LONDON, Ont. - The Western Mustangs will kick off the OUA football playoffs, and their pursuit of a third straight Yates Cup title, at 1p.m. on Saturday Oct. 31 at TD Waterhouse Stadium (RADIO: CHRW 94.9 FM, CJBK 1290 AM / TV: The Score, Channel 54 in London on Rogers).

Unfortunately, for one of the two fifth-year quarterbacks facing off in this electric match-up, the game will also mark the end of their OUA football career. Both Mustangs quarterback Michael Faulds and Gryphons pivot Justin Dunk are finishing their final year of OUA football eligibility and this is their last chance to cement their legacies at their respective institutions. 

This year will be Dunk's last chance to bring a Yates Cup trophy home. Guelph has not won an OUA football title since 1996. If they were to lose this game, this would be the second straight year that Guelph would lose in the quarterfinal round of the playoffs. 

Faulds enters his last playoff push as one of the greatest quarterbacks to ever play for the Western Mustangs. He has already led his team to back-to-back Yates Cup wins in 2007 and 2008, and last week he became the all-time CIS passing leader, having already eclipsed Western passing yardage records once held by Chris Hessel earlier this year. A win this week would get him one step closer to winning his first Vanier Cup title, a feat not managed by a Western football team since 1994. 

These two teams faced off in an offensive shoot-out earlier this season. The game ended when a last-minute field goal by Mustang kicker Darryl Wheeler lifted Western over Guelph by just two points, for a final score of 41 - 39. Guelph coach Kyle Walters doesn't put too much stock in the last game's outcome. 

"There are things that worked last time that we're all aware of, but they'll make adjustments to what we did well and vice versa",  he said.

Walters recognizes that the Gryphons have a difficult game ahead, especially given his team's recent performance. Guelph suffered through a late-season collapse and lost their last three regular season games, barely squeaking into the playoffs. When asked what the Gryphons need to improve on in order to beat the Mustangs in a hostile environment, Walters flippantly remarked: 

"We have to stop them from scoring as much and we have to score more points. More seriously, our biggest concern is inconsistency. If we can play offence, defence, and special teams at close to the level I've seen us play at times in the last few months, then we'll get it done. The second half of the last game [against McMaster] was as close as we've come in a while, so we'll build on that." 

Part of the problem Walters sees is that the Gryphons have been falling behind early and haven't been able to get their running game going. He wants running back Nate FitzGibbon (Puslinch, Ont.) to get more touches. 

"When you're behind early like we were last week you can't give him the ball. However, we have some ways of passing him the ball out of the backfield." 

The biggest concern of Walters' counterpart, Mustangs head coach Greg Marshall, is the Western defence. 

"They're a young group, and when you have young players they make mistakes and are sometimes tentative. They've got a great challenge ahead of them," he said. 

Marshall's worry is that his defence might perform the same way it did when the Mustangs lost a heartbreaker to the Queen's Golden Gaels, 27-26, on Oct 17. It was a loss that eventually cost Western a first-round bye in the playoffs. 

"We don't want to play like we did against Queen's. When they started moving the ball we got tentative and got down. You can't get down when they make a big play, you just need to re-focus. We're going to have some unpredictability in our defence this week." 

Marshall isn't bothered that his team is missing out on the bye. 

"There's advantages to playing, keeping the guys into it. But there are also risks of injury and advantages to letting your kids get healthy for a week. But we did it in '07, [when the Mustangs missed the bye and still won the Yates Cup] when we were on the road the whole time against teams that beat us during the regular season. My feeling is that if we're doing to be the best team then we have to beat the best. It doesn't matter what Guelph's record is, they are a great football team. If we are going to be a great team we have to beat some of those teams." 

"Our coaches were disappointed that we didn't get the bye, but our players are excited that they get to play another week. We have a bunch of young players, and they're pumped. I've been coaching a while, but I was up last night thinking about this game." 

Walters is just as excited as Marshall, saying: "Football is a violent and emotional game. You need to play on the edge of being out of control, and that's a fine line you need to get to but not cross." 

Two great teams led by phenomenal quarterbacks and excited coaching staffs will make for a great match-up. The game will be broadcast on The Score.

The teams kickoff at 1 p.m. on Saturday October 31st at TD Waterhouse Stadium in London, Ont.

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