When the Saskatchewan Huskies take the field for the 60th edition of the Vanier Cup, the group will be buoyed by a familiar emotional force that has followed the team since early October.
The Canadian West champion will take on the RSEQ winner Montreal Carabins at Mosaic Stadium in Regina on Saturday, no more than two weeks after its star defender Anton Amundrud began treatment for lymphoma.
Huskies players were shocked by the news of Amundrudu's diagnosis, which was reported to the team by head coach Scott Florey following the 23-year-old's stellar performance in Week 5 against the Alberta Golden Bears.
Backup Jake Farrell has since stepped in and helped Saskatchewan to a perfect 5-0 record, culminating in a 22-11 Mitchell Bowl victory over the Royal Gaels last week.
The Huskies' (10-1) defense hampered the Gaels throughout the contest, while third-year receiver Daniel Kubongo's 85-yard punt return helped complement inconsistent offensive play.
Under coach Flory, Saskatchewan will make its third Vanier Cup appearance in five years, having lost in 2021 and 2022.
The program lifted the trophy three times (1990, '96, '98) but failed to make the breakthrough and lost its last six attempts at the finals.
But Flory—a member of the Canadian Football Hall of Fame and a member of the Huskies' 1998 championship team—believes the current version can finish the job.
“This group has a different advantage now,” Florey said after the Mitchell Bowl.
“You can see it on the field… you can see it in the preparation on our part. You can feel it in the physicality and the way we play. There's a focus there.”
Although this is the 12th time the University of Saskatchewan Huskies have competed in the Vanier Cup, the team last lifted the trophy in 1998. They will face the Montreal Carabins on Saturday at Mosaic Stadium.
Standing in the way of a storybook finale for Flory and the Huskies are head coach Marco Iadeluca and the Carabins (9-2), who are just two years away from winning their 58th Vanier Cup, thanks largely to 2023 Hec Crighton Trophy winner quarterback Jonathan Senecal.
The Carabins are led by exciting freshman passer Pepe Gonzalez, whose 19 passing touchdowns broke Senecal's single-season school record.
Les Bleus earned a berth in the championship game after defeating the Saint Mary's Huskies 49-19 in the Uteck Bowl.
“Some people thought it was a trap for us,” Iadeluca said afterwards.
“The reality is we were up against a very talented team that had a fantastic season. We had to make sure we played our game and that's what we did for most of the game.”
Iadeluca is a talented player who has put together five straight winning seasons since becoming head coach in 2020 during a campaign canceled due to COVID-19.
He served as offensive coordinator in 2014 when the school won the first of two Vanier Cups.
In addition to the aerial threat Gonzalez poses to Saskatchewan, the Carabins boast a talented duo on the back line that made a significant impact on the outcome of the Utek Bowl match.
Mathieu Barsalou was stunningly effective in blocking attacks, setting a team record four times on 11 carries, while Remy Lambert gained 90 yards on just eight carries for the decisive victory.
Saskatchewan will have to keep an eye on receiver Enrique Jaimes Leclerc, the star of Montreal's rematch win over Laval in the RSEQ title game, making 11 catches for 136 yards and adding a rushing touchdown.
Offense vs defense
This season, the Carabins' rushing attack has scored 37.4 points per game and ranked sixth in the country in total offense, creating a tempting style game against a stifling Saskatchewan defense that has limited them to 16.8 points per game.
Despite USask's balanced approach, defense became the team's calling card heading into the finals, allowing more than 12 points just once over the last five games.
Linebacker and Canada West Defensive Player of the Year Seth Handeby recorded two sacks and a forced fumble in the Mitchell Bowl, continually disrupting the Gaels' offensive game plan en route to being named Defensive Player of the Contest.
Handeby, a seasoned leader and draft pick of the Saskatchewan Roughriders, returned to school this year to further his engineering education and complete his fifth year with the Huskies, hailing the team's unity after winning the Mitchell Bowl.
“Playing football here was the most amazing thing. [thing]and that's what we talk about every week, like, “How long do we want to stick together?” We have one more week and I feel like it really shows how much this group enjoys each other,” Khandeby said.
“I’m so excited to keep wearing this jersey for as long as I can and I have another use for it. [next week]”
Riker Frank's Universal Threat
By flipping the field, the Carbine defense will look to neutralize the Huskies' hot running game, led by Ryker Frank, the program's all-time leader in rushing touchdowns.
Frank has amassed a staggering 549 yards of offense in the post season alone and will undoubtedly be a key factor in Saskatchewan's game plan.
Carabines defensive linemen Mukendi Jonathan Mutombo and Gabriel Maisonneuve combined for 8.5 sacks during the regular season, each providing valuable positional play throughout the campaign.
Both will be among those tasked with containing Frank's universal threat.
Montreal's secondary will also be busy with fifth-year receiver Daniel Wiebe, a standout candidate from Heck Crichton, who has 1,140 yards and 11 touchdowns on 65 receptions this year.
Prospect and CFL offensive superstar Daniel Wiebe talks about how special it would be to compete in the 2025 Vanier Cup in his home province of Saskatchewan.
Ultimately, the outcome may come down to which unit can perform better in the matchup between Montreal's offense and Saskatchewan's defense.
All-Star return Kubongo and the Huskies' special teams bolstered the offense with peripheral goals in crunch time when Saskatchewan's passing game broke down against the Queens. It would be unwise for Montreal to offer such opportunities at this stage of the finals.
Les Bleus made a statement with a rematch victory over Laval in the Jacques-Dussault Cup, and while the Carabines can't currently build on as storied a legacy as their provincial rival (no one can), the Carabines will look to write a new winning chapter in the program's rapidly growing history on Saturday.
From the Huskies' perspective, although the journey from Griffiths Stadium to Mosaic is only about 255 kilometers, the 2025 campaign has been a whirlwind odyssey for the group, which is still heavily involved in the ongoing Amundrud battle.
This Vanier Cup could also be a chance for Team Flory to reaffirm an era of players who have already been shorthanded twice before and finally achieve their first breakthrough in the 21st century.
