Calvillo spent two seasons at Mt. San Antonio College before transferring to Utah State University in 1992. After a solid junior year as starting quarterback, he had a terrific senior season in 1993. He set a school record with 3,260 yards of total offense in the regular season, and he also set a school record with five touchdown passes in a single game (he did it twice). With Calvillo leading the offense, USU won the Big West Conference championship for the first time since 1979. The Aggies finished the year with a 42–33 win over Ball State in the Las Vegas Bowl; Calvillo passed for 386 yards and three touchdowns to win MVP honors.[5] It was Utah State's first-ever bowl victory.
In 1996, Calvillo threw for 518 yards against the Saskatchewan Roughriders on October 6. This was a Hamilton single game record. On October 25 against the Montreal Alouettes, he threw for 542 yards, which was the highest passing yardage total in the CFL that year, and rewrote the Hamilton single game record.
During the 2003 CFL season, Calvillo broke numerous Montreal Alouette passing records, completing 408 of 675 passing attempts for 5,891 yards and 37 touchdowns. In 2004, with 6,041 passing yards, Calvillo became the fourth quarterback in CFL history to pass for more than 6,000 yards in a single season (Doug Flutie, David Archer, and Kent Austin being the other three), earning him the East Division nomination for Most Outstanding Player for the third consecutive year.[6] With Calvillo quarterbacking the Alouettes' offence, the 2004 Alouettes became the first team in CFL history to have four players with over 1,000 yards receiving in the same season: Ben Cahoon (1183 yards), Jeremaine Copeland (1154 yards), Thyron Anderson (1147 yards), and Kwame Cavil (1090 yards). In 2005, Calvillo and the Alouettes repeated the feat of four receivers over 1,000 yards: Kerry Watkins (1364 yards), Terry Vaughn (1113 yards), Ben Cahoon (1067 yards), and Dave Stala (1037 yards).
The 2008 CFL season saw Calvillo hit a number of career milestones. On June 26, in a game against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, Calvillo surpassed Danny McManus to become the second-all-time leading passer in the CFL. On July 31, in another game against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, Calvillo became the fourth quarterback in league history to reach 300 career touchdown passes. On August 15, 2008, in a game against the Toronto Argonauts, Calvillo became the second quarterback in CFL history after Damon Allen to reach 4,000 career pass completions. With 5,633 passing yards and 43 touchdown passes, Calvillo won the 2008 Most Outstanding Player award.[7] Calvillo led the Montreal Alouettes to the 2008 Grey Cup final, which the Alouettes lost 22–14 to the Calgary Stampeders.
In 2009, Calvillo added to his club records while reaching more CFL milestones. On July 23, 2009, he surpassed Canadian Football Hall of Famer Ron Lancaster's 334 career touchdown passes to move into second place all time. He sat out two games during the regular season, but still accumulated 4639 yards while posting a remarkable 72.0% completion rate, the second best single-season completion rate in CFL history behind Dave Dickenson's 73.98% mark set in 2005. Calvillo led Montreal to a 16-point fourth quarter comeback victory in the 97th Grey Cup on Nov. 29, when the Alouettes defeated the Saskatchewan Roughriders 28–27 on a last-second field goal known as the "13th Man" finish.
Calvillo won his third Grey Cup on November 28, 2010, at 98th Grey Cup in Edmonton, Alberta where he defeated the Saskatchewan Roughriders 21-18 for the second year in a row. He added to his record total of passing yards in Grey Cup games with 2470 yards, as well as setting the record for Grey Cup starts with eight. As of the 2010 CFL season, Calvillo is 3–5 in Grey Cup Championship Games.
In a post-game interview, he revealed that he would be undergoing off-season surgery to remove a lesion on his thyroid that was discovered after he injured his sternum during the season.[8] On December 21, 2010, it was reported that Calvillo had successful thyroidectomy surgery to remove a cancerous lesion.[9]
On July 15, 2011, in a game against the Toronto Argonauts, Calvillo completed his CFL record 395th career touchdown pass to Éric Deslauriers.[10] On August 4 of that same season, and again against the Argonauts, Calvillo completed his 5159th pass completion to Brandon London to move past Damon Allen to become the leader in that category as well.[11] Then, on October 10, 2011, Calvillo completed a touchdown pass to Jamel Richardson to become professional football's all-time leading passer, in the Alouettes' third and final game against the Toronto Argonauts that year.[12] In 2012, Calvillo became the only player in football history to pass 5,000 yards seven times in his career.[13] He reached 4,000 yards passing eleven times in his career (a CFL record); only Peyton Manning of the NFL has reached the 4,000 mark more times in his career with fourteen 4,000 yard seasons. He also set another CFL record having 8 consecutive 300+ passing yards games in a single season, breaking the record he shared with Doug Flutie.
Calvillo signed a two-year contract on December 13, 2012, with the deal keeping him with the Als through the 2014 season. In Week 8 of the 2013 CFL season, Calvillo left the game after taking a hit from Saskatchewan's Ricky Foley. Three days after the game, it was announced that he had suffered a concussion, and missed the Week 9 game against the BC Lions and the Week 10 game against the Toronto Argonauts.[14] On September 4, 2013, the Als placed Calvillo on the 9-game injury list.[15] On October 18, 2013, the Montreal Alouettes general manager and head coach Jim Popp announced that Calvillo would not be returning to play for the remainder of the 2013 season.[16]
On January 21, 2014, Calvillo announced his retirement from professional football. Before his retirement, he was offered the offensive coordinator position with the Alouettes but declined.[17] On October 13, 2014, Calvillo's jersey number, #13, was retired in a halftime ceremony at McGill Stadium. Upon his retirement, he was the last active player that played for an American-based CFL team during its expansion to the US in the mid-1990s.
On December 15, 2014, the Montreal Alouettes announced that Calvillo would be joining the team as an offensive coach in 2015.[18] On January 29, 2015, Calvillo was appointed as the receivers coach.[19] After the firing of Alouettes head coach Tom Higgins, Calvillo was named the quarterbacks coach for the Alouettes on August 22, 2015.[20] After a few weeks, the team's offensive coordinator, Turk Schonert, was fired and Calvillo was named co-offensive coordinator along with Ryan Dinwiddie.[21] Going into the 2016 season, Calvillo was named offensive coordinator with Jacques Chapdelaine as his special advisor as he grew into the role.[22] After head coach Jim Popp resigned and Chapdelaine was promoted to that position, Chapdelaine also took over play-calling duties from Calvillo.[23] For the 2017 season, Calvillo was announced as the quarterbacks coach.[4]
Toronto Argonauts
On March 19, 2018, the Argos announced the hiring of Calvillo as their quarterback coach.[24] The hire reunited Calvillo with his former general manager Jim Popp, and head coach Marc Trestman.
On January 6, 2022, it was announced that Calvillo had re-joined the Alouettes' coaching staff as the team's quarterbacks coach.[27] In early December 2022 it was reported that Calvillo was one of five finalists for the vacant Alouettes head coaching job.[28] In 2023, Calvillo was the Offensive Coordinator and Quarterbacks Coach, winning his first Grey Cup as a coach.
Honors
2011 Pro Football record all-time leader in passing yards
In 2012 in honour of the 100th Grey Cup, Canada Post used his image on a series of commemorative postage stamps. The image was also used on presentation posters and other materials to promote the Grey Cup game and other celebrations associated with the centennial.
On October 13, 2014, the Alouettes organization retired Calvillo's number 13 in a half-time ceremony.[29]
Calvillo and his wife Alexia have two daughters and reside year-round in Montreal, Quebec.[31] Calvillo became a Canadian citizen on November 19, 2021.
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