The last-gasp Montreal pass got launched from near the 55-yard line and ultimately landed harmlessly on the turf inside the 20-yard end zone. So the loud sounds of joy from all those fans wearing Saskatchewan green and white filled the cold Winnipeg air on this November night .
There was a reserve quarterback out of Sayville High School on the sideline at Princess Auto Stadium feeling that joy on Nov. 16, too. He was inactive for the game but active in his passion for the Saskatchewan Roughriders.
Jack Coan, Long Island’s all-time leading passer, who powered the Golden Flashes to two Suffolk titles and one Long Island crown, had become a champion again. This time he was a CFL champion after the Roughriders’ 25-17 Grey Cup win.
It had a nice ring to it in more ways than one for Coan.
“It was an unbelievable feeling,” he said. “It was honestly pretty surreal just because our team had such a tight-knit group and we put in so much work together. We got sized [for our rings] a day or two after the championship.”
Coan is on the verge of turning 27 and has been on quite a football journey, making several stops along the road to Canada. He went from Sayville to Wisconsin to Notre Dame to the Indianapolis Colts to the XFL’s San Antonio Brahmas to brief looks with three other NFL teams, including the Jets, to life in the Great White North.
The 6-3, 210-pound former Hansen Award winner as Suffolk’s top player hasn’t played a whole lot these last two seasons in the 110-yard, three-down, 18-game CFL.
Coan got into one Saskatchewan game in 2024 against Calgary, throwing for 100 yards and a touchdown. He spoke about appearing in four more games this season, throwing for 38 yards and rushing for 40 and three scores.
“It’s an interesting league there because sometimes they have a short-yardage quarterback that only does quarterback sneaks,” said Coan, who had that role in three games. “So we had a guy who [mostly] did that. So I was technically probably the fourth [quarterback], but I was really the third.”
‘Tom Brady’ lends a hand
Coan knows he has grown as a QB north of the border while playing behind Trevor Harris, the 39-year-old Grey Cup MVP.
“He’s playing behind what you would consider the Tom Brady of the CFL,” Sayville coach Rob Hoss said.
Coan passes a lot of credit for his improvement to Harris. “He just taught me so much about how to prepare the right way, X’s-and-O’s, about life in general,” Coan said.
Jeremy O’Day, Saskatchewan’s vice president of football operations/GM, gave Coan a good review via email:
“Jack is a true professional with a strong work ethic. His preparation for the game both physically and mentally was a big reason why he’s been with us for the last two seasons. In addition, Jack is an outstanding teammate and is well respected by the people around him.”
O’Day sees a potential CFL starter with more work and if Coan can “take advantage of the opportunities in front of him.”
Sayville sensation
Jack Coan at Sayville in 2014. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Back in his Sayville days, from 2013 through 2016, the four-year starter threw for 9,787 yards and 128 touchdowns, both Long Island records.
“To me, he was the most unbelievable processor of information post-snap,” Hoss said. “He saw it before I did. I designed the play. It’s my play. I know the read. I know the progression. And he would just be able to see it so quickly.”
Hoss would head over to Coan’s house on Sundays to go over game-planning. Then they would play something. It could be ping pong. It could be darts. It could be anything. Hoss would get another taste of the kid quarterback’s competitive fire burning bright.
“He wouldn’t lose at anything and it drove me nuts,” Hoss said. “He always had to win.”
Coan then started 18 of his 25 games at Wisconsin from 2017 to 2019 — throwing for 2,727 yards as a junior, the third-highest single-season total in Badgers history — before playing the 2021 season for Notre Dame.
Coan fired for 3,150 yards and 25 TDs for the 11-2 Fighting Irish. He lit up New Year’s Day in 2022, setting Fiesta Bowl passing records of 509 yards and five touchdowns in a 37-35 loss to Oklahoma State.
“Wisconsin’s an amazing place and an amazing school,” Coan said. “And obviously Notre Dame, it was always my dream to go play there. One of the most amazing places to play football and go to college. It was a dream come true being able to be the quarterback there.”
But then the 2022 NFL Draft came and went without him.
“I was definitely disappointed and felt like I deserved to be drafted,” he said.
After signing with the Colts, Coan stayed for OTAs through training camp before being let go. In 2023, he passed for 1,403 yards and six scores across his eight XFL games and had those NFL looks. He signed with Saskatchewan in March 2024.
Now he wants to continue playing in Canada.
His contract is up, but he hopes to be riding again with the Roughriders.
“My No. 1 goal right now is to become a starter in the CFL and win a Grey Cup as a starter,” Coan said. “That’s my true goal. From there, I would have some options, I think.”
Brian Heyman covers high school, college and pro sports. He joined Newsday in 2021 and previously worked as a sportswriter for The Journal News in White Plains and The Hudson Dispatch in Union City, New Jersey. His work has appeared in The New York Times, MLB.com and Baseball Digest magazine.