Nyhus is “the face” of Huskie Athletics at U of S

Fifth-year QB candidate for Hec Crighton Trophy

Mason Nyhus warms up for the 2021 Canada West final.

Mason Nyhus is achieving a rarity for a Canadian university sports athlete these days – he is becoming well known.

Nyhus is the fifth-year star quarterback for the University of Saskatchewan Huskies Football Team, and since seemingly Week 2 of the U Sports regular season, the 24-year-old’s name has been mentioned as a candidate for the Hec Crighton Trophy, which is given to the U Sports football player of the year.

In the Huskies 5-0 start, Nyhus, who stands 6-foot-2 and weighs 215 pounds, has been impressive playing out his final season of U Sports eligibility. He has completed 126-of-186 passes for 1,729 yards and 11 touchdowns, while throwing just one interception.

Nyhus is “the face” of Huskie Athletics, and in today’s media cut era in Canada that is a major accomplishment.

There was time it used to be common knowledge to know who the starting quarterback of the Huskies was in the city of Saskatoon, and often the Huskies starting quarterback was decently known on the national stage. That was true of the Huskies three Vanier Cup quarterbacks in David Earl in 1990, Brent Schneider in 1996 and Ryan Reid in 1998.

When Earl, Schneider and Reid played, the number of people working in the sports media industry in Canada was about five to seven times larger than it is today.

In the last 12 years, it can be argued that Nyhus is the first athlete the Huskies have had over that time frame that can be viewed as the face of the overall athletics program. The Huskies have actually had tonnes of great athletes over that period of time, but they never seemed to gain a huge face of notoriety.

Mason Nyhus rolls out of the pocket for the Huskies.

Some of those athletes include Derek Hulak from the Huskies Men’s Hockey Team, Dalyce Emmerson of the Huskies Women’s Basketball Team, Kaitlin Willoughby from the Huskies Women’s Hockey Team, Libby Epoch of the Huskies Women’s Basketball Team, Tyler Chow from the Huskies Football Team and Michelle Harrison of the Huskies Women’s Track and Field Team.

It should be noted that Willoughby was a celebrity in her hometown of Prince Albert as her supporters from that centre often inflated page views for any stories that were done about her.

Arguably, the most famous Huskies athlete since 2010 might have been Huskies Men’s Hockey Team heart and soul gritty forward Cody Smuk, who everyone was pulling for as he battled cancer before passing away in June of 2015.

From the start of this season, Nyhus has been the name you associate with the Huskies, but even that hasn’t always been that way.

In 2016, Nyhus arrived on campus from the Riffel High School Royals football team as the gem of the final recruiting class brought in by now retired Huskies head coach and Canadian Football Hall of Fame member Brian Towriss. He was hyped as the signal caller that could potential take the Huskies, who haven’t won the Vanier Cup as U Sports champions since 1998, all the way one day.

Playing behind veterans Kyle Siemens and Drew Burko, Nyhus was a red-shirt in his first campaign. He was the team’s backup quarterback in 2017 and 2018, when the Huskies won their first Hardy Cup as Canada West Conference Champions since 2006.

Mason Nyhus (#8) stays composed under pressure.

Due to his athletic ability, Nyhus attended the CFL training camp of the Saskatchewan Roughriders in 2018 and the Calgary Stampeders in 2019 under the Canadian quarterback internship program. He had two CFL training camps under his belt before getting his first start with the Huskies.

In his third year of eligibility in 2019, Nyhus had a strong season in his first campaign as a starter quarterbacking the Huskies to a second place finish in Canada West with a 5-3 mark. The Huskies fell in the Canada West final to the eventual Vanier Cup champion University of Calgary Dinos 29-4 in Calgary.

During that season, Nyhus was often the Huskies version of legendary NFL gunslinger Brett Favre. Nyhus was arguable the Huskies most exciting player that could deliver win, but he would also try to force some plays that weren’t there.

Nyhus and the Huskies weren’t able to hit the field in 2020 as the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic took hold in the world causing the Canada West season and all U Sports nationals to be canceled for the 2020-21 campaign.

That led to a 2021 season where Nyhus and the Huskies football team etched a place on the national scene. In an abbreviated six game regular season, Nyhus quarterbacked the Huskies to a first place finish in the Canada West Conference with a 5-1 record.

He was named the all-star quarterback in Canada West completing 109-of-187 passes for 1,653 yards and 16 touchdowns, while throwing two interceptions.

Mason Nyhus sets to make a throw from the pocket.

During that season, Nyhus was often the Huskies version of “the goat” Tom Brady. Nyhus was poised and efficient, and he possessed a swagger where you felt the Huskies were going to win game in and game out no matter what happened on the field.

The tutelage of current Huskies head coach Scott Flory showed through on the field.

In the Hardy Cup hosted at Griffiths Stadium, Nyhus and the Huskies bombed the University of Manitoba Bisons 45-17.

The Huskies followed that win up taking a 14-10 thrilling finish in the Uteck Bowl over the Universite de Montreal Carabins at The CEPSUM in Montreal, Quebec. In that contest, star running back Adam Machart made an electrifying 13-yard touchdown run to with the game with five seconds remaining in the fourth quarter. That play became an all-time storied moment in the history of the Huskies program.

The Huskies advanced to the Vanier Cup for the first time since 2006 to take on the University of Western Ontario Mustangs at Stade Telus – Universite Laval in Quebec City, Quebec. The London, Ont., based Mustangs took that contest 27-21.

Nyhus completed 28-of-40 passes in that contest for 303 yards, one touchdown and no interceptions.

By the end of that 2021 playoff run, Machart and then fifth-year utility player Colton Klassen had become household names for the Huskies too. Both became known players on the national stage along with Nyhus.

Mason Nyhus has the Huskies out to a 5-0 start this season.

The profile of those players was helped due to the U Sports semifinal bowl games being streamed on CBC’s online platforms and the Vanier Cup being showed on CBC’s main television station nationally.

If it hadn’t been for graduation, Klassen could have been a household name known nationally for the Huskies in 2022.

Machart was eligible to return for one more U Sports season. He announced his retirement from the game this past April 28 and opted out of the CFL Draft held in early May.

Machart moved to Kelowna, B.C., after the Huskies season ended in December of 2021 and became heavily involved with a family-run supplement store in that centre. As a result of that development and still being healthy with no major injuries, Machart elected to focus on that part of his life.

That left Nyhus as the big returning name for the Huskies in 2022. So far during the U Sports season, it has been common to hear some CFL fans state they would like to see Nyhus, who is also a four time U Sports academic all-Canadian, throwing passes professionally in Canada.

With their 2021 playoff run, the Huskies were able to capture the attention of people that wouldn’t normally follow U Sports football or U Sports in general. When someone mention’s University of Saskatchewan Huskies, Mason Nyhus’s name is the first that comes to mind.

Mason Nyhus has passed for 1,729 yards in five games in 2022.

While one can lament it took until Nyhus’s final U Sports season for him to become “the face” of Huskie Athletics, this might be the time to take the glass half full approach.

The Huskies have a star and marketable athlete in Nyhus, who still has three more regular season games to play including two at home. 

The next game will be a rivalry tilt against the 4-1 University of Regina Rams to be held Saturday, October 15 at 1 p.m. at Griffiths Stadium to determine top spot in the Canada West Conference.

Following the regular season, Nyhus could potentially play in four post-season contests including two games at home. On top of that, he is a great role model for younger players.

Nyhus is the type of player that the office staff with Huskie Athletics could conduct a Hec Crighton Trophy type hype campaign similar to campaigns seen in the top level of NCAA football for the Heisman Trophy, which is award to the most valuable player in U.S. college football.

There is still time to enjoy seeing Nyhus throwing passes for the Huskies, so it would be advisable for any type of sports followers to go out and see him play while they still can. 

Mason Nyhus and the Huskies celebrate a Hardy Cup win in 2021.

Unfortunately for players like Nyhus, it seems like their time with teams like the Huskies flies by way too fast.

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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