• The Rams opened up their Canada West schedule with a thrilling (and sometimes bizarre) 43-36 overtime win on the road over Calgary last Friday.

• Marshall Erichsen was named the Canada West Offensive Player of the Week after setting a school record with four rushing touchdowns in the win.

• Alberta comes into Friday's game with an 0-1 record after a 29-20 home loss to Sasaktchewan in Week 1.

ERICHSEN'S BIG DAY: Coming into Friday's game, three different players — Cory Olynick, Atlee Simon, and Sam Varao — shared the school record for touchdown runs in a single game with three. RB Marshall Erichsen eclipsed that mark last Friday, becoming the first player in U of R history to rush for four majors in one game. Erichsen, an easy choice for Canada West Offensive Player of the Week, rushed 27 times for 113 yards and also caught 4 passes for 57 yards as he finished with 170 all-purpose yards in the victory.

ONE-TWO PUNCH: WR Nicholas Sirleaf had 9 catches for 160 yards and SB Renzel Arinaza hauled in 9 passes for 111 yards, giving both players career single-game highs in both categories. They become the first teammates to hit triple digits in receiving yards in the same contest since Mitchell Picton and Ryan Schienbein accomplished that feat back during the 2017 season.

AGAINST ALBERTA: The home team has ruled this series in recent years — the last time a road team won a game was in 2019, when Alberta dealt the Rams an 18-17 loss at Mosaic before the Rams returned the favour in Edmonton with a 31-17 win just over a month later. Since then, the home side is a perfect 5-0. Regina holds an all-time 24-13 edge over the Golden Bears, who remain the only Canada West team that the Rams have never played in a postseason contest.

DEFENSIVELY: LB Brandon Wong led the Rams with 7.5 tackles and also got through the Calgary offensive line on the final play of the third quarter for his second career sack. DL Anthony Montas Leipert stepped up on Calgary's next drive, stopping a run on first down before taking down Dinos quarterback David Jordan deep in Calgary territory for his first career sack. That led directly to a conceded Calgary safety.

OVERTIME: Calgary won the toss before extra session, but it was all Rams from there. QB Noah Pelletier hit Arinaza for an 11-yard pass, then an 18-yard rush by Erichsen put the Rams on Calgary's six-yard line and the third-year running back took it in on the next play. Calgary's overtime possession saw three consecutive incomplete passes, with DB Carson Sombach getting a hand on two of them.

IN THE RANKINGS: The Rams moved up one spot to No. 9 in this week's U SPORTS Top Ten. They moved up courtesy of Guelph and Manitoba both falling out of the rankings with losses, but UBC's season-opening win over the Bisons vaulted the Thunderbirds from unranked territory all the way up to No. 8. The Golden Bears haven't received any votes through the first two polls of the season.

NATIONAL LEADERS: Erichsen is tied with Western's Ethan Dolby and Saint Mary's Malik Williams for the U SPORTS lead with four touchdowns scored, though Dolby and Williams both have two games played to Erichsen's one. All three of those players are tied for fourth in the nation in points scored — all three leaders in that category are OUA kickers. Sirleaf also ranks second in receiving yards per game behind only Toronto's Chris Joseph, who has 388 receiving yards through his team's first two contests.

MILESTONES: Lost in his touchdown heroics was the fact that Erichsen also became just the sixth player in U of R history to register 1000 career rushing yards during the Week 1 game. QB Noah Pelletier, who was 25-for-36 for 358 passing yards on Friday including a 55-yard bomb to Sirleaf for a touchdown, overtook Rams legend Darryl Leason for fifth in career passing yards on the U of R all-time list.

YOUTH MOVEMENT: K Ty Gorniak had a perfect Canada West debut in last Friday's win, hitting 26-yard and 33-yard field goals while also going 5-for-5 on PATs. Gorniak — at 18 years and 52 days of age — became the youngest University of Regina player ever to score a point, breaking the old mark set by Kolten Solomon back during the 2007 season. That obviously also makes Gorniak the youngest to ever hit a field goal for the U of R Rams — that record had been previously held by Mark Wernikowski since the 2000 campaign.

NEW OC: New to the staff this year is offensive coordinator Jaeden Marwick, who joins the squad after a three-year stint at Miller Comprehensive HS in Regina. Marwick, who earned All-Canadian honours as a quarterback with the Regina Thunder in 2015, played one season of U SPORTS football with Bishop's in 2016. He replaces Josh Donnelly, who left in the offseason to become an offensive assistant with the Saskatchewan Roughriders. Marwick's offence piled up 471 yards of offence in the season opener, putting the Rams ninth in the nation heading into Week 2.

DEBUTS: The Rams expect to have up to three players dress for their first career Canada West game on Friday including OL Nate Boyd, LB Andrew Stewart, and DL Mike Zalaski. Boyd is in his second year with the Rams out of Balgonie's Greenall High School, Stewart is a product of Regina's F.W. Johnson Collegiate in his third year with the program, while Zalaski is a rookie from Edmonton's Harry Ainlay High School.

RAMS TERRITORY: This year's roster features 105 players, with 71 of those players hailing from Saskatchewan. The squad also has 17 players from Alberta, 12 from British Columbia, 2 from Manitoba, and 1 each from Ontario, Arizona, and Washington.