SASKATOON — It might be the off-season for USports football, but that’s not to say University of Saskatchewan Huskies offensive coordinator Mason Nyhus hasn’t been extremely busy over the last couple of weeks.
No sooner did he finish working the sidelines as an assistant coach for Team West at the East-West Bowl during the May 4 weekend than was he on the road back to Saskatoon as a guest coach during Saskatchewan Roughriders training camp.
Nyhus joined Roughriders radio play-by-play announcer Dave Thomas after a recent practice to talk about his time on the sidelines as of late, beginning with the USports all-star showdown that is the East-West Bowl.
Huskies head coach Scott Flory was the head coach for Team West and led his crew to a 28-27 victory in a showcase of talent for close to a dozen Saskatchewan-based players.
“Man, it was awesome, it's always fun calling games like that,” Nyhus said. “You meet new players, other coaches from around the country. So it's really cool just connecting with other guys, picking other people's brains. Then we had a great team, some obvious future CFL draft picks out there… so yeah, really enjoyable.“
It certainly didn’t hurt to have plenty of familiar faces on the field, as nine players from the U of S and University of Regina Rams suited up for Team West, offering a showcase of Saskatchewan talent.
“Even across USports, it's fantastic,” Nyhus said. “I think one thing Saskatchewan football does very well is grassroots coaching. We have great minor football programs across the province that really feed into the high school programs that feed into the university programs. So it really speaks to the minor grassroots football we have in this province.”
As soon as things wrapped up in Waterloo, Nyhus made his way to Saskatoon for his second stint as a CFL guest coach after doing the same with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in 2025.
As one might expect, it’s been a positive experience since Day 1.
“Honestly, I'm just super blessed that these guys allow me to sit in, just listen around,” Nyhus said. “Obviously, if they ask me any questions, I'm happy to give my opinion on stuff and what we do. But really, I'm just here to learn and I'm just super fortunate that they give me the opportunity to learn, pick guys' brains. It's really cool.”
The experience covers pretty much the gamut of pro football, from on-field operations to team meetings and everything in between.
“It's more so just coaches, how they operate meetings, how they go about their business, their prep, all those things,” Nyhus said of what he’s taking away from his time with the Riders.
“I mean, from coach (Corey) Mace specifically, just seeing how he operates in team meetings, I mean that he is a leader of leaders. He has a firm presence. Everyone relates to him, likes him a lot, but you know when he walks in the room that people walk in and listen…
So just seeing traits and how different people do different things and schematics is always a nice thing to learn from. I’m just trying to take as many gold nuggets I can from here.
And in the end, there’s one main goal.
“Obviously just meeting great people, fostering relationships, and then trying to be the very best coach I can be for the University of Saskatchewan come the fall,” Nyhus said.
Roughriders training camp continues this week in Regina after two weeks in Saskatoon, including the team's Saturday preseason game against the visiting Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
