Connor Halliday signs with Montreal Alouettes

PULLMAN–Connor Halliday is not done with football, after all. The record-setting Ferris High and Washington State quarterback has signed a contract with the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League, choosing to continue a circuitous professional journey.

The Inland Northwest has never seen a more prolific quarterback than Halliday, 24, who set an NCAA record by throwing for 734 yards in a losing effort against California his senior season. As a senior at Ferris, Halliday threw for more than 4,000 yards and 43 touchdowns.

Halliday originally signed with the Washington Redskins out of college in 2014, but chose to return to Spokane before training camp started. He had a brief stint with the Toronto Argonauts, but was cut before he had a chance to show the coaches what he could do.

After working for some time at the Hayden Lake Country Club, Halliday moved to Seattle in June to get back in football shape because the Indianapolis Colts inquired about a tryout. The tryout fell through, but Halliday continued to work out with former Redskins coach Jim Zorn and train for his next shot at professional football.

CFL teams starting sniffing around the record-setting quarterback, and Halliday liked the situation in Montreal, a traditional powerhouse that is suffering through a 3-9 season.

“They’re putting me on the practice squad right now, so it’s kind of like six weeks to learn the offense,” Halliday said. “The plan is to practice squad me for the rest of this year and then get a chance to compete for the starting job the following season.”

Rakeem Cato of Mashall University is the starting quarterback for the Alouettes, and former Eastern Washington and Oregon QB Vernon Adams is the backup.