Another thrilling season of RSEQ football is nearly here. Laval’s quest for back-to-back titles and quarterbacks galore headline this year’s discussion topics as we enter 2025.
Can Laval repeat as Vanier Cup champs?
Fresh off a record 12th national championship, Laval enters 2025 looking to add to their storied legacy by becoming the first team in 12 years to repeat as Vanier Cup champs. The last team to do so? Also the Rouge et Or, back in 2013. Can they complete the back-to-back? We will find out soon.
With a significant returning core – including all but three starters from last year’s lineup – and a solid recruiting class, fans can expect a tight-knit Laval group to maintain their consistency. It starts at the quarterback position, where 6’5” Arnaud Desjardins returns for his final year at the helm. The two-time Vanier Cup champ, Bruce Coulter Award Winner, All-Canadian and 2024 RSEQ MVP was the most efficient passer in the country last year, throwing for 2,273 yards and 17 majors to just one interception, and his ability to control a versatile Laval attack will be key to the team’s success.
Expect “The Artist,” Olivier Cool to be a favourite target, one year after an All-Canadian season where he led RSEQ and was third in the nation in receiving yards, with 721, while also tying for the U SPORTS lead with ten receiving touchdowns. Meanwhile, Nathan Carignan, who set a CEGEP Division 1 record with 1,171 receiving yards in 2023, is a player to watch after transferring from McGill. He returns to the gridiron after an injury-halted 2024 campaign.
Who will take the reins at quarterback in Montreal?
The Carabins led RSEQ with 11 All-Star selections a year ago, one ahead of Laval, and they also led the country with nine All-Canadians. The decorated program will be hungry for their second national title in the last three seasons, bringing back many key pieces, however they begin life without 2023 Hec Crighton and Vanier Cup MVP Jonathan Sénécal at quarterback.
A consistently productive offensive line will surely be a strength, including East West Bowl selections Alassane Diouf (First Team All-Canadian) and Adam Lachance, who will be among those leading the way for First Team All-Canadian Lucas Bertet-Dembele (758 all-purpose yards), and company, but the biggest question will be at QB1.
helping his country win a world championship last June
Veteran Rakim Canal-Charles is another player to keep an eye on at pivot. Well loved in the locker room, it will be interesting to see how camps plays out for the gunslinger in his efforts to gain starting duties. His brother Ralph is also a receiver on the team.
After a strong recruiting cycle, what does Eloa Latendresse-Regimbald and McGill have in store?
McGill is coming off a solid 2024 campaign, going 5-3 while leading RSEQ in rushing offence, with 1,166 yards and nine majors. A bulk of that production came from dual-threat pivot Eloa Latendresse-Regimbald, a Team Canada selection and Football Canada Cup MVP who last year became the first pivot in school history to pass for over 400 yards and rush for over 100 in the same game. Latendresse-Regimbald led RSEQ with 781 yards on the ground and nine scores, and the 6’4” playmaker and his McGill teammates show no signs of slowing down.
The U SPORTS Rookie of the Year in 2022 will have plenty of weapons, including a number of notable recruits, as head coach Alex Surprenant went to work.
Notably, 6’1”, 215-pound Jerry Momo – a CEGEP Division 1 MVP out of Champlain-Lennoxville with next level speed and size – as well as 6’6” 245-pound Charles-Olivier Cyr, a Team Canada alum from Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, and fellow Team Canada selection Samuel Macieira, a Collège Lionel-Groulx product with the prototypical Canadian slotback body type and playing style, who can also kick. Will these additions and a number of others help McGill take the next step in 2025?
Can Concordia’s defence rise up in 2025?
The aforementioned Surprenant was on Concordia’s staff as quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator during a vast chunk of Olivier Roy’s years as QB1, where he went on to win RSEQ MVP, while helping the program to a 5-3 finish in 2023, their best result since 2014. With Roy graduating, it’s time for a new era at Concordia under centre. With that in mind, it could be up to a fast, athletic Stingers defence to rise up and elevate their game further.
It will be the third year within defensive coordinator Paul Eddy Saint-Villen’s system, while Nicholas Melsbach (linebackers coach), Martin Lapostolle (defensive line coach) and Olivier Fréchette Lemire (defensive backs coach) also enter year three, confident and comfortable with the group they have.
In 2024, defensive back Mendel Joseph became the first Concordia Stinger to be named RSEQ Defensive Player of the Year in 13 years, after recording four interceptions for 56 yards and a major, along with 21 solo tackles and six pass breakups, and he’ll help anchor a defensive unit that will also include the likes of as fifth-year linebacker William Castonguay (led team with 48 tackles, plus two sacks), fourth-year defensive back Jean-Sébastien Lamothe (39 tackles, one pass breakup), fourth-year linebacker Loïk Gagné (2023 RSEQ All-Star), third-year defensive lineman Emilio Vidali (2024 RSEQ All-Star) and fourth-year defensive lineman Nicholas Roy (2023 RSEQ All-Star). Can ConU answer the call and make a statement?
How will Jeremy Fyfe build off a promising 2024?
The Sherbooke Vert & Or have had their share of talented quarterbacks over the years, including Jérémi Roch – who set a then-U SPORTS record for passing yards in 2015 with 10,964 – and most recently Anthony Robichaud, an East West Bowl selection in 2023. Last year, Jérémy Fyfe took the controls, offering a promising glimpse into the future.
In 2024, he threw for 986 yards and six scores while rushing for 241 in seven games, a year after being groomed to take over as QB1 from Robichaud. Along the way, the former Vieux-Montréal Spartiate standout (Division 1 All-Star in 2022) became the first Sherbooke pivot since Robichaud in 2019 to throw two touchdown passes against Montreal.
With another year under his belt, it’ll be interesting to see how Fyfe develops, and leads for the Vert & Or.