Huskies’ Hundeby tackles engineering degree before CFL opportunity

“Definitely knowing that football is not something that I will be able to do forever, I need to be prepared for a career down the road,” said Hundeby, who is coming off of a remarkable 2024 season when he earned All-Canadian honours for his exploits on the football field and Academic All-Canadian acclaim for his work in the classroom in 2024/25. “I know that I need to complete my engineering degree for when football ends and it is time to move on and do something else that I love.”

Hundeby hopes to make the move to pro football in 2026 after being selected in the fourth round (34th overall) by the Saskatchewan Roughriders in this year’s CFL draft on Tuesday night, after impressing scouts in the CFL Combine pre-draft testing in Regina on March 20-23. Building off of his All-Canadian season, Hundeby came to camp bigger – now 6-foot-3 and 251 pounds – and faster – he ran the 40-yard dash in an impressive 4.7 seconds – to catch the attention of CFL teams, while also informing scouts that he would be returning to university for one more year before tackling the chance to turn pro.

“I am super excited to be drafted and I can’t wait to see the opportunities that will unfold and a new career in the future to come,” said the 23-year-old Hundeby, who was born and raised in Saskatoon. “But first, I am looking forward to completing my final year of eligibility with the Huskies and continuing to work towards my engineering degree.”

Hundeby was one of three Huskies drafted by CFL teams on Tuesday, along with fellow linebacker Lane Novak (selected in the fifth round, 54th overall, by the Winnipeg Blue Bombers) and receiver Daniel Wiebe (eighth round, 69th overall, by the Roughriders).

For Hundeby, football and engineering both run in the family. His cousin, uncle and great uncle all played Huskies football, while his father Gord and grandfather Dave both studied mechanical engineering at USask, the same field he is majoring in.

“My grandpa is actually a mechanical engineer who I believe has 20-plus patents himself and my dad is also a successful mechanical engineer, so that creativity kind of flows through my family and I have definitely taken to that and really enjoy the design process,” said Hundeby, whose mother Tracey also played Huskie women’s basketball at USask. “Entrepreneurship really interests me, so if I can find a career where I am coming up with different inventions or better ways to do things, that seems to me to be the most interesting aspect of mechanical engineering for me.”

For his part, Huskies head coach Scott Flory – himself a USask engineering graduate and former Huskies all-star who went on to enjoy an impressive 15-year career in the CFL – is not surprised at all to see Hundeby return for his fifth year to finish what he started with the Huskies and in his studies at USask.

“Seth is a great leader and teammate, both on and off the field,” said Flory. “Our student-athletes must be students first, and Seth is a great example of that as he is in the final stages of completing his engineering degree. He sets a high standard for success within our locker room with his teammates … And athletically, Seth is a very gifted athlete. He’s an incredibly hard worker who is blessed with the size, strength, and speed necessary to take his game to the professional level. He had a bright future in the game beyond being a Huskie.”

For Hundeby, it was satisfying to be honoured for his dedication in his sport and his studies while juggling the demands of both academics and athletics. In the 2024 season, he finished fifth overall in the Canada West conference in total tackles (41 in eight games) and also achieved an academic average of better than 80 per cent in his engineering courses while completing a full course load.

“I was really happy that I was able to achieve both of those goals and it was definitely something that I strived for,” said Hundeby, who also moved into the top 10 in the Huskies record books for total tackles, assisted tackles, and tackles for a loss. “It’s a little bit of apples to oranges because the Academic All-Canadian honour is definitely a whole different battle of getting my schoolwork done on time and really understanding it, compared to running around on the field and blitzing a couple of B-gaps. I was just really happy that all that hard work paid off.”

While careers in the CFL and in mechanical engineering await him down the road, Hundeby has designs on closing out his final season of Huskie football this fall the way it began – with a trip to the Vanier Cup national championship.

“I think that would be the perfect way to top off my athletic career and I think we have a good shot,” said Hundeby, who helped the Huskies advance all the way to the 2021 and 2022 Vanier Cups. “We have a lot of good guys on the team and that is one thing that I am really excited about is having one more year to spend with them and excited to give it one more ride this fall.”

Four USask student-athletes – QB Anton Amundrud, OL Jack Warrack, DL Charlie Parks and DL Nathan Jule – along with new assistant head coach Mason Nyhus will represent the Huskies football team at this year’s U Sports East-West Bowl on May 10 in Waterloo, Ont., featuring the top 106 Canadian university players eligible for the 2026 CFL Draft … Former Huskie women’s soccer standouts Erica Hindmarsh, Jadyn Steinhauer and Jade Houmphanh were selected to suit up for the Canadian team that is currently competing in the inaugural CONCACAF W Futsal Championship underway this week in Guatemala. Huskies head coach Jerson Barandica-Hamilton is serving as an assistant coach on the Canadian national team staff … Huskie men’s basketball forward Easton Thimm was selected 23rd overall by the Saskatchewan Rattlers in the 2025 Canadian Elite Basketball League Draft on April 10, the 11th Huskie to be drafted by the Rattlers since 2019. The summer league season begins May 15 … USask will host the Saskatchewan Roughriders rookie camp beginning May 7 at Griffiths Stadium in Nutrien Park, with the Riders’ main training camp kicking off on May 11.