Western's Greg Marshall, Laurier's Michael Faulds downplay their history; 5 storylines for CIS football playoffs' opening weekend

Michael Faulds and Greg Marshall would have you believe their history together is hardly germane to Saturday.

The bright young Laurier Golden Hawks coach's first playoff game will come in the same TD Waterhouse Stadium where, as a Western Mustangs quarterback from 2005-09, he set a Canadian Interuniversity Sport for career passing yards. Faulds and his former coach, Marshall, are downplaying what they share  — which included three Yates Cups appearances, two wins and a Vanier Cup berth in '08 — ahead of their Ontario University Athletics quarter-final on Saturday. Seventh-ranked Western (6-2) is trying to stabilize itself after losing QB Will Finch and falling back into the third playoff seed in the OUA, but it did handle the Hawks 61-20 in a regular-season tilt where Stevenson Bone was under centre.

"I am so proud of Michael and what he has accomplished," Marshall says. "To be perfectly honest, I'm not surprised. A lot of people asked me when Laurier hired Michael [in early 2013] if I thought he was too young. I said, 'yeah, he's too young but he's a guy I would hire.' He's a natural leader and a great football coach and outstanding person. It will be great coaching against him, but last game someone asked me the same question and I said, 'I don't even know who's coaching on the other side.'

"Michael will attest to that. Once the game starts, you block everything else out. So, for three hours on Saturday it will be, 'Michael who?' "

Marshall's third-seeded Mustangs (6-2) were so banged-up defensively last week that wide receiver Justin Sanvido was used as an extra cover guy on obvious passing downs. Faulds' young, sixth-seeded Golden Hawks (4-4) have to contain the hydra that is the Mustangs' running game.

"I don't think there are many nerves," Faulds says. "No one outside our locker room believes we're going to win the football game. But we've got a bunch of young guys that want to play loose and play fast.

"It's kind of neat," Faulds adds in reference to a playoff game in London. "I have a ton of fond memories from playoff games in that stadium, big games we played over the years. But this is a different situation and we live in the now."

Fifth-seeded Ottawa (5-3) visits Windsor (5-3) in the other OUA quarter-final. Down east, St. FX (4-4) hosts Acadia (3-5) in an Atlantic University Sport semi-final. Here's a handful of plot sweeteners for Saturday:

Can Laurier slow down Western — CFL prospect Chris Ackie and his Laurier defensive mates gave up an eye-popping 431 rushing yards — and 720 on the night — in the teams' Oct. 9 game. Western did not have a top-five rusher in the regular season, but the tag team of Yannick Harou and Garret Sanvido were sixth and 10th.

"They have great weapons at receiver but everything goes through their run game," Faulds says. "I know Coach [Ron] Van Moerkerke, our defensive coordinator, has come up with some different schemes to hopefully slow it down. It's a great running attack and you're never going to completely shut it down but you just want to make them think about throwing the football. In the first game, they could have run it every time."

Bone, the son of Western great Jamie Bone, will be making only his second start after Finch sustained his apparent second head injury in a month last Saturday. He will have to pass well enough to keep Laurier's defence honest.

"He did do a very good job when we played Laurier last time," Marshall says. "He was able to stand in the pocket and take some shots. He ran the ball and pulled it down when we needed him to. We don't need him to be Will Finch."

Will Flight 34 take off — Prolific Laurier tailback Dillon Campbell tallied 1,462 yards over the eight-game regular season; in comparison, only two other players in the 11-team OUA combined for that many. Against Western, he was held (relatively speaking) to 111. A big afternoon against the Mustangs, whose D is on the hot seat after collapsing in losses to McMaster and Guelph, is crucial.

"The thing about Dillon is that you if you give him enough carries, there will be one and two-yard gains, but eventually he will find a crease and crack a big one," says Faulds, whose quarterback James Fracas has played in one playoff game. "The other problem with consistently running with first down is you leave yourself in a lot of second-and-longs. We want to avoid that since we're facing the fiercest front seven in the conference.

"We'll find different ways to get Dillon the football.".

Windsor Lancers in unfamiliar territory, home for the playoffs — Windsor quarterback Austin Kennedy has succeeded on his stated goal to have his team host a playoff game, something the Lancers haven't enjoyed since the Daryl Stephenson era in the mid-aughties. However, the Lancers' record includes a forfeit win over Queen's and it has lost 3-of-4 in the second half. The rub is the only win was a 39-29 verdict over Ottawa on the Friday of Thanksgiving weekend. The Gee-Gees fell behind by three TDs early and couldn't fully recover.

"It's one of those things that we're obviously not used to," Lancers coach Joe D'Amore says. "I think we have a pretty veteran team — a group of guys that realize the importance but at the same time relish it and are excited about it. We have to play for 60 minutes against a real tough opponent.

"The accomplishments he's had put him up there with anyone in the CIS," D'Amore says of Kennedy, who tied the OUA career record of 79 touchdown passes last Saturday. "It's just a matter of executing."

Gee-Gees armed with new attitude — One game usually does not a turnaround make, but Ottawa looks ready to go on the road after being enriched by two rookies who arrived in August as backup tailbacks. Montreal native Bryce Vieira has six touchdowns in the last three games and rushed for 170 yards when Ottawa beat first-place McMaster to secure its playoff spot. Inserting Jackson Bennett at safety has enabled the Gee-Gees, now ranked No. 10 in CIS, to play a more attack-based scheme. Outside linebacker Khadim Mbaye had three sacks vs. McMaster.

Bennett becoming the glue of a Gee-Gees secondary that was porous early on in the season indirectly came about due to an off-season injury.

"Bryce is an an older kid as a  [Quebec] CEGEP graduate, he brings a bit more maturity," Ottawa coach Jamie Barresi says. "Jackson, he has great leadership skills. His situation is unique. We expected him to be on offence. Over the summer, he tweaked his hamstring and had to sit out training camp. The other guys were established and we felt we needed him over in the secondary. His development was hampered but he is someone we felt would be a contributor early and that's what's happpened so far.

"We were more comfortable with the way we were situated," Barresi adds in reference to the defensive tweak. "We just felt we had to attack a bit more."

Ottawa quarterback Derek Wendel will make his first post-season start. The lowest remaining seed goes to McMaster for a semifinal on Nov. 8, with the other quarter-final survivor facing Guelph.

St. FX seeks sustained success — A university report was found that football at St. Francis Xavier is "unsustainable," which probably isn't exactly what the X-Men want to hear before a playoff game vs. rival Acadia.

All varsity programs go through the exercise of having to justify their existence to highers-up; the word is there is "zero per cent chance" that the X-Men program will be cut. Whatever it says for the long-term health of the university football game can be contemplated later. For now, St. FX and Tivon Cook, who led the AUS in passing yards, have a chance to earn a rematch against Mount Allison (8-0), which will host the Loney Bowl on Nov. 88. They lost their two games vs. first-place Mounties by a total of just 10 points.

The Canada West and Quebec conferences complete their regular seasons this weekend.

Neate Sager is a writer for Yahoo! Canada Sports. Follow him on Twitter @neatebuzzthenet.