Once upon a time, the Mount Allison Mounties seldom mounted a challenge when they faced the Saint Mary’s Huskies.
Entering an Oct. 18, 2013 Atlantic University Sports football game in Halifax, Mount Allison had gone winless in 16 appearances at Huskies Stadium, dating back to 1998.
That protracted streak was snapped when the Mounties posted a 27-24 victory under sixth-year Head Coach Kelly Jeffrey.
Jeffrey, now the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ Offensive Co-ordinator and Quarterbacks Coach, is poised to return to Huskies Stadium, where the Green and White is to meet the Toronto Argonauts on Saturday in Touchdown Atlantic.
“Touchdown!” was also the operative word a near-decade ago. With 1:15 remaining in the fourth quarter, Mount Allison quarterback Brandon Leyh found Troy Trentham with a 57-yard, game-winning score.
Jeffrey never lost again at Huskies Stadium, where the Mounties subsequently won 20-17 (in the AUS championship game Nov. 9, 2013),
38-0 (Oct. 4, 2014) and 38-6 (Sept. 11, 2015).
“Yeah, it has some really cool memories for me,” Jeffrey said of Huskies Stadium. “Some of my memories early on were getting my butt kicked by a whole bunch of points but, as we improved and got better, they got fonder.
“I’ll never forget that 2013 game when we won that AUS title there.”
Mount Allison began the 2013 season with four losses in five games before surging to its first championship since 1997.
In the Loney Bowl, Saint Mary’s led 17-10 before Mount Allison scored 10 unanswered points.
With 2:24 remaining in the fourth quarter, Kyle McLean converted a 34-yard touchdown pass from Leyh — who attended the Roughriders’ training camp in 2014 — to Josh Blanchard to create a 17-17 tie.
McLean followed up with a game-winning, 25-yard field goal with 53 seconds left in the game.
The exhilarating outcome was a tonic for players and coaches who had endured the latter part of the 22-game losing streak before turning the tables so emphatically.
“There was a lot of baggage, a lot of history,” Jeffrey said. “Saint Mary’s had a time when they were absolutely rolling. One time they had beaten us 105-0 before I had gotten there, so they were dominant.
“To overcome that, it took a lot mentally, just because at that time — even the new players — felt like they owned that. It took a lot of convincing of, ‘You don’t own that. You’ve just been here a season or two. You don’t own the previous 20 losses. We can only worry about what we’ve done.’
“It was tough to overcome mentally but, once we did, it was smooth sailing.”
Jeffrey arrived in Sackville, N.B., home of the Mounties, in 2006 when he joined the team as an assistant coach. He served as the quarterbacks coach, offensive co-ordinator and special-teams co-ordinator over a span of two seasons before being promoted to the head-coaching role.
He joined the Roughriders last season as the Running Backs Coach before being handed the keys to the offence last December.
Now he is poised to be part of Touchdown Atlantic for the second time. Last year, the Roughriders faced the Argonauts in Wolfville, N.S., on the campus of Acadia University.
“Family and friends will be at the game, so it’s always good to get back in that area,” Jeffrey said. “It’s nice to be next to the coast. They support football well, so it’s exciting to be in that area.”
