There was a lot of head scratching across the prairies late last week with the announcement of the winner of the 2022 Hec Crighton Award winner along with the First Team All-Canadians.
It seemed like University of Saskatchewan Huskies quarterback Mason Nyhus was a favourite to win the trophy and be named the country’s top quarterback after he led the in country stats including passing yards and completions, and was second overall in touchdowns. Nyhus was named the Canada West Most Outstanding Player earlier this month.
But it was Laval receiver Kevin Mital was named the Hec Crighton winner last Thursday, becoming the first receiver since Andy Fantuz in 2005, to win the award.
Even though Nyhus was the only quarterback who was among the nominees for the Hec Crighton Award, he was not named on the First Team All-Canadian team, rather it was Arnaud Desjardins of Laval who appeared on the list as Nyhus was picked to be a Second Team All-Canadian at QB.
On Monday, U Sports C.E.O. Pierre Arsenault joined Michael Ball on the SportsCage to give a peek behind on the curtain and explain how the top student athletes on the gridiron are designated.
Arsenault says that he got the chance to watch Nyhus up close over the last two weeks as he attended both the Uteck Bowl and the Vanier Cup in person.
He was impressed with the quarterback both on and off the field.
When it comes to handing out awards like Hec Crighton Award, the U Sports C.E.O. thinks that sometimes we get caught up in the difficult nature when selecting a winner.
“You’re doing this great thing to celebrate accomplishment and almost always there’s a part of it coming out the other side where you’re dealing with the hard emotions of because we had to pick a winner it seems in a way to be dismissive of accomplishments of other student athletes.”
The selecting committee for the Hec Crighton Award consists a pair of coaches from each conference inside of U Sports as Arseneault explains.
He agrees that the majority of the time the Most Outstanding player and the First Team All-Canadian should be the same selection, but says that sometimes that is not the case.
“You can get into the debate where someone says well you know it’s possible that you are deemed to be the most valuable to your team but you are not deemed to be the absolute best at your position when it’s a pure discussion about your position.
While Nyhus was unable to claim a Hec Crighton trophy or a Vanier Cup, the news was not all bad last weekend. He was added to the Roughriders negotiation list on Saturday night as reported by Michael Ball.
I heard some great news tonight the @sskroughriders have added U of S QB Mason Nyhus to their neg list.
— Michael Ball (@therealballsy) November 27, 2022
