Huskies play coy over Hec Crighton talk for Machart

Pickett only football national player of the year for U of S

Adam Machart is having a stellar season for the Huskies.

    The Hec Crighton whispers are starting to come Adam Machart’s way.
    Machart is having a dream season at running back with the University of Saskatchewan Huskies football team. In helping the Huskies amass a 4-2 U Sports regular season record, Machart has already posted the third best rushing regular season in the history of the program.

    He has carried the ball 109 times for 931 yards and scored seven touchdowns. With the Huskies having two games left on their regular season schedule, there is an outside chance Machart could break the Huskies record for most rushing yards in one regular season set by Doug Rozon in 1999, when Rozon carried the ball 151 times for 1,267 yards and five touchdowns.

    When the Huskies thumped the University of Manitoba Bisons 49-21 on Oct. 4, Machart had the third best rushing game in the history of the Huskies program carrying the ball 23 times for 219 yards and two touchdowns.

    Through the air this season, Machart has caught 16 passes for 153 yards and hit the end zone twice.

Adam Machart has rushed for seven touchdowns this season.

    Thanks to those efforts, supporters of the Huskies football program have started to float talk and discuss the chances that Machart could win the Hec Crighton Trophy as the U Sports football player of the year.

    For his part, the 22-year-old isn’t concerning himself where he could be in the race as far as individual awards go.

    “I try not to think about it,” said Machart, who stands 5-foot-8 and weighs 185 pounds. “We have a couple of games here left, so we can’t start looking too far ahead.

    “We just have to keep winning games as an offence and as a team, so we’re just going to keep doing that.”

    Machart is in his second season with the Huskies after spending three campaigns from 2015 to 2017 with the venerable Saskatoon Hilltops.

Adam Machart (#20) has rushed for 931 yards in six games.

    He helped the Hilltops win CJFL national titles in each of those seasons.

    Before joining the Hilltops, Machart played high school football with Saskatoon’s Centennial Collegiate Chargers.

     While the Huskies have had many great seasons including winning the Hardy Cup as Canada West champions 19 times and the Vanier Cup as U Sports national champions three times, only one member of the football squad has ever won the Hec Crighton Trophy since it was first awarded in 1967.

    That one Hec Crighton award win came way back in 1973, when quarterback David Pickett was the U Sports national player of the year for football leading the Huskies to a 6-2 regular season record.

Adam Machart, right, has the Huskies third best rushing season.

    In 1973, Pickett completed 162-of-268 passes for 2,251 yards, 16 touchdowns and 11 interceptions.

    At the time, Pickett’s completions, passing yards and touchdown passes were all Huskies records for one regular season and were numbers that were way beyond what anyone else put up in the Canada West Conference in that campaign.

    It took 15 years before Pickett’s regular season team records for passing yards and touchdown passes were surpassed. His mark for completions in one season stood until 2010.

    Huskies fell in a one-game playoff for the Canada West title 21-8 to the Bisons in 1973.

    Knowing how long the odds can be when it comes to winning the Hec Crighton Trophy, Huskies head coach Scott Flory said the team’s focus is on finishing the regular season strong before heading into playoffs.

    “We don’t worry about any of that stuff,” said Flory, whose Huskies are the defending Canada West champions. “We wanted to make sure we get back here and get these two games.

Adam Machart has caught 16 passes for 153 yards and two TDs this season.

    “We’ll take the back half of this season when it comes.”

    The Huskies will be guaranteed a second place finish in Canada West and will host a home playoff game, if they win their last two regular season outings.

    The Dogs return to action on Saturday, Oct. 19, when they travel to Vancouver, B.C., to face the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds (1-5).

    U of S closes the regular season on Saturday, Oct. 26 by hosting the University of Alberta Golden Bears (4-2) at 2 p.m. at Griffiths Stadium.

    Huskies star left guard Mattland Riley said it would be nice if Machart could win the Hec Crighton Trophy, but added individual awards are far from the first concern of the squad.

    “That would be great, but to be honest, we’re focused right now on UBC,” said Riley. “All the awards and stuff like that, that will come when our team succeeds, but it is the team.

Adam Machart (#20) hopes to enjoy my team success with the Huskies.

    “It is all about the team. It is always about the team.”

    For now, Machart wants to help the Huskies win their last two games and become the third player in team history to reach the 1,000-yard mark in rushing.
    He believes that would be a good way to pay tribute to the offensive line that blocks for him including starters in left tackle Noah Zerr, Riley, centre Connor Berglof, right guard Tanner Secord and right tackle Nick Summach.

    “It would be a huge honour,” said Machart about the possibility of getting to 1,000 yards rushing. “Obviously, I’m just going to take it one game at a time.

    “If I were to reach that milestone, it would be a huge honour.”

    If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.

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