Western and McMaster are ranked No. 3 and No. 4 in the country respectively. Both squads are undefeated, and both are expected to be in Yates Cup contention. This match-up is being pitched as the marquee game of the weekend – a preview for what the playoffs will produce.
The offence – Advantage: Western
Quarterback Will Finch is the finest pivot talent in the OUA and possibly CIS. He has accuracy on deep throws, can run the ball if needed and now has experience under his belt. Before the 2014 season started, Finch told the London Free Press he felt more comfortable with the offence, meaning the playbook would be expanded. That’s a scary statement considering the Mustangs led the country in scoring last season. Running backs Yannick Harou and Garrett Sanvido combine for an average of 145.5 yards per game. Due to blowout games, the duo has not had to play as long as they would in a competitive game, so their numbers are a little deflated.
Lining up under centre for Mac is Marshall Ferguson. His numbers – 259 yards per game, nine touchdowns, four interceptions – match up well with Finch’s, but have not yet seen a defence like Western’s. The Marauder running game has been the strong suit so far, with Wayne Moore and Chris Pezzetta doing the heavy lifting and combining for 149.8 yards per game. Between the two, they have nine touchdowns.
Western gets the advantage here primarily because of their red zone production. It is not much better, but Mac still cannot consistently get six points when they reach the score zone.
The defence – Advantage: McMaster
The defensive side of Western’s team is where they got hit the hardest with turnover. LB Beau Landry was capable of zone coverage over the middle of the field, while also providing a consistent run-stopping presence. Dylan Ainsworth, a defensive lineman, joined the Saskatchewan Roughriders and leaves a gap on the line that cannot be easily filled. Western lost Pawel Kruba to graduation and he was another linebacker with an array of above-average skills.
Mac lost some pieces too, as we have covered before. But they have bounced back nicely, as Jacob Heathcote has filled the linebacking role alongside Nick Shorthill. Scott Martin, Steve Ventresca and Joey Cupido are still the best coverage corps in the conference. The d-line has a mixture of guys capable of crushing pockets and moving the quarterback, but their main job will be to stop the run and force 2nd and long situations. Finch is too good running the ball, and Mac struggled against Guelph’s scrambling QB Jazz Lindsey. The Marauders will want to force the Mustangs to throw the ball and let their superior DB group take care of business.
Mac has the advantage because their assets have proven themselves to be as good or better than they were the year before. Western, with the turnover, has regressed but their D has not been tested yet. The Mustangs have played York, Queen’s, Toronto and Waterloo. This will be the first time Greg Marshall’s bunch goes against a true offence with multiple threats.
It’s not always easy to decide what courses to take. Every year, after flipping through the course calendar or asking friends, students battle with SOLAR to choose their courses.
But with a recent website development, the MSU hopes to make the process easier.
Current MSU VP (Education) Huzaifa Saeed has spearheaded the creation of the MSU Course Wikipedia, an online database of course information. The website, which is currently a beta version, is based on a site established by the Western University Science Students’ Council.
“It was something I noticed last year,” explained Saeed. “When it comes to actually choosing a course, the only information available is the course outline, which often doesn’t go up until August. The other source students have is MacInsiders, which has course reviews…but if something is designed with ratings in mind that might not be the best thing for you to get information from.”
The MSU-run website, which was programmed by McMaster computer science student Abdul Rahman Khodr, is able to be edited by the general public.
The pages are meant to give a more comprehensive look at each course, including a breakdown of content and assessment methodologies. Saeed explained that this was key, since according to surveys administered over the course of the year, students care a lot about how they were assessed.
Each page will also have space for comments, so as to allow for course reviews or extra information.
While Saeed is in the final weeks of his term, he hopes to see good progress on the project before then, with the goal of having at least 10 or 15 courses posted as models for students to work from.
And he thinks his successor will also be keen to promote it. He noted that both candidates for the position have shown awareness of and interest in the project.
“Since the MSU doesn’t really have a traditional role in on-the-ground academics, they’ll take it upon themselves to really run a grassroots campaign,” he said.
The plan is also to have individual faculties take charge of posting their own courses through the faculty societies and their VPs Academic, giving the VPs “the option to do more policy [work] and direct academics.”
The website is set to be officially launched this week, and the goal is to have the website be fully functional by September 2013.
Aelya Salman / Silhouette Staff
Sometimes (not often enough for me to worry about it constantly but not seldom enough for it to go unnoticed by me) when I’m speaking in English, especially if I’m excited or talking fast, I’ll replace a W with a V or my “neutral accent” will slip up and one word will sound heavier than the other. Sometimes (again, not often enough for it to plague me) I sound, even if only subtly, like a foreigner.
I’ve been teased about it before even though the teasing was in good humour from a person I’m very close to.
It didn’t bother me too much then and in some ways it doesn’t bother me much now, but the fact that something like that was given attention makes my cheeks flush both with anger and embarrassment.
Embarrassment because it’s a natural reaction to anything that calls attention to you in a way you’re not entirely comfortable with. Embarrassment because, well, why did it even happen? I’ve been speaking English my whole life.
I watched Hollywood flickers and Nickelodeon as a kid. Damn it, I had Titanic memorized before the age of ten. Why do I (sometimes) have an accent? “Fobs” have accents. “Confused” people have accents. People who don’t know how to use the TTC or people who don’t adhere to Western cultural signifiers (such as dress) have accents. I’m none of “those” people.
Anger because it shouldn’t matter. I speak English at a level that’s higher than many, read at a pace and absorb at a rate that’s gifted.
I speak English as well as speaking Urdu and English isn’t even my mother tongue. British Christians taught me English. Golden Books and Jack Nicholson taught me English. My grandparents and my cousins and my parents taught me Urdu. I see only my parents now and only for less than a quarter of the day. It shouldn’t matter that my “accent” shows sometimes or that I say a word funny.
I can read and write and speak and sing and cry in English. I can read and speak and sometimes write and can’t sing and always cry in Urdu. As a result of numerous circumstances, as well as being entangled within a community that engages in self-loathing to an appalling degree, I’ve had to be more English than Urdu.
I’m angry because the people who have (even though it was harmless) teased me about my slip-ups are Canadian born and bred. Or they don’t know their mother tongues. Or they too, hate themselves. And I don’t need that. I don’t need your fucking negativity when it comes to figuring myself out, when it comes to conversing with my grandmother over the phone, when it comes to being all that I am capable of being.
I’m angry because a Francophile speaking abhorrent English is apparently a hell of a lot cuter than my uncle who speaks great English with his Pakistani accent. I’m angry because this happens to South Asians all the fucking time. You’re not English enough, you’re not assimilated enough and you’re not enough for anything - not even your own culture.
So while I navigate this vast grey area between Here and There, I have zero tolerance for self-aggrandizing assholes who probably couldn’t out-write, out-speak, or out-perform me in either language anyway.
