To Noah, or not Noah. That is the question for the University of Regina Rams this weekend.
Noah Pelletier has quarterbacked the Rams most of the way this season and with a chance to go 6-1 for the first time ever in the U-of-R football programs 27-year-existence, if they can win in Alberta Saturday, the team is non-committal about who will start in Edmonton.
Despite the success of the team’s ground game led by Canada West leading rusher Marshall Erichsen, and an offensive line that has miraculously not surrendered a quarterback sack all season, the passing game has sputtered somewhat as of late with just one passing touchdown in their last 10 quarters of action and none to any of their main receivers.
Head coach Mark McConkey said at the start of the season it would be a week-to-week evaluation with his quarterbacks and is still echoing that sentiment the day before his team will play what just might be its final road game of the year.
“It’s going to be a game time decision,” McConkey said regarding whether it will be Pelletier or Owen Sieben coming out for the first offensive series. “The good news is we can win with both guys which is exciting and honestly, I probably expect them both to play.”
The see-sawing back and forth from Noah to Owen has been on-going since the 2023 season when the rookie Sieben took over early in the campaign and impressed enough to win Canada West rookie of the year honours. But an opening night concussion in Calgary to start 2024 sidelined Sieben for just about the entire year as he didn’t dress again until the Mitchell Bowl loss to Laval, which kept the Rams out of the Vanier Cup, later that fall.
Meanwhile, Pelletier guided a Ram offence that, with the help of the best defence in the conference, heated up at just the right time in 2024, winning their regular season finale and then two more playoff games to capture the Hardy Cup in what is largely remembered as the one of the top-two Cinderella runs in U-of-R Rams history.
With his team on the doorstep of clinching a home playoff game, coach McConkey isn’t afraid to spice things up for his offence that averaged 40 points-per-game over their first three matches of the season but just 22.7 points-per-game in their last three.
“I think Peltch has played pretty well but after the last two games specifically, we’re struggling a bit to put the ball down the field,” McConkey said. “Just a couple of missed throws here and there. It felt like we had a bit of a spark when Owen went in so we’ll see.”
Sieben did play in both of the last two games coach Mark is referring to, entering late in the third quarter versus Manitoba one week and then late in first half of the win over Calgary a week later.
The stakes couldn’t be much higher for a Rams squad that is guaranteed to finish no lower than in third-place. Any one of a Saskatchewan Huskies win at UBC Friday night or Manitoba Bison loss at home to Calgary Saturday or Ram win in Alberta will clinch second in Canada West.
If the Huskies lose in Vancouver Friday night and the Rams win in Edmonton Saturday, it would put Regina in first-place and into the driver’s seat to control their own fate with one game left in the regular season next week.
At 5-1, the Rams are facing a 1-5 last-place University of Alberta Golden Bears roster in what might look like a mismatch on paper but Alberta has been playing much better football lately, including a surprise 20-point upset win over UBC on the same field just two games ago, led by former Saskatoon Hilltop quarterback Trey Reider.
And coming out of a bye week, as all Canada West teams are, just adds a little more unpredictability to it all.
“Our last post-bye week win was 2019,” McConkey said. “So that’s something we’re striving for as well. Let’s just take that next step as a program and as a team and know how to win after the bye. So, I really challenged our players there.”
It should be a crisp autumn afternoon of football at Edmonton’s Foote Field with temperatures forecast to hover around 11 degrees Celsius with not much wind or any precipitation expected.
Saturday’s Rams-Golden Bears game will be heard live on 620 CKRM radio with the pregame show at 1:45 and kickoff at 2:00. That broadcast will include a special halftime feature: A Ramily Affair, the Marshall Erichsen Story
