Greg Marshall is hoping that this is his year.

While there is no denying Marshall's domination when it comes to football success in Ontario University Athletics, his record in bowl games on the national stage is a bit spotty.

The 58-year-old head coach of London's Western University Mustangs has won the Yates Cup, awarded to the top university team in Ontario, an astounding 18 times as a head coach, assistant coach and player.

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But as a head coach, Marshall's trophy case is missing a significant piece of national-championship hardware – the Vanier Cup.

Marshall gets opportunity to get a step closer to rectifying that glaring omission from his résumé, beginning on Saturday when his No. 2 nationally ranked team takes on No. 8 Guelph Gryphons in an OUA semi-final in London.

In the other OUA semi-final, the No. 7 McMaster Marauders are at No. 5 Laurier Golden Hawks in Kitchener, Ont.

The games are just two of seven across Canada as playoff action in all four U Sports football conferences take centre stage.

Over a Canadian university head-coaching career now in its 18th season, Marshall has been the head coach on teams that have won the Yates Cup eight times – the first four from 2000-03 when he headed up the program at Hamilton's McMaster University.

The remaining four have come at Western, where he has served as the Mustangs' head coach since 2007. His last provincial title was in 2013.

But the road for the Mustangs has been a little rougher when playing out of conference, with Marshall's record just 1-7 in national semi-final bowl games.

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The one year Marshall was a head coach in the Vanier Cup was with Western in 2008 when Western got thumped 44-21 by Laval.

"You always try to put a competitive team on the field that has a chance and I think in the past we've had a chance," Marshall said. "Every year's a new year and sometimes the pieces just have to fall into place. You've got to be healthy at the right time and then you've got to win some of those close games.

"But it's a pretty good gig and coaching university football is very rewarding. We got kids in medical school on our team, in law school. And then they've got to make sure they've also got time for football, too."

The Mustangs (8-0) head into the playoffs as the only undefeated team in the country, averaging a U Sports-high 48.2 points a game.

In the Canada West conference, the unranked Alberta Golden Bears travel to Calgary to face the No. 4 Dinos. In the other semi-final, the No. 9 Regina Rams are in Vancouver to play the No. 6 UBC Thunderbirds.

In the Quebec conference, the always mighty Laval Rouge et Or are gearing up to defend their national crown, entering the post-season as the country's top-rated team.

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Laval, which has won the Vanier Cup a record nine times since 1999, will play host to unranked Sherbrooke in Quebec City. The other playoff features unranked Concordia against No. 3 Montreal on the University of Montreal campus.

In the Atlantic conference, in a semi-final battle pitting two unranked teams in Halifax, St. Francis Xavier will face Saint Mary's. The winner travels to Wolfville, N.S., the following weekend to play the Acadia Axemen, ranked No. 10, in the conference final.