Saint Mary's hosts Calgary in CIS semifinal today

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THE CANADIAN PRESS

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HALIFAX - Even though the schools are from different parts of the country, there's an awful lot of history between the Saint Mary's Huskies and Calgary Dinos.

As a result, the teams head into today's Uteck Bowl at 1 p.m. at Huskies Stadium here with a number of intriguing storylines.

For Huskies coach Steve Sumarah, it's a chance to go against his former teacher -- Dinos coach Blake Nill. For Calgary QB Erik Glavic, it's a chance to beat his former team, having moved west with Nill back in 2007.

During the leadup to the game, everyone involved tried to downplay the history between the teams.

"We're all aware of the subplots, but (Steve) and I are both football coaches, we're both competitors and we both want to win the game," said Nill.

Nill was the head coach at Saint Mary's from 1998-2005, winning the Atlantic University Sport title six times and back-to-back Vanier Cups in 2001 and 2002.

Sumarah was an assistant coach with those teams and also worked with Nill at St. Francis Xavier in the 1990s.

When Nill moved to Calgary four years ago, Sumarah took over the head job at Saint Mary's. Today's game will mark the first time they've faced one another. The Huskies are expecting a tough game.

"We know how good they are from what we see on film," said Sumarah. "They have weapons on offence we have to contain."

One of those weapons is Glavic, the 2007 Hec Crighton Award winner with Saint Mary's.

The quarterback is coming off a superb performance in the Canada West title game, where he passed for 479 yards and rushed for another 106 yards in Calgary's 39-38 comeback win over Saskatchewan.

Adding to the storylines of the game is that Glavic wasn't the only former Saint Mary's player to follow Nill to Calgary. Linebacker Andrea Bonaventura, defensive lineman Deji Oduwole, linebacker Julian Simmerling, defensive lineman Brandon Rockhill, and defensive back Steve Truzak also moved west.

On Thursday, Nill said the move to lure Glavic west from Saint Mary's wasn't an attempt to stick it to his former team.

Sumarah claims it hasn't jeopardized the relationship between the two men.

"Blake and I spent 14 years working together as close as you can work with someone," he said.

"We try not to let the personal get in the way of the professional."

With Glavic out of the way, quarterback Jack Creighton took over the full-time starting position for the Huskies this year, passing for 233 yards a game and throwing just six interceptions.

Creighton said he had absorbed some teaching from Glavic, but added that their relationship was never particularly close.

For Saint Mary's (8-1), ranked No. 6 in the nation, the most daunting task will be shutting down a Dinos offence that produced more than 39 points per game in the regular season, third-highest in the CIS.