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He also demonstrated to those around him that coaching was in his future, if he wanted it.
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“I know his capacity. I knew it as a player, and I know it as a coach,” Flory says.
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“He’s going to grow and develop, and each year he’s going to get better and better and better. My job is to guide, to mentor, to put some guardrails along the way. He has the capacity to do great things.”
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And Nyhus, a Regina native who juggled coaching with a teaching job during his time in Vancouver, knows exactly what he wants.
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“My aspiration,” he says, “is to make a living coaching football for as long as humanly possible. Like every person with aspirations, I want to be a head coach some day. I don’t know where that is in regards to leagues, but man … I love the U of S. I have a deep passion for the U of S and I have a deep passion for this city.
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“I’m happy with where my feet are right now, and I’m trying to do the very best job I can for the University of Saskatchewan. If that leads to other things in the future, great. But right now, I’m just trying to win a national championship here in 2025. We’ll see if we can do that.”
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The Huskies are in the midst of training camp. They’ll play UBC — Nyhus’s former team — in a pre-season game on Wednesday, 7 p.m., at Griffiths. Their regular season kicks off Aug. 29 on the road against the Alberta Golden Bears, followed by the Sept. 5 home opener against UBC.
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If Nyhus had stayed on as UBC’s quarterbacks coach, he would have experienced life as an opponent at Griffiths twice over the next few weeks. The teams met two times last year, both times at UBC. The second match was a playoff clash, which Saskatchewan won.
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In 2023, they edged UBC — and Nyhus — 34-31 at Griffiths, but the Thunderbirds got the last word by winning the conference championship and playing in the Vanier Cup.
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“Man, it was weird,” Nyhus says of being an opponent in Saskatoon.
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“I loved UBC — don’t get me wrong. I loved my time there. But it was weird being back at Griffiths on the other side, and I think that’s a natural thing. I spent seven seasons here at the U of S (including two as a redshirt), which is a long time — always running out of the (inflatable) dog, always being on the opposite sideline. That’s what was ingrained in me. Seeing all my good friends, roommates who I still talk to all the time, on the other sideline was super weird.
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“But in regards to my time at UBC, I’m really grateful. I learned a lot. It was my first step into coaching, and I’m super grateful to coach Nill, coach Bone, coach Buckley, coach Shomari. Everyone over there took me with open arms and I loved my time there. That being said, I’m really excited to be back.”
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