The Western Mustangs host the Queen’s Gaels in the 2022 Yates Cup championship on Saturday afternoon at Western Alumni Stadium.
No school has won more Yates Cup titles than the Mustangs going back to the introduction of the Yates Cup in 1898.
Western sits at 33. Queen’s is third on the list of Ontario schools with 23, behind the University of Toronto and its 25 championships.
The Mustangs have played in the past seven Yates Cup games and have won three of the last four.
Prior to the game, the OUA handed out its annual awards that saw Western’s Danny Valente named stand-up defensive player of the year and Mustang running back Keon Edwards named OUA most valuable player. Edwards received the first-ever Larry Haylor award for that honour after the award was named after the late Western head coach.
Current Mustang head coach Greg Marshall was named OUA coach of the year and sat down with 980 CFPL’s Mike Stubbs to talk about the accomplishments and the Yates Cup matchup with Queen’s.
Stubbs: Greg, football is known as the ultimate team sport but you and two of your players received some individual honours this week. When a coach receives the nod as coach of the year, how does that coach tend to feel about it?
Marshall: I think, Mike, it’s a team award. It’s presented to the coach of the team that’s been successful, but it’s really a reflection on everyone. It’s a part of our football program, our players, our assistant coaches, our staff. Football is the ultimate team sport and individual awards are nice, but you know, we’re playing for the big game and we’ve got one this Saturday.
Stubbs: We will definitely talk about that game in just a minute, but let’s touch on two other award winners first: Keon Edwards, who takes home the first honour named after Larry Haylor and Danny Valente as stand-up defensive player of the year. What can you say about those two players?
Marshall: Renaming the award in honour of Larry Haylor means so much for the great legacy of Larry and to have Keon be the first winner is excellent. I said to Keon when I told him that (Larry Haylor) would be so proud of him. He is absolutely Larry’s type of player. Tough, hard-working, a team-first guy and so unselfish. Larry would have been proud that it was Keon. He put his time in on special teams and was the backup to Trey Humes and Alex Taylor and Cedric Joseph and all the other running backs that we had. So he put his time in and never complained and just kept working. So I’m really, really proud of Keon. And Danny Valente has been here for five years. He’s been a leader in our defence for four. In that time, he’s been part of two Vanier Cup championship teams. He’s the quarterback back there. Our defensive coaches do a great job. Coach Gleason puts together a great game plan. But Danny is the one who is the coach on the field and orchestrates things. On top of that, he is great in pass coverage and makes plays against the run. So he’s a captain of our team, as is Keon. It’s really special that both those boys won those awards.
Stubbs: We’re at the stage of the year where games come with trophies. It is time for the Yates Cup and you get to see the Queen’s Gaels. You’ve talked to us about this time of year. The weather’s going to turn a little bit. Running and stopping the run become key. What is the key to doing what you want to do in the Yates Cup?
Marshall: The one area where we’ve been very successful this year is not turning the football over. Being disciplined, not taking penalties, controlling the football and stopping the run are always keys. And if you look at the way Queen’s is built, they are a very good and very disciplined team. They don’t take penalties. They protect the football and they don’t turn it over either. They play a really stout defence. Queen’s is a very well-coached football team and a team that’s looking at film and has gotten better each week. And so this is going to be a great matchup on Saturday.
Stubbs: What do you need to do or see in the first series offensively that will indicate things are going the way you need them to in order to be successful?
Marshall: Throw the football. Part of it depends on the wind because you really have to have a definitive game plan if it’s windy and you have to run the football against the wind and eat time up and try to get out of the quarter. Both teams are built for playing with a lead and you don’t want to get to where you are forced to do things that you aren’t comfortable doing. We want to play the field position game and get points when we can and realize that this is going to be a 60-minute game. Be prepared that it’s going to come down to the fourth quarter.
Stubbs: Finally, health-wise, how are things?
Marshall: We’re good. We’re healthy. This is probably as healthy as we’ve been all year and I think Queen’s is in a similar situation. We’re ready to go.
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