As coach of the top defensive university football team in Canada last year at Saint Mary's, Mike McLean was on top of the world with a berth in the Vanier Cup against Manitoba.

Now, he is the head coach of a disastrous York University football program.

The Lions, with the worst offence and defence among 27 universities in the country, were pummelled by Queen's 80-0 in front of a home crowd that had more fans cheering for the visitors.

While the loss was the Lions' (0-6) 10th in a row, which eliminated them from the post-season, it was also the team's worst.

In 1974 the then-York Yeomen lost to Laurier by a 90-15 score.

After the game, a sombre McLean struggled to find something positive to say about the pummelling of his struggling young team.

"We're learning and growing with barely enough bodies to practise," McLean said of the team, with 12 of his 25 rookies in the starting lineup. "It's men against boys right now – there's no way to hide it. We're just not good enough to compete at this level. But things will change.

"I'm not going to lie, this is tearing us apart right now. We inherited this and will just have to rebuild it. We just need time and have to get bigger, stronger, faster and smarter."

York, shut out for a third consecutive game, has only scored 17 points this season while allowing 373.

With Queen's scoring 10 touchdowns in the game, four on passes to Scott Valberg and three from CIS rushing leader Mike Giffin, the 80-point plateau was the most ever scored since Queen's started playing football in 1882.

Queen's coach Pat Sheahan asked game officials at halftime – with the score 52-0 – to run the clock for the remainder of the game.

His request was turned down.

"What happened is what a lot of people anticipated, we played them hard and they got our best effort," said Sheahan.

While York failed to get out of its end all game, Queen's scored on 10 of its first 11 possessions.

York rookie quarterback Nick Coutu completed only 3-of-17 passes for 21 yards, was intercepted, fumbled and sacked twice.

"It haunts me at night thinking about what's gone on this season and now this humiliating loss," said Coutu. "It really amounted to another day of practice for us because we didn't move the chains."

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In other OUA games, Chris Mamo's 21-yard field goal with five minutes helped Laurier to a 22-21 win over Ottawa.

Western crushed Windsor 58-5 while Guelph defeated Waterloo 37-22.



