WINNIPEG — Mike Reilly focused as much on his grades as he did on football while growing up.
The Edmonton Eskimos quarterback graduated from Central Washington University with a 3.6 grade-point average and a mechanical engineering degree.
"I just always really liked math and numbers and puzzles and things like that and trying to figure things out," Reilly said Thursday. "My favourite course in college, honestly, was probably physics. And it was calculus for a while until I got into 300-level calculus and then I was like, ‘Ah, this stuff is crazy. I don’t like this anymore."’
He even used his degree between being released by the NFL’s Pittsburgh Steelers in September 2009 and being signed by the Green Bay Packers two months later.
"I worked designing H-VAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) and plumbing systems for a processing plant," Reilly said of the job near his hometown of Kennewick, Wash. "It was an experience. I like football a lot better, for sure. That’s why they tell you to get your degree, so that when you fall on hard times you’ve got something to fall back on."
Reilly, 30, has held down a job he loves since signing with the B.C. Lions in 2010 before being traded to Edmonton in 2013.
As his Eskimos prepare to take on the Ottawa Redblacks in Sunday’s Grey Cup, coaches and teammates praise Reilly for his brains, leadership and toughness.
"Just putting things together, understanding how it works, he’s very cerebral," Edmonton offensive co-ordinator Stephen McAdoo said.
"He probably doesn’t get enough credit for his mind and how he handles things out on the field. If you’re looking at his grades and what he did back in college, it probably coincides with what he does now."
McAdoo, a former offensive lineman who’s been around a lot of quarterbacks, put Reilly up there with Toronto’s Ricky Ray and former Montreal pivot Anthony Calvillo.
"Probably the biggest thing that I get from Mike, and you can probably ask anybody around this league that knows him or has played against him, is he’s one of the toughest competitors around," he said.
"He’s very tough. I love him for that, but I try to get him to understand I don’t need him to be tough all the time," he added. "There’s smart times to be tough. Don’t take unnecessary hits."
Reilly tore ligaments in his left knee after being hit low in this year’s season opener and didn’t return to the field until early September.
He came back and sparked the Eskimos to the nine-game winning streak they’re taking into the championship game.
He completed 214 of 329 passes for 2,449 yards, 15 touchdowns and 10 interceptions in the regular season. He also ran 66 times for 324 yards, two TDs and notched one tackle.
In last week’s 45-31 West Division final win over Calgary, Reilly was 31-of-39 for 370 yards and three TDs and ran seven times for 30 yards and two TDs.
Reilly’s father Pat, an assistant coach at a high school in Montana who’s retiring this year after more than 40 years coaching, coached his son from ages 7 to 14.
Reilly said his father wanted him to be more of a pocket passer, but not out of nervousness.
"It was kind of him teaching me that there’s a time to run and there’s a time to stand in there and make the play," Reilly said. "Because if you take that extra second in the pocket and you take the hit, it gives you the opportunity to get the ball to a guy 20 yards down field and that’s a much better play for our team than you running out and getting two yards and getting tackled."
