The University of Regina Rams didn’t deliver the knockout against the University of Saskatchewan Huskies on Saturday night, but the Rams landed a couple of haymakers against the Huskies, especially on special teams.
On Wednesday, Rams Assistant Head Coach and Special Teams Coach Jeff Stusek was a guest on the SportsCage with Michael Ball.
On the opening kickoff of Saturday’s game, the Rams recovered an onside kick against the Huskies. The following sequence would see the Rams would score a touchdown on the opening play of the game to grab a lead 16 seconds into the first quarter.
Stusek says the Rams were preparing for the situation the film room leading up to encounter with the U of S.
“We just saw something on film that we liked, if they came out in it we were ready. ”
Even though the University of Regina were defeated by their provincial rivals on a field goal on the final play of the game, the Rams Assistant Coach believed it was great matchup between the two rivals.
It was sort of classic Saskatchewan football where two teams are swinging and punching.”
The second key play by the Rams special teams happened late in the fourth quarter, with the U of R trailing by a single point with a few minutes remaining and the Rams facing a third and six situation just inside of Huskies territory, the Rams converted on a fake punt that led to a first down. Eventually the Rams would score the go ahead field goal at the end of the drive. Stusek was confident that the trick play would work for the Rams.
“We needed it. I wouldn’t say our offence wasn’t struggling, we were just having putting the ball into the endzone, I thought punting the ball at that point was tricky we had a fake we had been repping for the last four or five weeks, ready for something like this.” Stusek added “I didn’t really think about the magnitude of the game when I called it, it was more I think it was going to work and we needed it, so were successful, the players executed it perfectly. ”
Even th0ugh the Rams didn’t pick up the victory against the Huskies this past weekend, the Rams special teams coach believes the green and gold confidence increased following the provincial battle.
“We were able to sort of prove to the world that we can hang with anyone.”
The next action for the Rams is on Friday night when they head to Vancouver and meet the UBC Thunderbirds. The game can be heard on RM2 with the pregame show at 7:45 and the opening kickoff at 8:00.
