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Crandell was the Grey Cup MVP in 2001 while with the Calgary Stampeders, and won a second Grey Cup as the Roughriders’ backup quarterback in 2007. When he was done slinging footballs, he worked as an offensive assistant with the Roughriders, as an offensive co-ordinator and then quarterbacks coach with the Edmonton Eskimos, and as a quarterbacks coach with the Ottawa Redblacks.

That last job ended after the 2014 season. Crandell got his insurance license in 2013, and said he hopes to continue building that business, in addition to football, when he gets to Saskatoon.

Flory, who worked as the Huskies’ offensive co-ordinator before taking the head-coaching job in mid-March, said Crandell will excel at player development.

“I’m really excited for the program and for what he brings — especially from a development side of things, with our quarterbacks and our offensive system,” Flory said Monday.

“My deficiencies are in the passing game, which is his expertise. His deficiencies are in the protection and run game, which is my expertise. I think we’ll work really well together.

“I’ll have my two cents, but Marcus is our offensive co-ordinator. It’s his baby. I have the utmost confidence in him running our offence.”

Crandell will be in Saskatoon for the team’s spring camp, which starts Thursday. He’s taking a crash course in all things Huskie, as he adjusts to both the program and the university game.

He’s been around the province enough to know that people here love their football — “they embrace it, so much, and I’m speaking from a Riders perspective,” he says. He figures some of that passion extends to the university game.