New-look Huskies face first test on eastern trek
The University of Saskatchewan Huskies spent the last few weeks getting acquainted.
They’re extending the meetand-greet to today’s road non-conference football game at McMaster — an airborne trek featuring a new coaching staff, a new way of doing things, and players figuring out where they stand.
“I’ve told them all: It’s a clean slate for everybody,” said new Huskies head coach Scott Flory, who overhauled the coaching staff after replacing Brian Towriss.
“There was no preconceived notions on anything. Players came in, we evaluated them as they were, got to know them and evaluate them on tape, and what they can do as athletes. And now, we’re seeing our first live opponents. There’s gamers, and there’s guys who show in practice, and we want to see those gamers — to see who’s ready for live action.”
Today’s contest is a tune-up for the Canada West football season, which begins next Friday with a road game in Winnipeg against the Manitoba Bisons. The Huskies follow that with a home game against Alberta, then road matches in B.C. and Calgary.
In other words, Saskatchewan is kicking off its season with a whole lot of road scraps.
“That’s why I pushed hard for this (road pre-season game), and I’m thankful the university backed me on this,” Flory said. “It’s (important) to get away, get to learn about our teammates, ourselves and the culture we want to create here. Four of our first five games are on the road, and I think that’s great for us. We’re going to hit a whole lot of adversity early, and we’ve got to respond appropriately. We’re going to learn a lot about ourselves these next five weeks.”
The Huskies are coming off a string of two-a-day training camp workouts. Flory says he’s intrigued to see what some of the younger players, like blue-chip recruit Nelson Lokombo, can do.
“We have some known commodities, and that’s not much of a secret,” Flory said. “I know what to expect from our quarterback position (where Kyle Siemens returns as the starter), and from a lot of our receivers. We’ve got some new offensive linemen in there, and I really want to take a look at our defence top-to-bottom — see how we run with people in the back-end, and how we can rush the passer up front. I want to see how it comes together; how our guys adjust and execute on the fly.”
Kickoff is 5 p.m. Sask. time.