The life of Reilly, from mechanical engineer to overshadowed QB to Grey Cup MVP

WINNIPEG—It turned out that the better performance, and the top showing in Sunday's game, came from the quarterback we weren't talking about all week. 40-year-old Ottawa quarterback Henry Burris received most of the attention given his career-best season, his most outstanding player award, and his strong comments about his motivation, while Edmonton's Mike Reilly didn't even receive the most attention on his team thanks to the focus on the Eskimos' defence. On Sunday, though, the math whiz and mechanical engineer was the clinical one, dissecting the Redblacks' defence for 269 passing yards and two touchdowns with a 60 per cent completion percentage and rushing for a team-high (and tied for game-high) 66 yards on 10 carries en route to a 26-20 win.That led to Reilly's deserving selection as Grey Cup MVP, one Edmonton RB Akeem Shavers endorsed afterwards.

"Mike, he was the foundation for us all game," Shavers said. "He was slinging the thing around, getting in there, regulating everything. You can't deny a guy like that. When he talks, everyone listens. He has that type of command over everybody. When you have that type of power, that just makes me want to get behind him and pull for him. You can't deny him. That's Mike Reilly!"

Shavers also contributed to Edmonton's ground game, collecting 37 yards on eight carries, with several of them being crucial. He said Reilly's mobility and rushing ability, a key component of his game, made it much easier for him to find his own success Sunday.

"It meant a lot, because they have to worry about both of us," he said. "Mike, you know he can pull it and take off. He can run."

Reilly's an unusual story, and he's been through a lot of twists and turns to this point. He grew up in Kennewick, Washington, and played three seasons for Kamiakin High School there, but then relocated to Kalispell, Montana and set a school record at Flathead High School (where Denver Broncos' quarterback Brock Osweiler also played) with 2,280 passing yards. He initially committed to Montana Tech, a NAIA school, but then opted to try walking on at Division I FBS Washington State. The Cougars redshirted him for his first year and had him low on the depth chart, which convinced him to transfer to Division II Central Washington, where he could play right away.

Reilly had a phenomenal career with the Wildcats, setting a NCAA record for touchdown passes in consecutive games (he threw at least one in all 46 college games he played), which, interestingly enough, would later be tied by current Montreal Alouettes' quarterback Rakeem Cato during his career at Marshall. That led him to NFL stints with Pittsburgh, Green Bay, St. Louis and Seattle, but he never got much of an opportunity in any of those places, and came north of the border to sign with B.C. in 2010. He spent most of 2010 and 2011 as the Lions' third-string quarterback, then stepped up late in 2012 when Travis Lulay got hurt. That led to an offseason trade to Edmonton, where he won the competition for the starting job when Matt Nichols went down, and he's been the Eskimos' starter ever since.

The football side is only half of his story, though. Reilly's also a bright academic mind; he graduated from Central Washington with a degree in mechanical engineering and a 3.6 GPA, and he actually worked as a mechanical engineer between his stints with the Steelers and Packers. Earlier this week, he told Judy Owen of The Canadian Press that he always loved math, but that a football career's more fun than one in engineering.

That fallback plan didn't wind up being Reilly's career, though. Instead, he returned to football, and he's very good at it. Eskimos' receiver Derel Walker (who went from a tryout camp to the league's top rookie award) said earlier this week that Reilly's analytical approach has been vital to Edmonton's success.

"He has so many skills, he just reads everything so well," Walker said. "We watch film, he breaks it down for us. He helps us out when we need it, I just can't even explain it. He's a great leader and good guy."

Things weren't working for Reilly and the Eskimos early in Sunday's game, as they went down 13-0 before their offence even got the ball and couldn't accomplish much when they finally did get it. Defensive adjustments helped limit Ottawa's success, though, and Reilly told CFL.ca's Jim Morris afterwards that a 10-play, 88-yard touchdown drive near the end of the first half that gave them a 17-16 lead was crucial to turning things around.

They did just that, and honestly, it wasn't as surprising as it might seem. The lack of focus on Reilly pre-game wasn't really about doubting his abilities; he's been playing very well since returning from injury Sept. 12 for his first start since he suffered a torn posterior cruciate ligament (PCL), a partially torn medial collateral ligament (MCL) and a medial meniscal tear in his left knee in the CFL's opening week in June. Reilly appeared in relief the week before in a Sept. 5 loss to the Calgary Stampeders and showed promising signs, and once he returned to the starting role, the Eskimos were rolling. They beat Calgary for the first time in 13 games in that Sept. 12 start, and they haven't lost since, with their streak reaching 10 straight games with this Grey Cup win.

Reilly has at times been crucial to that success, too, specifically in last week's 45-31 West Final victory (again over Calgary) where he threw for 370 yards and three touchdowns and rushed for 30 yards and two further touchdowns and was named our First Star of the week. Even heading into Sunday's game, Reilly and the Eskimos' offence set up the potential for a quarterback duel. There still wasn't much focus on Reilly, though, thanks to other storylines like Edmonton's great defence, Eskimos' head coach Chris Jones' coaching schemes, and Burris' quest for his second Grey Cup ring. That didn't seem to bother Reilly, and now the spotlight's all his. Slotback Adarius Bowman told Morris Reilly was the crucial component in Edmonton's win: