Over the last two weeks, the University of Saskatchewan Huskies football team has not looked like the University of Saskatchewan Huskies football team.
“We didn’t score an offensive touchdown last week and that’s just not something we do,” said Huskies head coach Scott Flory.
The Huskies are in the midst of a rare two-game slide, including a humbling loss to the now 2-5 University of Calgary Dinos at home last week.
It was a loss that marked a low point on the season for the Huskies, though Flory is preaching the only way out is through for his club.
“No other option but you have to fight and get back to work,” said Flory. “We’ve got a great week of practice and I know we’re going to right the ship. I got 100 per cent confidence in our group.”
Seeing their hold on second place in the Canada West standings slip away, the Huskies struggled all game against Calgary in executing plays and putting up points on the board.
Fifth-year kicker David Solie struggled going 1-for-4 on the day including a key miss with 30 seconds remaining which would have tied the game.
It was also a rough outing for starting quarterback Anton Amundrud, who was picked off three times by the Dinos in a 13-12 loss at Griffiths Stadium.
“Our defence played a great game,” said Amundrud. “I just felt like personally myself, I just had to be smarter with the football at times and that kind of hurt us a bit.”
Saskatchewan’s loss to Calgary followed up a 23-20 defeat at the hands of the University of Alberta Golden Bears the week prior, marking the first time the Huskies have lost back-to-back games since the 2018 Canada West season.
After beginning the year with a 4-1 record, Flory said the team has struggled with coming though in big moments late in games.
“We’ve hit some adversity and we haven’t been able to find a way to make those plays to come out of it,” said Flory. “Whether it be a confidence thing or a mentality-type thing, but I think that for our team we’ve hit it.”
The now 4-3 Huskies will close out their regular season on the road in Regina on Saturday afternoon to battle the University of Regina Rams, who will be missing playoffs themselves.
Count Amundrud among the group of Huskies who are wanting to throw out their last few results and aiming to cap off the regular season on a positive note.
“It happened, we lost the game,” said Amundrud. “We just got to come back the next day. This whole week I thought we’ve had a really good week of practice so far and we’ve kind of put that in the past.”
Defensively, the Huskies were able to force a pair of turnovers against the Dinos and defensive back Nixen Voll is hungry to prove this slide is just a bump in the road.
With a victory over the Rams on Saturday, the Huskies would still have a shot at securing home field advantage in Canada West semi-finals if the top-ranked Golden Bears can also defeat the UBC Thunderbirds.
However, Flory said he hasn’t had those conversations on playoff implications with his team, wanting to focus on the task at hand.
“No, we approach every game the same,” said Flory. “We’re trying to win the football game.”
More so, Flory is looking to see how the Huskies will respond after two straight weeks of being knocked down — a position that is a foreign feeling for most athletes in his locker room.
“We’ve got to find a way to work ourselves through that,” said Flory. “To trust ourselves, to do our job, trust the call, trust the guy beside you. Understand the process that it takes to get to each and every play.”
It’s a 1:00 pm kickoff from Mosaic Stadium between the Huskies and Rams to close out the Canada West regular season, with playoffs beginning next weekend.
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