Marcus Crandell (born June 1, 1974) is a former professional

Canadian football Canadian football () is a team sport, sport played in Canada in which two teams of 12 players each compete for territorial control of a field of play long and wide attempting to advance a pointed oval-shaped ball into the opposing team's sco ...

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

and coach. He was most recently the

offensive coordinator An offensive coordinator is a member of the coaching staff of an American football or Canadian football team who is in charge of the team's offense. Generally, along with the defensive coordinator and the special teams coordinator, this coach re ...

of the Saskatchewan Huskies of the

University of Saskatchewan A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...

. He played 11 seasons for the

Edmonton Eskimos The Edmonton Elks are a professional Canadian football team based in Edmonton, Alberta. The club competes in the Canadian Football League (CFL) as a member of the league's West Division and plays their home games at the Brick Field at Commo ...

Calgary Stampeders The Calgary Stampeders are a professional Canadian football team based in Calgary, Alberta. The Stampeders compete in the West Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL). The club plays its home games at McMahon Stadium and are the third-old ...

and

Saskatchewan Roughriders The Saskatchewan Roughriders are a professional Canadian football team based in Regina, Saskatchewan. The Roughriders compete in the Canadian Football League (CFL) as a member club of the league's West Division. The Roughriders were founded in 1 ...

from 1997 to 2008 while also spending time in

NFL Europe NFL Europe League (simply called NFL Europe and known in its final season as NFL Europa League) was a professional American football league that functioned as the developmental minor league of the National Football League (NFL). Originally f ...

and the

XFL XFL may refer to: Sports * XFL (2001), a defunct American football league that played its only season in 2001 * XFL (2020), a professional American football league Vehicles * Bell XFL Airabonita, a 1940 U.S. Navy experimental interceptor aircra ...

. Crandell was named the

Grey Cup Most Valuable Player The Grey Cup's Most Valuable Player (MVP) award is awarded annually since 1959 to the player of the winning team who deemed to have had the best performance in the Grey Cup Game, the Canadian Football League's championship game. This award is pres ...

after the Stampeders won the

89th Grey Cup The 89th Grey Cup (Canadian Football League championship) was held in 2001 in Montreal. The Calgary Stampeders claimed their fifth championship in team history with a 27–19 win over the East Division champions and heavily favoured Winnipeg B ...

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

. He also won a

Grey Cup The Grey Cup (french: Coupe Grey) is both the championship game of the Canadian Football League (CFL) and the trophy awarded to the victorious team playing in the namesake championship of professional Canadian football. The game is contested be ...

championship with the Roughriders in

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as the team's backup quarterback.

Early life

Crandell played high school football at Roanoke High School, located in Robersonville, NC. He went on to play

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

East Carolina University East Carolina University (ECU) is a public university, public research university in Greenville, North Carolina. It is the fourth largest university in North Carolina. Founded on March 8, 1907, as a Normal school, teacher training school, East ...

, where he established more than 30 passing and offensive records. He was a candidate for the

Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award The Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award is given annually in the United States to the nation's top upperclassmen quarterback in college football. Candidates are judged on accomplishments on the field as well as on their character, scholastic achievemen ...

in 1996. He led the

Pirates Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and other valuable goods. Those who conduct acts of piracy are called pirates, v ...

to two post-season bowl appearances, including a 19-13 victory over

Stanford Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is considere ...

in the 1995

Liberty Bowl The Liberty Bowl is an annual American college football bowl game played in late December or early January since 1959. For its first five years, it was played at Philadelphia Municipal Stadium in Philadelphia before being held at Atlantic City ...

. *1994: 230/401 for 2,687 yards with 21 TD vs. 15 INT. Also ran for 96 yards with 1 TD. *1995: 235/447 for 2,751 yards with 18 TD vs. 12 INT. Also ran for 201 yards with 6 TD. *1996: 136/245 for 1,507 yards with 16 TD vs. 10 INT. Also ran for 109 yards.

Professional career

His professional career has included

CFL The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a ci ...

stops at Saskatchewan as well as

Edmonton Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city ancho ...

and

Calgary Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806, makin ...

, a stint in

with the Scottish Claymores, and a season with the

Memphis Maniax The Memphis Maniax were an American football team based in Memphis, Tennessee. The team was part of the XFL begun by Vince McMahon of World Wrestling Entertainment and by NBC, a major television network in the United States. Home games were playe ...

. Crandell entered the CFL by signing with the Eskimos on May 6, 1997. He dressed for 35 games before being granted free agency on Feb. 16, 2000. Crandell then quarterbacked the Memphis Maniax of the now-defunct XFL and the Scottish Claymores of NFL Europe in 2000. But after failing to stick with the Kansas City Chiefs and Green Bay Packers, he signed a

free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who is a ...

pact with the Stampeders on May 31, 2001. He won a

with the Stampeders in

and spent a total of four seasons with Calgary. He signed as a free agent with the Roughriders in March 2005 and also spent four seasons with the team, primarily as a backup, winning a Grey Cup championship in

Coaching career

Crandell was hired by the Roughriders as an offensive assistant on July 7, 2009. In 2011, he became the Offensive Coordinator of the

. He was demoted to quarterbacks coach midway through the 2012 season and did not return to the Eskimos coaching staff in 2013. For the

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

season, Crandell joined the expansion

Ottawa Redblacks The Ottawa Redblacks (officially stylized as REDBLACKS) ( French: Le Rouge et Noir d'Ottawa) are a professional Canadian football team based in Ottawa, Ontario. The team plays in the East Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL). Startin ...

as their quarterbacks coach. He became the offensive coordinator of the

University of Saskatchewan Huskies The University of Saskatchewan began in 1907 and has operated teams that compete with others since 1911. The term Huskie Athletics is defined as those student athletes from the University of Saskatchewan that compete in elite interuniversity ...

in 2017.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Crandell, Marcus 1974 births Living people African-American players of Canadian football American football quarterbacks American players of Canadian football Calgary Stampeders players Canadian football quarterbacks East Carolina Pirates football players Edmonton Elks coaches Edmonton Elks players Memphis Maniax players Sportspeople from Charlotte, North Carolina Saskatchewan Roughriders coaches Saskatchewan Roughriders players Scottish Claymores players Ottawa Redblacks coaches Players of American football from Charlotte, North Carolina Saskatchewan Huskies football coaches 21st-century African-American sportspeople 20th-century African-American sportspeople