No team from Atlantic University Sport (AUS) has won a U Sports national football semi-final game since 2007.
With the Saint Mary’s Huskies set to host the Montréal Carabins in the Uteck Bowl on Saturday, they’re fully embracing the underdog role as they look to get back to the Vanier Cup for the first time in almost 25 years.
“History says no (we can’t win), but for us, this is just another opportunity to play football and we’re going to do our best. We’re going to play hard and at the end of it we’ll see how things go,” said Saint Mary’s head coach Steve Sumarah.
“Our guys are loose. Obviously, Montréal comes in here as a heavy, heavy favourite. I think our guys are just excited to be part of this. We’re going to play hard and see what happens.”
The AUS has suffered 16 straight losses in the national semi-finals and some of them have been downright embarrassing.
The Acadia Axemen lost 81-3 to the Western Mustangs in 2017 and 38-0 to the Carabins in 2019. The St. FX X-Men didn’t fare much better in the adjacent years, losing 63-0 to the Laval Rouge et Or in 2018 and 61-6 to the Mustangs in 2021.
Doing the math, that’s four consecutive losses — there was no U Sports season in 2020 — by a combined score of 243-9.
Yikes.
The AUS has fared better since then, though they’ve yet to come close to winning a game. St. FX lost 36-19 to the Saskatchewan Huskies in 2022 and 47-17 to the UBC Thunderbirds in 2023, while the Bishop’s Gaiters lost 48-24 to Laval in 2024.
The Huskies are looking to end the drought on Saturday in what will be the program’s first national semi-final appearance since 2010. The program remains the most recent AUS school to win one back in 2007 when they knocked off Laval by a score of 24-2.
Saint Mary’s defence should give them reason for optimism as the unit has been dominant all season, ranking first nationally in points allowed per game (8.9), second in yards allowed per game (286.7), second in passing yards allowed per game (189.3), second in rushing yards allowed per game (97.3), and first in interceptions (17).
The unit will be tasked with slowing down Pepe Gonzalez, who was named the RSEQ Rookie of the Year after throwing a program-record 19 touchdown passes in 2025. The Carabins ranked fifth nationally in points per game (35.0), sixth in yards per game (441.8), fourth in passing yards per game (317.4), and fifteenth in rushing yards per game (124.4).
No AUS team has won the Vanier Cup since Saint Mary’s did so in 2002 when they beat Saskatchewan at the Rogers Centre in Toronto by a score of 33-21. The same all-Huskies matchup could occur again this year as Saskatchewan will host the Queen’s Gaels in the Mitchell Bowl on Saturday.
“The last 17 years, the AUS has not fared well. Our goal this week is to play 60 minutes of hard-nosed football,” said Sumarah.
“(The Carabins) bring in a lot of experience, they bring in a lot of talent, their coaching staff is outstanding. They’re going to be well-prepared and for us, we’re just excited to be able to say we have a game at home and we’re just going to go full-go and see what happens.”
The Saint Mary’s Huskies (9-1) will host the Montréal Carabins (8-2) in the Uteck Bowl on campus at Huskies Stadium in Halifax, N.S. on Saturday, November 15 with kickoff slated for 12:00 p.m. EST.
