Calgary Stampeders' quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell fires a pass against the Toronto Argonauts during first half CFL action in Toronto, Monday, October 10, 2016.Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press
Doug Flutie orchestrated the Miracle in Miami, perhaps college football's most infamous play, back in 1984, or six years before Calgary Stampeders quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell was born.
"But if you're a football fan, you know that play," Mitchell said this week, "and I'm not too far off the age of when it happened."
Mitchell makes it clear he knows his history and on Sunday, in the Stampeders' final game of an extraordinary regular season, he and his team have a chance to carve out further slices of CFL immortality.
Even though his No. 1 and No. 3 targets from last year, Eric Rogers and Jeff Fuller, left for the NFL, Mitchell is having his best season to date – and is the odds-on favourite to win the league's most-outstanding-player award.
Flutie, who played four seasons in Calgary between 1992 and 1995, holds the top three single-season passing marks in Stampeders history. The fourth belongs to Mitchell, thanks to a year in which he's thrown for 5,385 yards and 32 touchdowns, both career highs. If Mitchell can throw for 341 additional yards this weekend against the Alouettes in Montreal, he can bump Flutie down one spot in the record book. Flutie's single-season mark of 6,092 is out of reach, unless another miracle occurs.
Altogether, Flutie won six MOPs and was three times the MVP of the Grey Cup in his distinguished CFL career. Mitchell was MVP of the 2014 Grey Cup, the last time Calgary won.
"Obviously, it's amazing to be mentioned with some of the names I'm being mentioned with now, with the yardage and all that stuff, but I'm not really focused on where I end up," Mitchell said.
"I mean, if there were some more games that were a little more competitive, I think my numbers would be up there. But I've been lucky enough to be on a team that doesn't give up much. Honestly, it makes my life easier."
Wide receiver Marquay McDaniel was second on the team to Rogers in receiving yards last season and has been with the Stampeders since 2011 – or for the full arc of Mitchell's time as the team's starting quarterback.
At this level of football, every quarterback is indisputably talented.
"But to translate it from practice to the field, you've got to have that 'it' factor," McDaniel said. "That's really what it comes down to. You can't teach it. Some guys have it. Some guys don't.
"The league had a change last year, going to more zone defence. I think that was his first time getting used to it. So in the off season, he watched a lot of film and in camp, you could just see, everything was happening faster for him.
"The way he works, plus being more experienced, I think he's just gotten better and better."
McDaniel is the only Stampeder player among the CFL's top 10 receivers. He has 83 catches going into the final game of the season. Following Rogers's departure (Fuller returned to the CFL as Roughrider), Mitchell has had to spread the ball around more, which he says "has actually allowed me to grow and see the field much more than I have in the past. When you have an all-star, it's hard not to throw to him. Eric's a bigger body and a guy who can go up and get the ball over a lot of people. As a quarterback, it's hard not to trust in that completely.
"Eric being gone this year, if he ever comes back here, he might mention that I'm spreading the ball around more. It's our job as quarterbacks to facilitate and be the point guards and move the ball around and I think I've done a better job of doing that this year."
The Stampeders made Mitchell their full-time starter in 2014. He immediately became the first quarterback in CFL history to win 12 of his first 13 starts.
"He's always had a nice arm, very accurate," Stampeders coach Dave Dickenson said. "I knew in college, he was a winner. He doesn't miss games. He kind of grew into things here. We've done a nice job of keeping his eyes where he needs them – not just always going for the big play. He's bought in; he's got good fitness; he knows our system. Everything, he's just had a great year."
With one more victory, the 15-1-1 Stamps can set the CFL's single-season record for an 18-game schedule, currently held by the 1989 Edmonton Eskimos, who went 16-2. Last weekend, the Stamps became the seventh CFL team to record a perfect 9-0 home record, significant because they are already guaranteed home-field advantage for the Nov. 20 West Division final. Calgary is also the first CFL team to win 14 games or more in four consecutive seasons.
Mitchell says he became immersed in CFL lore once it became a career option and thus knows exactly what's at stake Sunday.
"If you follow me on any social media, you'll know I like to watch old Grey Cups and catch up with old players and see how they saw the game and how it's developing and the way things change," he said. "You gotta know the history of everything you're about."