‘One I'll never forget‘: An oral history of the 2021 Uteck Bowl

The day was Nov. 27, 2021. The University of Saskatchewan Huskies were trailing the Montreal Carabins 10-7 with just 1:55 to go in the Uteck Bowl. With 5,100 fans jam-packed into CEPSUM in Montreal for the national semifinal and the offence coming back on the field, the stage was set for one of the most memorable games in Huskies history.

Mason Nyhus, quarterback: “So much happened.”

Marshall Ferguson, play-by-play announcer for CBC: “It was one of the craziest finishes.”

Colton Klassen, receiver: “That last drive is honestly the one thing that I think I'll always remember about that game.”

Mitch Dahl, dad of Huskies receiver Carter Dahl: “In terms of games I’ve personally attended — that’s number one.”

Jeremy Long, quarterbacks coach: “An experience I'll never forget forsure.”

Adam Machart, running back: “Hands down the craziest atmosphere I’ve ever been a part of.”

Nyhus: “It was cold. It was gritty. People were yelling at us in French.”

Scott Flory, head coach: “It's definitely one I'll never forget.”

After a 5-1 regular-season, the Huskies finished as the number-one team in the Canada West. Come the postseason, they beat the UBC Thunderbirds, then the Manitoba Bisons to claim their 20th Hardy Cup in program history and second in the last three seasons. The conference championship ultimately set up Saskatchewan with a matchup against Montreal with a trip to the program's first Vanier Cup in 15 years on the line.

Joel Lipinski, strength and conditioning coach: “When we beat Calgary in the 2018 Hardy Cup — I don’t think anybody necessarily expected us to win that game and I think we ended up celebrating when we won that game as if we won the championship. It was kind of a big monkey off our backs. After winning the Hardy Cup this year, the way our coaching staff and players looked at that win, we just said ‘we have a much bigger picture in mind this year.’ It was a much more somber feeling after that win.”

Riley Pickett, defensive lineman: “We just kind of said ‘The job's not finished at this point.’”

Lipinski: “We were going to Montreal with a purpose. It felt like it was much more of a business trip.”

Machart: “We knew it was going to be a physical game against Montreal. We knew they were probably going to be our toughest matchup but if we went out there, hit them in the mouth back, we could probably come out in favour.”

Kyle Siemens, Huskies alumnus and quarterback of the 2018 Hardy Cup winning team: “Anytime you play a team coming out of Quebec, that's usually the toughest matchup you'll get. You know you're in for one.”

Flory: “They’re a team that this program has never played. You’re trying to create a little bit of equivalency to teams and things that you know. So hey, this is kind of like how this team we play does it. You try to familiarize yourself with the opponent as quickly as possible — and it’s always tough on a short week to be able to do that.”

Machart: “We were confident. We felt like we were going to win that game. The whole week there was never any doubt in anyone I don’t think.”

Klassen: “We knew it was going to be loud there. I think that was the biggest thing we kind of talked about and prepared for.”

Flory: “You can't talk about the game without talking about the atmosphere and the stadium. That to me — that's college football. Packed. Loud. Hostile environment. I would like to think that if they were here playing in that game, we would have given them the same treatment.“

Long: “They killed it. In terms of an atmosphere — that's what a national semifinal should be.”

Dahl: “That was the loudest U SPORTS crowd I've ever been engaged with.”

Klassen: “You couldn’t hear anything out there.”

Long: “I felt that in the second quarter, all of a sudden it just became deafening.”

The home crowd did its part for the Carabins in the first half. After opening the game with a 55-yard drive that ended with a single, the Huskies offence struggled to get the ball moving. On Saskatchewan’s five following drives they racked up just 63 yards of total offence and trailed 4-1 at halftime.

Nyhus: “We went into halftime, I was like, honestly — this is a terrible quote to put out there — but I remember when we played Calgary in the 2019 Hardy Cup, it was 4-1 at half time and I did think about that. I didn’t verbalize it, but mentally I was like 'No, this isn’t happening again. There’s no way this offence is putting up another dud and we’re gonna lose another big game.”

Klassen: “The first half was rough. We didn’t get much going offensively. It was hard, especially on offence. Communication wise, it was hard to get things going. Getting into half with a close game was huge.”

Long: “I just remember our guys being super composed. There was no flinch. From the players to the coaches we were like ‘man, we’re in a hornets nest right now and we’re down by three and we’ve missed some things. We’re going to be just fine.”

Machart: “The way that our team this past season, you could only kind of keep us tamed, if at all, for a half and then we're going to pop.”

Klassen: “Montreal was a great football team. That was kind of the biggest thing. We were in their home barn — let’s just kind of weather the storm and don’t shoot ourselves in the foot.

The Carabins added five more points in the third-quarter and held a 9-1 lead entering the fourth. But for the first-time since the opening drive of the ball game, the Huskies were in the red zone largely thanks to a Daniel Wiebe 31-yard reception. With the ball spotted at the Carabins nine-yard line, it was time for some Machart magic. Nyhus hit the running back out of the flats, who scampered into the end zone for six and all of a sudden, the deficit was only two as the scoreboard read 9-7 .

But after the following Huskies drive came away with no points, the Carabins took the ball over at their own 20-yard line holding a 10-7 lead with just 4:45 to go. Jonathan Senecal would connect to Hassane Dosso for a 29-yard reception, ticking the clock down to 2:50 remaining in the game and potentially, the Huskies season. 

Pickett: “It was great coverage there by Cam Skinner. He just made a circus catch on the sideline and I just kind of thought like ‘Hey, they're far enough out — no more yards at this point.’”

Nyhus: “I just remember him catching that ball on that go-route and it was weird — it was kind of like ‘Oh, that could be the nail in the coffin.’”

Long: “The last four minutes felt like the longest four minutes of my entire life.”

Flory: “We just needed the ball back. We needed it. Our defence has historically always stood up when we needed them the most in games.”

Nyhus: “I know if we get the ball back, we're going to have a chance. No matter what. We just need to be able to get the ball back and have a chance to win or tie the football game.” 

The Huskies defence answered the bell. Riley Pickett's tackle on a first-down run held Montreal to just a two-yard gain, before a second-down pass fell incomplete. They got the stop and the offence was coming back on the field. The Huskies needed a field goal to tie or a touchdown to take the lead with just 1:55 to go in the contest.

Klassen: Pickett played out of his mind that game — he really stood out."

Pickett: “We just kind of knew if we just get the ball back to our offence with some time left, things are gonna work themselves out.”

Flory: “Them just giving us that opportunity on offence and knowing it was two minutes left and it just like ‘Hey, this is it, this is the game. We Got it. We’re playing three down football. We've got to get in a position to be able to score.”

Machart: “I was pumped. We were all pumped. Mason and I always look at each other and go ‘Yeah, let's go. It’s go time.”

Nyhus: “We just went out there and this is super cheesy, but I went in the huddle and was like ‘Lock the hell in. Let’s go do this. This is the drive we’re going to tell our grandkids about. We’re doing this. We’re scoring a touchdown.”

Klassen: “No one really questioned it."

Dahl: “I think I looked at Berk Summach (dad of Huskies offensive lineman Nicholas Summach) and said, ‘Dumb and Dumber time — so you're telling me there's a chance."

Pickett: “I was just telling everybody to believe. You could obviously see some doubt in guys eyes and you just can’t let that transpire. I knew that we were going to go down there and score. I just knew.”

Flory: “When it comes down to drives like that, you’re going to run your best stuff.”

Long: All I remember was Scott on the headset saying ‘Best stuff. We’ve got to get our best stuff out right now. What is it?’ So between all of the offensive coaches we just kind of collaborated in the headset. It was like time stood still.”

Klassen: “That last drive is honestly the one thing that I think I'll always remember about that game.”

After Machart was bottled up for a three-yard gain on first-down, the Huskies needed seven yards to move the chains. Nyhus looked for Baker across the middle of the field, but the pass was behind the veteran slotback and it fell off his hands. Incomplete. Third-down.

Nyhus: “It should have been a better pass. It should’ve been more catchable, but he should’ve caught it. It was one of those things where we were both at fault — but it should’ve been an easy first down."

Sam Baker, receiver: “That killed me inside.”

Long: “We were second-and-long and then all of a sudden we threw an incomplete pass and I was like ‘oh man this is not gonna be good. We're in tough now. We’re backed up and we’ve got to punt this thing.”

But at the tail end of the play, Huskies offensive lineman Oluwayombo Olabimtan drew a late hands to the face call. Saskatchewan was getting a fresh set of downs and suddenly, the momentum was building as the ball moved up to the Carabins 45-yard-line.

Nyhus: “Then I see the refs call hands to the face on Yombo. He’s getting absolutely bullied and his helmet is off his face and he’s yelling ‘Are you kidding me?"

Baker: "That was huge."

Nyhus: “That kickstarted the drive and no one remembers that. It was one of those things where it’s about to be third-and-eight and we should have had a free first-down, then you see the flag and it’s like hell yeah we’re getting this drive extended.”

Brian Towriss, Huskies head coach from 1984-2016, winningest coach in Canadian university football history: “It could have been over before it started.”

A Nyhus incompletion on first-down set up another second-and-long, but this time, the fourth-year quarterback stood in the pocket and delivered a frozen rope to Klassen on an in-breaking route for a 17-yard gain. First-down Saskatchewan.

Klassen: “Mason threw an absolute dart to me.”

Nyhus: “It was a super tight window but we fit it in there and got a fresh set of downs.”

Long: “That was when we started really rolling downhill.”

Siemens: “That kind of got the drive going and I was like ‘Okay, we’ve got a chance, we’re just like 15-20 yards away from field goal range.”

After a 10-yard reception to Baker, the Huskies were in business. All of a sudden the ball was spotted at the Carabins 35-yard-line. A gain of one on the ground set Nyhus up to go right back to Baker for a 16-yard gain on second-down. The Huskies were in the red zone with the ball at the 18-yard line with just 27 seconds left.

Flory: “That adjustment we talked about all week — to see Mason make the call to get the adjustment and Sam doing what we talked about all week, slip inside, you’re going to get smoked by the safety, but to be able to throw that vertical into the seam and him take a shot in the ribs.”

Nyhus: “It worked out really well. He made a great catch into contact —  I kind of did the old Tiger Woods fist pump."

Siemens: “That play stands out to me a lot — he took a shot to make a play.”

Baker: “It was good enough for the first-down and then the rest is history.”

Nyhus: “Sammy is laying down and I can kind of hear him groaning and I just remember saying ‘You’re the man! Let’s go!’ Just pumping him because I’m riding a high.”

Towriss: “After Mason completed a couple balls, and they got some roll, you could just see the confidence build.”

Following the Baker catch, fifth-year tight end Kyle Newton stepped up with a five-yard reception to position the Huskies at the Carbains 13-yard-line. With just 11 seconds to go, the stage was set for Adam Machart, as Flory called the number of his All-Canadian running back.

Flory: “I didn’t feel the need to take a shot to the end zone, which is what they thought. I really didn’t.”

Towriss: “I think it certainly caught Montreal off guard.”

Machart: “In those big moments when a run play is called I get pretty excited. Obviously getting that play call in a moment like that shows Flory has a lot of trust in me and that’s something I don’t take lightly.”

Flory: “I’m thinking even if this doesn’t work, we still got two plays here and time for a field goal. In Canadian football, even if there’s a fraction of a second on the clock by the time the player hits a knee — we got a kick and we got a chance.”

Dahl: “All of us in our little section are thinking ‘Okay, it's in a pretty good spot, we'll probably just run it to the middle of the field and set it up for the field goal.”

Nyhus: “I got to the line of scrimmage and they gave us a spread box look, which means there’s four down linemen and one linebacker in the box, then the other two linebackers are outside the box. So we had a five-man box on the defence. Anytime that happens when you have an offensive line like we did and a running back like Adam — good things are going to happen.”

Machart: “I knew I had a really good chance of making something happen.”

Nyhus: “I just said ‘Hut,’ gave the ball to Mac-daddy and let him go to work.”

Machart: “I remember I was like ‘Okay, take it to the right, but don't face too much resistance. Don't be stupid. Go down. Don't get stripped or held up.”

Siemens: “I was yelling ‘Score!”

Machart: “I took it to the right and I was like ‘Well, I'm clear here.’ Then out of the corner of my eye, I saw that everybody from my left was over pursuing over the top right trying to stop the touchdown from the play side, so they were all coming over the top trying to stuff me. I saw I had a lane back and blockers flowing too, so I cut back underneath my blockers.”

Siemens: “When I saw him kind of cutting and dancing in the hole, I was like ‘Oh, he’s got a chance.”

Lipinski: “When he cut back, I couldn’t see him for a second. Then all of a sudden, you hear the crowd go deafly silent.”

Long: “From our vantage point, he just kind of disappeared behind Yombo and we couldn’t really see anything. All of a sudden he just popped out of nowhere and there was nobody there.”

Nyhus: “When I saw him cut back, he probably would've been 5-7 yards away from the end zone and I was like ‘There's no way this guy's getting tackled right now.’”

Flory: “All of a sudden he hits it frontside and I was like ‘Damn! He’s gonna score!’”

Machart: “I was able to just go in pretty much untouched until like the three or four-yard line.”

Flory: “Sure enough, he got into the end zone and I was like ‘Well, wait a minute — we’re gonna win!”

Long: “Adam just decided to end the game right there.”

Machart: “Far and away the biggest touchdown of my life and far and away the most emotional, exciting, unexplainable feeling touchdown I've ever had in my life.”

Dahl: “It was a classic Adam Machart run.”

Nyhus: “I just kind of threw my arms up, saw him go in and I blacked out for a little bit.”

Long: “I blacked out. Truthfully, I blacked out. I remember I threw the head set and (assistant coach Kit) Hillis jumped on me and I was like holy — this just happened.”

Lipinski: “I was jumping up and down uncontrollably and just hugging everybody.”

Baker: “I was just surrounded by some defensive guys — I want to say like Charlie Ringland and Ramsey Derbas — and just seeing those guys' faces and how happy the defensive side was as after our offence finally scored when it mattered — it was crazy."

Towriss: “Great execution and a fabulous run that left 5,100 people in shock.”

Lipinski: “The atmosphere, the whole energy within the facility just changed.”

Dahl: “Other than the 100 Huskies fans there — it was dead quiet. It was pretty cool.”

Gartner: “When that happened, all of us that were sitting at the Dog Pound at Sports on Tap — we were just ecstatic. From the Huskie Football Foundation, I’ll tell you something — to see that, that was a whole bunch of years coming to a culmination of an accomplishment.”

Dahl: “It was just random people jumping into each other's arms in our section.”

Klassen: “I think everyone was kind of just in shock.”

Machart: “I was in disbelief to be completely honest with you, because of how fast everything happened.  The way that the play and all of those plays unfolded, I was kind of speechless. It's so emotional, that whole game being down and then finally, after three hours of like, war, we get up finally.”

Baker was forced to the sidelines for the play after taking a hit following his 16-yard grab, meaning Everett Iverson was the next man up at slotback. The Aden Bowman product stepped into the biggest stage of his Huskies career in the spot of the Canada West All-Star and played a huge role in the biggest play for the program in more than a decade.

Machart: “I told Everett before the play if you block, I’m going to score.”

Siemens: “A guy that doesn’t get credited enough is Everett.”

Flory: “He arguably got the block that sprung Adam into the end zone. If he didn’t make that block, that half back would’ve made the tackle.” 

Nyhus: “I don’t know what the temperature was, but it was freezing — we had one of those old-time heaters that was blowing a real flame at you and you couldn’t get too close otherwise you’d catch on fire. Everett didn’t sit by it all game because he wanted to let the guys who were playing use it— he’s trying to be a good teammate — then he comes out in the biggest moment with everything on the line."

Machart: “To see him step up like he did, and actually, he's as responsible for that play as anybody. I'm super thrilled to have had him on the field for that one.”

Nyhus: “It was just such a heads up play to go block one of the best defensive backs in the country in Bruno Lagacé in that moment — and he bodied him. He blocked him all the way into the end zone. It was just an absolute hustle play.”

Siemens: “If he doesn’t make that block, I don’t think they score and you’re on like the three or four-yard line. Do you go for the win or the tie?”

Flory: “Given the way that game was going. That’s tough to answer. It’s kind of like a two-point play in overtime of a championship game for the win. It’s hard to answer when you’re in the moment. I mean, the way that game was going — maybe.”

Siemens: “I’m glad they didn’t get into that situation — I think Scott’s glad they scored too.”

Machart’s touchdown gave Saskatchewan a 14-10 lead with just five seconds left. On the next play from scrimmage, a Carabins Hail Mary heave was forced out of bounds, and at last, the clock hit zeroes and the Huskies punched their ticket to the program’s first Vanier Cup since 2006.

Klassen: “We were down the whole game and we were literally up for what five seconds? We were lucky enough to get out of there with a win and get to go to Quebec City.”

Towriss: “Things looked pretty grim. Lots of times. But they never lost faith or belief that they could come back and get it done.”

Gartner: “What I remember from that game is they never gave up.”

Machart: “I was kind of emotionally drained. The buzzer went and I almost had to just take a breath and was just like holy — I took a breath and hugged some of the boys. Everyone was coming up to me because of the play and I couldn’t even talk to anybody. I was just like ‘oh my goodness.”

Klassen: “It was my last year and there've been so many obstacles in the last couple of years. I was just so excited to win. I was honestly wordless.”

Siemens: “It was pretty exciting. I’m sure they felt relieved having won that game and obviously excited. But I just felt relief. I was so glad they won that game.”

Lipinski: “It was that kind of a game with that build up and tension — that whole gravity of the situation. To see the joy that those guys felt and when you end up having those hugs and to know how much that win meant to them and obviously means to us — honestly to be able to share that moment with those guys and those coaches, knowing the work that everybody puts in to try and get to that point, to get to those levels, to get to those games and to actually win those games. It’s a sense of relief and a sense of joy all rolled into one, and man you’re all feeling the same thing. It’s just nice to share that experience.”

Baker: “Montreal was coming off their bye week, they were playing at home, we had to travel so we were in the foreign place, we’re coming on the plane, we had to walk up four or five flights of stairs to get up to the field from the locker rooms — it just seemed like everything was set up for us to lose. For us to come out on top, it was just such a crazy feeling.”

Towriss: “The ability to go and win on the road is a difficult thing — especially in that environment. In some ways it's more fun to win at home when you've got 7,000 people cheering for you, but more rewarding to go in and do it when it's when the tables are turned and it's the opposite.”

Lipinski: “That’s the beautiful thing about sports, right? It's one of those things where everybody's been working towards the same goal and one team at the end is going to be absolutely jubilated and the other person is going to be absolutely devastated. That's why you play to win the game — you know how devastating is to lose, but you know how hard it is to win.”

Flory: “Just joy. I was just so happy for the guys. As a player, I’ve been able to be in that moment and be able to feel that. For them to be able to feel that and go into that environment and finish that game — I was just so happy for the players to feel that pure, five-year old joy.”

Klassen: “I remember going up to Joel and being like ‘Man, gross game, but we’re going to a Vanier.’ That’s always the goal and we did it. It was an unbelievable feeling.”

Machart: “Running back coach Dan Houle —  he's one of my favourite guys —  he gave me the biggest hug I've ever had. Some tears were welling up in both of us. He was a part of teams that went to Vanier Cups, so for him to see us go back to a Vanier Cup I think was pretty special.”

Nyhus: “Afterwards, like reflecting on it. We got on the sidelines and I was like ‘Man, I can’t believe we just did that.' I had been in the program for six years and you have the talks with the boys, like ‘Man, we’re gonna go to the Vanier’ and ‘Man, we gotta go do it.’ But it’s almost this mystical thing, because no one has done it in so long. You always talk about it — but it seemed so far away. That moment of realization that you actually just did it in that situation and you’re going to Quebec City to play in the national championship — it was just such a surreal moment."

Flory: “As a coach that ranks as the number-one game forsure. As a player, I was in some pretty wild games and finishes and that ranks up there. It’s definitely one I’ll never forget.”

Siemens: “Anytime you beat a Quebec team, I think it's special. They're kind of the pinnacle of all university football and they're always putting out great talent — either Montreal or Laval. Anytime you can go to Quebec City or Montreal and win, that's saying something.”

Towriss: “It was great to see and certainly well deserved. This whole thing kind of parallels what happened from 1987-89. They just keep taking one more step and one more step.”

Siemens: “It’s another step that the team hadn’t taken in a long time. For them to overcome that and do it there — that was a sweet thing for them to do.”

Dahl: “A victory sure is sweet in hostile territory.”

(Photos provided by Bernard Brault)