Rams Run D facing major test against UBC 

By Greg Urbanoski 

The University of Regina Rams run defence, ranked number one in Canada West, faces another big test under the Friday Night Lights when the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds come to Mosaic Stadium to play the Rams. 

Paul Dawson, defensive coordinator of the Rams, is preparing his charges to face the charge of UBC’s Chris Ciezki, a three-time Canada West all start and first team All-Canadian choice in 2006. Ciezki currently ranks second in Canada West with 325 rushing yards.  

Improving the Rams run defense was a priority for Dawson heading into the season, and so far he is pleased, but not complacent about the results. 

“Certainly Mat Nesbitt is an important guy who has helped us solidify our run defense,” said Dawson. 

“Clark Gates playing weak end has done well, and guys like Paul McDill, Bjorn Person, Stanley van Sichem are a year older and doing better. If we can take their running game away, I don’t think they can pass as well as they did last year.” 

The elephant in the room for the Rams defense against UBC is not necessarily the running game, but the score the last team the two teams hooked up – 60-48 in favor of UBC. It’s a score that rubbed the Rams and Dawson the wrong way. 

“(Blaine) Smeltzer (2006 UBC quarterback facing the Rams) had a career game against us last year,” said Dawson. “He made some amazing calls and dropped in some great passes. But this year Doug Goldsby is their QB and if we can take their running game away and force them to try their vertical passing game, we should be able to stop them.” 

UBC is 2-1 after coming from behind to beat the University of Alberta last week 24-23. Dawson said in reviewing that game, it seemed UBC tried running against Alberta, but Alberta stopped their running game and got points on the board to lead UBC until the last few minutes when UBC got two touchdowns to eke out the win. 

“They’ve got a couple of new linemen and I don’t think their offensive line is as experienced as it was against us last year when we played them,” said Dawson. 

The Rams have been enjoying their bye week and Dawson has been using the time to get the players back to working on the fundamentals. 

“We’ve been playing a lot of man to man defense and blitzing a lot and this past week we have been working at having the players get off their blocks faster,” said Dawson.  

“So far this season we’ve done some things pretty good on defense. The first game we played against Manitoba, the wind pretty well determined if we were playing pass or rush defense but they pretty well had field position in their favor. Against the U of A we ran some blitzes perfectly and they had no first downs until about three minutes left in the first half. Now we have to play the best running back in the conference.” 

Dawson said van Sichem, who is playing with a cast on his broken arm, is feeling better, but Steve Ryan, who had suffered a bad ankle sprain, may be replaced by Tamon George in the defensive backfield.

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