ’70 national championship teams. I just missed playing on those teams, but I knew most of those guys.”

“There’s been highs and lows all the way through, like anything else. You look to where our program is now, it’s where it is now for a lot of reasons. There are a lot of people who have paid a lot of prices in terms of bringing our program forward and I want our players to know that.”

“Every year when we start training camp and we’re in the palace of Investors Group Field, I take our team over to the old, rusted out, mice-filled Butler Hut, which was our locker room. It’s a rusted-out tin storage shed and we go in there and all the new players are shocked. I tell them that in that room national championships were won, in that room All-Canadians were produced, pro players were produced, Academic All-Canadians… heck, that’s half my speech right there.”

The Bisons are coming off a critical 42-12 win over Alberta last week that stopped the bleeding of a two-game skid to open the season. Quarterback Theo Deezar was spectacular in the victory, completing 21 of 27 passes for 345 yards for four touchdowns against zero interceptions and was honoured as CIS Offensive Player of the Week.

The 8th-ranked Huskies, meanwhile, are coming off a 20-19 loss to Calgary.

“These games are huge,” said Deezar. “Homecoming is the pinnacle of our regular season games. We get the most fans out to the games, it’s a Saturday, we hope that the alumni show up. We play for them, for all the sports… it’s like a big Bison family thing. We don’t want to lose because of all of that.”

University of Manitoba Bisons' quarterback Theo Deezar caries the ball against the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds', during the first half of their game, Saturday, September 19, 2015. (TREVOR HAGAN/WINNIPEG FREE PRESS)

SASKATCHEWAN (2-1) at MANITOBA (1-2)

When: Saturday, 1 p.m.
TV/Radio: Shaw-TV/Access; Canadawest.org; Radio: 101.5 UMFM (umfm.com)
Last season: The Bisons and Huskies met just once last year with Manitoba winning 34-28 in Saskatoon. During Dobie’s 20 years with the Bisons they have a slight edge, 15-14, in their overall record vs. the Huskies.
FYI: Manitoba is 9-5 in Homecoming Games since its inception in 1999. The Bisons have won all three Homecoming Games played at Investors Group Field (Oct. 2/15: W 34-19 over Regina; Sept. 20/14: W 20-10 over UBC; Sept. 28/13: W 34-15 over Regina)… Manitoba LB DJ Lalama is averaging 9.3 tackles per game through three weeks, first in Canada West… The Bisons rank second in the conference in average yards offence per game at 517.3; Regina is first at 544.3.