A year after the University of Saskatchewan Huskies were defeated in the Vanier Cup, they will try and make sure history doesn’t repeat on Saturday when they meet the Laval Rouge et Or.
On Tuesday, Huskies head coach Scott Flory was a guest on the SportsCage with Michael Ball, as the Regina product gets set to lead the U of S to their second straight Vanier Cup appearance.
The Huskies punched their ticket to the Vanier Cup last weekend after they defeated the St. Francis Xavier X-Men in the Uteck Bowl with a 36-19 victory. Even though this weekend’s game is being played in London, Ontario, Flory elected for the team to return to Saskatoon for a few days of preparation.
“We felt it was important to come back win or lose just to get back on our turf and our zone from game plan stand point.”
Planning an extended trip across the country is a very difficult thing to manage from logistics perspective says the Huskies head coach.
“There’s a lot that goes into a 75-80 person travelling party when you’re going for a week and half to two weeks, there’s a lot that goes into it, it was just easier for us, especially given commercial flights out to Halifax and being able to come back.”
Before becoming the man in charge of the Huskies football team in 2017, Flory gained valuable knowledge from his coaching mentors including former Huskies head coach Brian Towriss and ex-Montreal Alouettes head coach Marc Trestman. He said that building a team that maintains long term success like Towriss and Trestman achieved during their coaching careers is a very difficult thing to do.
“I don’t care what level you’re at, winning is hard, and sustained winning is even harder.”
Saturday’s matchup in London will feature a pair of programs with a storied history in the Vanier Cup. Laval has won ten national championships with the latest title victory back in 2018.
Flory says the Huskies thinks the experience of playing in last year’s championship game can be an advantage when preparing for the big contest.
“We’ve got to be able to draw on some of that experience playing in conference championships, playing in bowl games, and being able to perform and execute and being able to win those games.”
With the disappointment of last year’s loss still stinging his team, the 46 year old is hopeful that his squad is able to learn from their mistakes to make sure the Huskie are on the winning end of the championship game in 2022.
“We’re different football team from last year, we’re not going to reflect from it, we’re going to draw from the experience of it, but for us there is a new team, it’s a new environment, it’s a new beast and it’s a totally different opponent than who we played last year.”
The last time the University of Saskatchewan and Laval met in the Vanier Cup was back in 2006 when the Rouge et Or defeated the Huskies at Griffiths Stadium. The loss marked the third straight Vanier Cup final loss for the University of Saskatchewan at the time.
The prior year, the two teams met the in Mitchell Bowl with the Huskies defeating Laval in that matchup.
Over the five matchups, the Huskies have an all-time record of 1-4 against Laval. The Rouge et Or defeated the Huskies defeated in the 2004 Vanier Cup in a low scoring 7-1 contest.
