The sinking feeling of being one win shy of a national championship is something the current core of the University of Saskatchewan Huskies football team has certainly felt — not just once, but in back-to-back years.
The Huskies’ last game was in London, Ont., on Nov. 26, 2022, ending with a devastating 30-24 loss to the Laval Rouge et Or in the Vanier Cup final.
“It’s easy to remember how it felt at the end of that game,” said Huskies veteran linebacker Nick Wiebe.
“I think that’s enough fuel for anybody to want to get back to that game and obviously get it done this time. I tell the team all the time I’m tired of crying in visitors’ locker rooms in Ontario.”
The Huskies are starved for their first national championship dating back to 1998, as this year’s crop of players ran onto the field at Griffiths Stadium for their first session of training camp on Monday.
While there are only a few changes to a veteran-heavy lineup for the Dogs in 2023, their biggest question mark comes at the quarterback position.
The team said goodbye to graduating pivot Mason Nyhus, who departed the program as the Huskies’ single-season record holder in passing yardage.
“He was a massive part of our team last year,” said Wiebe. “But there’s a lot of talent in other position groups that are going to have to pick up the load this year. We have full trust in Anton [Amundrud] as well. We saw him in spring ball slinging it around out there and he looked really accurate, really good.”
In his place, the Huskies will likely turn to Anton Amundrud who appeared in a trio of games for U Sask. in the 2022 season.
The Lloydminster product said he needs to prove he’s the man to earn the Week 1 start, however.
“I’ve just been preparing in the off-season, watching film and all that,” said Amundrud. “But my position hasn’t been given yet. I still have to earn that in training camp here and I’m excited to prove that.”
All things considered, the Huskies will be returning the vast majority of their Vanier Cup roster this fall with head coach Scott Flory estimating at least 20 starters being back on either side of the ball.
Despite the veteran experience, Flory said there’s still plenty of jobs on the line and no returnees are being handed starts.
“We’re always going to have competition,” said Flory. “Nobody is guaranteed anything, we’re going to have competition. There’s going to be changes; we know that. We just don’t know where they’re going to be.
“Somebody is going to rise, somebody is going to fall and that happens every year.”
Along with their two consecutive appearances in the Vanier Cup, the Huskies enter the 2023 season gunning for their third straight Canada West title.
As for the new faces to the program, the coaching staff will be focused on getting those rookies up to speed over the next few weeks to get them ready for September football.
“For us it’s about sticking to that plan,” said Flory. “Sticking to the process knowing that we’re not playing tomorrow. But we’ve got to work those skills and find out who can play early, before we put them into positions to make sure that they have success.”
The Huskies will wrap up their training camp with a pre-season tilt at Griffiths Stadium against the University of Calgary Dinos on Aug. 25.
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