McMaster QB Marshall Ferguson knows the Marauders need to cut down on mistakes if they’re to have any hope in the Vanier Cup.Glenn Lowson/The Globe and Mail
The atmosphere was boisterous within the McMaster Marauders locker room recently after the team captured the Ontario university football championship and the players were engaged in a spirited debate over where they should continue their celebration.
Off to one side was Marshall Ferguson, McMaster's starting quarterback, who would have to forgo the post-game festivities.
The 23-year-old is a burgeoning broadcaster and he was rushing to head over to the nearby campus gymnasium where he was scheduled to do the play-by-play of a men's and women's university basketball doubleheader for the campus radio station.
"I've always loved sports and I was always that weird guy growing up who would walk into a room where a game was on the television and know right away who was doing the play-by-play," Ferguson said.
As much as he enjoys life behind the microphone, Ferguson still has some unfinished business in what will be the final game of his university career. Ferguson will lead the Marauders into Saturday's 50th edition of the Vanier Cup national championship in Montreal against the favoured University of Montreal Carabins at Percival Molson Memorial Stadium.
And Ferguson knows that unless the Marauders can inject some consistency into what has been a sputtering offensive attack the past couple of outings it will be a long afternoon against a Montreal outfit that has proven consistency on both sides of the line of scrimmage.
"It's been off and on all season for the offence, unfortunately," Ferguson said in an interview earlier this week. "I'd love to say we were consistent and averaging 45 points a game and cruising, and the starters were all out by the end of the third. The reality is that we haven't played great and in order to play our best football we have to figure it out pretty quickly these next three or four days."
Ferguson is in his fifth and final year of eligibility in Canadian Interuniversity Sport, and Saturday's game will represent the pinnacle of his intercollegiate football career.
A native of Kingston, Ferguson spent his first three seasons at McMaster as the quarterbacking understudy to Kyle Quinlan, a CIS star who guided the Marauders into two Vanier Cups, winning the national championship in 2011 in Vancouver.
Ferguson has already earned his bachelor's degree in political science. He is studying communications this year after getting bitten by the broadcasting bug about a year ago, after landing job at the McMaster radio station as the sports director.
"I was in political science and that stuff can get dark and very boring very quick," Ferguson said. "And you can be sitting in Queen's Park writing speeches for a guy who's been lying to the public for 20 years or you can go into something that you love and try to attack it.
"I was lucky to be afforded the opportunity to start working at the radio station here at McMaster. Once I got into that, that only deepened my love for it."
As for Saturday's game against the Carabins, Ferguson said he will have to cut back on the mistakes that plagued his play during the post-season if the Marauders are to have any chance at winning.
During the regular season, when he led the Marauders to a 7-1 record, Ferguson threw for more than 2,000 yards with 15 touchdown deliveries and only six interceptions.
In three playoff games – victories over the Ottawa Gee-Gees, Guelph Gryphons and, last weekend, over the Mount Allison Mounties in the Uteck Bowl national semi-final – Ferguson has been picked off six times.
"I've just got to make smarter decisions with the ball," Ferguson said.
The Marauders have relied heavily on their defence to get by, especially late in games. In their three post-season wins, the Marauders have yet to surrender a touchdown in the fourth quarter.
"This is one of the best fourth-quarter football teams I've ever been a part of," McMaster head coach Stefan Ptaszek said. "We've got to find a way to be the bad smell that hangs around for three quarters. And if we can do that against Montreal we've got a chance."
Ptaszek said his team also faces the difficulty of having to play the game in what is essentially the backyard of the Carabins at Molson Stadium.
The Montreal Alouettes of the CFL are helping to organize the event.
And since the Carabins secured their berth with a win over the Manitoba Bisons in the Mitchell Bowl last weekend, ticket sales have soared from around the 15,000 mark to more than 20,000 in just a few days, according to Alouettes president and CEO Mark Weightman.
Ptaszek, whose team arrived in Montreal on Tuesday night to begin preparations for Saturday's game, said it all amounts to a huge advantage for the Carabins.
"We've got to live in a hotel and deal with organizing our own food and stuff for the better part of a week," Ptaszek said. "They're staying on campus until Friday and they'll drive around the mountain to practise at McGill [Molson] Stadium, check into a hotel and play the next day.
"I don't think anyone that's never been a part of a locker room can fully understand how big a deal that is. That's a huge deal. It's one we're going to do our best to address."