Ram tough meets the Huskie howl on the prairies Saturday in a top-10 Canadian university football showdown in Regina.
In a battle of 2-1 teams, the Regina Rams host the Saskatchewan Huskies at Mosaic Stadium, for the only all-Sask Canada West game this season.
These two squads have met in the Hardy Cup conference championship game in each of the last two seasons and finished first and second in the standings a year ago.
The lone regular season Huskies-Rams matchup in 2025, won by the Huskies, ultimately determined who finished first and got home-field advantage for that Hardy Cup final. Rams coach Mark McConkey could see this game having the same kind of impact again.
"The last five matchups have all been under five points, win or lose," he said. "It's going to be another tight battle and it's a rivalry where there's close games and we've really brought that back over the last few years here."
The Rams have been without their starting quarterback, Owen Sieben, since Week 1. They've also been without their reigning team MVP, Marshall Erichsen, all season. The Rams hope to have them both back for this game.
They must make another change to their roster by replacing receiver Blake Laidlaw, who suffered a season-ending torn ACL injury last week in Vancouver.
McConkey has watched a furious competition for that starting receiver role at practice all week.
"Hudson South and Darius Crandell are both competing for that spot," he said. "They're both capable of going in there. We might even rotate them the whole game, but we'll make a decision on game day."
The Huskies are ranked fifth in the nation, while the Rams are seventh. They are the top two in Canada West, though a 2-1 logjam atop the early standings includes UBC and Manitoba as well.
This will be the Rams' first home game at Mosaic Stadium this season as preparations for the recent Foo Fighters concert pushed their home opener to Leibel Field. There is another scheduling conflict later this fall, too.
McConkey hopes the big homecoming crowd Saturday helps his team finish better than they have in the first three games this season.
The Rams have pummelled opponents 64-12 in the first half this season but have been outscored 29-18 in the second half. That includes the UBC Thunderbirds earning a 15-0 advantage over the final two quarters last Friday as the Rams blew a 10-point lead for their first loss.
"We talk about it all the time and the next play is the most important play no matter the score whether we're down 65-11 or up 30-8," McConkey said. "We've got to execute the play. We really doubled down on that this week, and our guys have had a good focus in practice about that, and it really just comes down to execution. We did a poor job executing and ultimately that's on me as the play-caller and as the head coach."
This Hardy Cup rematch is expected to showcase two star players who were not in the conference championship game last November. Erichsen accounted for 40 percent of Regina's offence a year ago before he tore his Achilles tendon. On the Huskies side, star quarterback Anton Amundrud for the Huskies has been the comeback story of the season after battling cancer for much of the past year.
"So happy for him that he's healthy and it's awesome to see him back," McConkey said. "He looks like he's back to his old self, but hopefully he's out of rhythm against us on Saturday."
Good football weather is expected for this game with a high of 21 C in the forecast, though wind could become a factor with gusts of up to 50 km/h. This game will be broadcast live on the 620 CKRM main network and through www.620ckrm.com with the pregame show at 1:45 p.m. and kickoff at 2 p.m.
