London, ON – As the weather patterns start to change, some leaves are starting to change colours and the sound of whistles blowing, pads crashing and play calls have returned to Canadian university campuses as the 2024 U SPORTS Football season is upon us.

This year's edition of the Western Mustangs appears to have fewer question marks than previous seasons. Our starting quarterback, Evan Hillock is back and both starting running backs have returned in Keon Edwards & Keanu Yazbeck. The offensive and defensive lines are stocked with experienced members of the team along with some talented depth players. At first look, things are looking to be on a good track as training camp for the season finishes up.

There are a couple of notable absences from last year's team, including Receiver Savaughn Magnaye-Jones and Defensive Back Robert Panabaker who have been standouts for the Mustangs for the past several seasons, both finished their five seasons of eligibility last season and have graduated from the program.

Head Coach Greg Marshall is back for his 17^th season at the helm of the Mustangs, while he is one of the most tenured coaches in the country, he says this time of year is still very exciting.

"We have an outstanding group of young and veteran players this year, I've been at this a long time now but it never gets old," said Marshall "Coming back into training camp our players really look like they are ready to go and I am looking forward to seeing what they can do this season."

There are some new faces on the coach staff this year. Dennis McPhee joins the Mustangs as Defensive Line Coach. He has had a coaching career spanning nearly 40 years in U SPORTS as well as the CFL, with his most recent stop as Defensive Coordinator with Guelph. Matt Palliiwoda will join McPhee with the Defensive Line coaches. Sean Jamieson has hung up his pads in the CFL and will be an Offensive Line Coach & Olivier Eddy will be the running backs coach.

The receivers will all need to take a step forward this season with the departure of Magnaye-Jones, this means Mohsen Jamal, Seth Robertson & Brayden Misseri all will be relied more for their skills. Even without Magnaye-Jones this group was still among some of the best in the country last season with Jamal racking up 700 yards and 5 TDs last year, Robertson had 590 yards and 8 TDs while Misseri brought down 3 TDs and 294 yards receiving.

Special teams will also see a vast majority of familiarity with Brian Garrity handling the field goals and extra points while AJ Williamson returns for punting duties. One to keep an eye on this season is the 2023 standout kick returner in Daniel Kubongo. The Calgary native was a rising star last season when he showed off his blazing speed and quick feet amassing 354 yards of punt returns last year including a pair of TDs, with some space opening on the receivers core, you might see Kubongo getting some reps in both areas.

If there are any question marks coming into this season, it could be how the many injuries that plagued the end of last season. By all accounts, those injuries have been rested, recovered and fixed with all involved saying they are good to go for the '24 campaign.

SCHEDULE
The Mustangs start the season with their longest road trip, up to the nations capital in Ottawa to take on the Gee-Gees. Ottawa finished 4-4 last year and is looking to improve on that number which should be a good test for the Mustangs to see where their group is at.

Weeks 2 & 3 will be home games, starting with a September 1 matchup against the Waterloo Warriors at Western Alumni Stadium. The Warriors finished 3-5 in 2023 and got the last playoff spot, falling in the opening round to Laurier. That game will be a 7pm start on the Sunday of O-Week here at Western. Just 6 days later the Mustangs will host the Carleton Ravens in the debut of our "Whiteout" game where we will wear our white uniforms and ask that our fans do the same. The Ravens had a 4&4 record last season and had a hard fought first round matchup against the Windsor Lancers in the playoffs but Windsor eliminated the Ravens 14-11.

Week 4 sees the Mustangs in a rematch of the 115^th Yates Cup against the Laurier Golden Hawks. Both meetings in the 2023 season were some of the best football games of the year in the OUA last season with Western taking the last regular season matchup 33-30 to secure the first round playoff bye and then followed that up with a 29-14 win to secure the 35^th OUA Football Championship in program history.

The second half of the regular season will see Western host one of their most heated rivals, the Queen's Gaels. While the Laurier matchups of 2023 were perhaps the most intense, one of the most notable moments of last year came when Evan Hillock connected with Magnaye-Jones for a 55 yard touchdown with 13 seconds left in the week 4 matchup at Richardson Stadium. The moment gained national and international attention on social media for the Queen's radio broadcast call of the play which included an exasperated commentator yelling "NOOOOOOO" when Magnaye-Jones caught the winning TD to take the win. Add to the fact that this year's meeting between the two is Homecoming weekend at Western, you know both sides will be geared up for that one.

Week 6 of our season takes us on the road to Hamilton to take on the McMaster Marauders. McMaster had a tough season in 2023, finishing with a 2-6 record which meant they missed the playoffs. The two squads faced off early last year with the Mustangs winning 34-22 which included a tie game at half time. Evan Hillock would finish the game with 26 completions and 388 yards with 2 TDs and Keon Edwards rushed for three TDs in the win.

Week 7 we stay on the road, this time returning to the University of Toronto to take on the Varsity Blues. The new look Blues, under a new head coach (Darrel Adams), Toronto should be a very interesting team to keep an eye one. The Varsity Blues made the trip to Western in 2023 for the same week last year but the Mustangs took a 66-24 win in that one.

Rounding out the 2024 regular season, Western returns home to take on one of the growing programs in the country in the Windsor Lancers. Windsor is led by former Mustangs Offensive Line Coach Jean-Paul Circelli. This will be his fifth season at the helm of the OUA's southernmost team and each meeting in that time has always seemed to have great meaning. The 2023 meeting between the two came in week 6 in Windsor as playoff positioning was starting to heat up. Both sides had a low-scoring first half with the Lancers holding a 10-8 lead at halftime but a Seth Robertson TD early in the fourth quarter and Brian Garrity's third and fourth field goals of the game secured the win for the Mustangs en route to their undefeated regular season. Most assume this matchup to round out the 2024 season could also being very meaningful leading into the 2024 playoffs.

The excitement of another OUA campaign is upon us for the 95^th season of Western Mustangs Football. Make sure to get your tickets as season ticket packages and single game tickets are all on sale now at WesternMustangs.ca/Tickets and be sure to watch all the action this season on OUA.tv.