Article content“And also, the timeframe that I’ve been here, we’ve had some really, really good teams who have gone deep and had undefeated seasons and made national semifinal appearances. Without everybody else (contributing), nobody gets any of that. Whether it’s a receiver relying on a quarterback or another receiver running the right route so somebody else can get open, or your O line buddies blocking their butts off for you, I’m not doing any of this. So it’s all kudos to those guys, and as much as I’m proud of the records, they should feel just as proud.”Article content Acadia Axemen defensive back Jack Malo, left, sends St. F.X. X-Men quarterback Silas Fagnan flying close to the endzone during an Oct. 15, 2022 AUS game in Wolfville. Photo by Jason Malloy /FileArticle contentAnd on that team theme, Fagnan is as aware as anyone what lies immediately ahead for him and the X-Men. They are literally off to a perfect start with a 2-0 record and zero points allowed so far, but they are now walking into back-to-back stiff tests.Article contentUp first are the defending league champion Gaiters (1-1) on the road this Saturday, followed by the first-place Saint Mary’s Huskies (3-0) in Antigonish the following weekend.Article contentArticle content“As much as you want to place extra importance on games like those ones, I think it’s more important to preach to everybody not to (get carried away),” Fagnan said. “We have a lot of guys who have been there before, so as much as we like to get ourselves hyped up for every game, I don’t think that it’s going to do anybody any good to go too far with it. We’ve won big games before and we’ve played good opponents before so we just need to have ourselves ready. There is a little more parity in the conference now but you just focus on bringing your best to every game and the best team should come out on top.”Article content St. Francis Xavier quarterback Silas Fagnan. Photo by St. F.X. AthleticsArticle contentAnd there’s no mistaking the focus around the X program at this point. The X-Men won three straight league titles from 2021 to 2023 but lost their hold on the Loney Bowl last year.Article contentAfter falling short in 2024, Fagnan felt compelled to come back for a fifth season, even though he completed his human kinetics degree last year.Article contentArticle content“I think there was a little bit of a feeling of unfinished business last year,” said the two-time AUS MVP. “Typically you get your four-year degree, you play four years of football and you know you can walk away feeling accomplished, but I think there was a bit of a nasty taste left in some of our mouths knowing that our careers would’ve ended without that final Loney Bowl. A lot of the guys felt, collectively, that the right way to end it all is to bring it back one more time.”Article contentRegardless of how this season plays out for Fagnan, he will be done with university football in a couple of months because he’ll be out of eligibility. He spent part of the 2023 off-season training with the Calgary Stampeders as part of the CFL Internship Program so he hasn’t ruled out taking a run at pro football.Article content“What they do is every year they bring in quarterbacks from U SPORTS to all of the CFL teams, so one guy gets to go to each of the teams,” said Fagnan, who is undrafted. “They pick guys who are in their second or third year of U SPORTS who have established themselves and they give them a chance to learn what it takes to go pro. My chance was in Calgary, which was awesome. They sent me close to home so that was amazing.”
X-Men quarterback Silas Fagnan rewriting AUS record book
