All Kalispell’s Mike Reilly wanted was a chance to play football.

That’s what drove the 6-foot-3 signal caller with a big arm through a two-quarterback system at Flathead into a starting role, from a redshirt year at Washington State to an all-American career at Central Washington and from the dregs of NFL practice teams to a starting job at the northernmost outpost of professional football in North America.

In his second season as the quarterback of the Canadian Football League’s Edmonton Eskimos, Reilly has once again capitalized on his chance to play, quickly becoming one of the league’s top players.

Last year, his first season as a full-time starter in the league, Reilly became the first quarterback in six seasons to run for more than 700 yards, finishing fifth in the league in rushing yards. He also finished second in passing, throwing for 4,207 yards and 24 touchdowns behind a patchwork offensive line.

This season, under a new coaching staff, Reilly showed that season wasn’t a fluke leading the Eskimos to the second best record in the CFL, winning eight more games than in 2013. He threw for 3,327 yards and 16 touchdowns, completing nearly 65 percent of his passes, while rushing for more than 600 yards and eight touchdowns.

He’s been named the CFL’s toughest player each of the last two years in a poll of the league’s players and his impact on his team and the community has earned him a contract extension with the Eskimos through 2016.

“In this league, you get generally one opportunity to be a starter, when you get a chance to prove you should have that job,” Reilly said.

“Fortunately, for me, I learned a lot from some really good players. When my chance came up I took advantage of it.”

After setting an NCAA all-divisions record for consecutive games with a touchdown pass at Central Washington, passing for a score in all 46 games in his four seasons as starter, Reilly bounced around four teams in the NFL. His last tryout was with the Seattle Seahawks when he received an offer to play for the B.C. Lions across the border in Vancouver in the summer of 2010.

“When I got a call in July, I knew if I turned (B.C.) down that day, that opportunity was not going to be there a month later or even a week later,” he said.

“I had to make that choice right then.

“Rather than take a chance on whether an NFL team was going to pick me up, and then you can still get cut in training camp, I knew I just needed to get an opportunity to get on the field somewhere and play. I was sick of sitting on the bench. I wanted to be out there playing.

“To me, it was the right opportunity and I took it.”

Sitting behind former Montana State quarterback Travis Lulay for three years, and winning the Grey Cup championship in 2011, Reilly finally got his shot for the Lions in 2012. In three starts, he completed nearly 70 percent of his passes and accounted for six touchdowns.

The run was impressive enough for the Esks to trade for him in the offseason, tabbing him as their quarterback of the future, a role Reilly relished.

“I started 46 straight games in college,” Reilly said.

“You kind of get used to being the guy that’s out there on the field playing all the time. When you get into the pros and have to take a step back and be the backup, which is a role I hadn’t been in an long time, it’s difficult at first.

“Then you realize you need that time to learn the game of football in Canada. It’s a different game.”

While the same in name, CFL football is starkly different from the game in the States. There are 12 players on a field that is 110 yards long and 12 yards wider with 20 yard end zones. There’s only three downs instead of four and there’s seemingly endless pre-snap motion on offense, with receivers allowed to get a running start.

“It takes a long time, it’s a tough game for quarterbacks to learn,” Reilly said.

“Three downs versus four downs is huge. If you’re not successful on first down, in some fashion, then you’re in the equivalent of third-and-10 in American football. The success rate of that is not very high.

“Field position is huge. Time of possession is huge. You really understand that that’s an important part of the game and how to manage that.

“With the field being bigger, and there being an extra defender out there, there’s a lot more that you have to be able to see and a lot more that you have to look at. It takes a long time.

“Because there’s so much pre-snap motion and because you’re in the shotgun formation every play, you really don’t get a very good pre-snap read of what’s going to happen. You have to take your eyes off the defense for a split second to see the ball and catch it.

“Defenses are moving around all the time because your wide receivers are motioning. A majority of what you’re doing, in terms of reading the defense, is happening after the snap. You really have to be able to process information at a much higher speed than you do in the American game.

“It takes a long time to really perfect that craft. And I’m still learning. I expect to continue to get better every year that I play. It’s something that you continue to try to improve on. That’s something that’s exciting for me. It’s a challenge and I genuinely enjoy taking those challenges on.”

Reilly was faced with one of the biggest challenges of his career this season, dealing with major injuries for the first time. He tore capsules in the thumb and index of his throwing hand in the summer, right after a 7-1 start to the season had the Esks in first place at the midway point.

After sitting out a pair of losses to eventual Grey Cup champion Calgary over the Labor Day weekend, the Esks won five straight games with Reilly back, only for him to break a bone in his foot shortly before the start of the playoffs.

Returning in two weeks from a six-week injury, Reilly rallied the Esks to a win over Saskatchewan in the West semifinals only to lose again to Calgary the next week when his lack of mobility seemed to really be apparent. Edmonton finished second in the West, and just short of playing for the Grey Cup.

“A big part of our offense was my ability to use my legs and things like that,” Reilly said.

“When your foot and ankle are messed up and you’re not going at 100 percent that definitely effects things. That’s frustrating.

“That’s part of the game of football. It’s going to happen over the course of a number of years. Hopefully we’ve used up all of our bad luck in the injury department and we won’t have to deal with that down the road in the future.”

Playing in Kalispell helped him prepare for some of the chilly games he’s experienced the last few seasons in Alberta, including some played in negative temperatures in conditions better suited for Edmonton’s other professional franchise, the NHL’s Oilers.

He shared the message of his journey with his former team in his first trip back to the Legends Field sidelines since losing to Helena Capital in the state quarterfinals in 2002.

Flathead coach Kyle Samson, who quarterbacked the undefeated Bruins team that knocked off Reilly, Lex Hilliard and the talented Braves that season, invited him to speak during the week of senior night, which for the first time in years lined up with a bye week. Reilly’s father, Pat, is a coach on the Braves’ freshman staff and helped coordinate the meeting.

“It was pretty cool for our kids,” Samson said.

“He talked about reaching for your dreams and not being afraid to set your goals high. He had a goal and a dream of going on to play football in college and the next level. He talked about some of the adversities he had to fight through in high school and college and how he worked for everything.

“It was a great message for our young kids to see that ... It’s pretty special for our kids to see.”

Now getting settled back in Canada, Reilly is recovering from his foot injury and hopes to be training again in January.

Even with the disappointing finish to the season, things are looking up in Edmonton.

“We fell short of our ultimate goal, which is the Grey Cup,” Reilly said.

“Having a new coaching staff and being the second best team in the league, record-wise, I really feel like it’s just the beginning.

“I think we have bright things ahead of us in the future. It’s definitely an exciting time for us for our team, for our city and for myself.”