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There is still plenty of uncertainty surrounding the 2020 college football season amid the coronavirus pandemic, and the possibility remains that conferences could shorten their seasons to play just league games.

Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick isn't worried about his team's schedule even with that looming possibility.

"We are very comfortable that if it goes that way, we'll be fine," Swarbrick said, per Heather Dinich of ESPN. "We'll be able to play a high-quality, full schedule, the same number of games other teams will play."

The Fighting Irish's schedule would be in serious jeopardy even if just Power Five conferences limited their slates to league opponents.

After all, 10 of their 12 games as an independent come against teams in Power Five conferences, including Wisconsin from the Big Ten, USC from the Pac-12, Arkansas from the SEC and six ACC opponents.

Swarbrick suggested teams could play a conference-only schedule with a "plus one" game to protect contests of interest such as rivalries between Florida and Florida State, Clemson and South Carolina, and others. 

Given Notre Dame's place as a high-profile opponent that generates plenty of national interest, television ratings and ticket revenue (assuming fans are even in attendance), it could be that "plus one" game for many of its opponents.

"You protect those, but other than that one game, you build your schedule around conferences," Swarbrick said. "We would love Wisconsin to still be able to play Notre Dame in Lambeau this year, or Arkansas to still visit. We just have to see how that evolves, but I'm not concerned about our ability to have a challenging, robust schedule even if the conferences go to a conference-only model."

Swarbrick said the College Football Playoff management committee has been in constant communication as it attempts to figure out a way to hold the 2020 season, although he recognized there is "a significant chance that may not be possible." 

In April, ESPN's Adam Schefter reported there was "strong conviction" from those around college football there would be a season even though there was "uncertainty" regarding the timing and what it would look like with COVID-19 still a serious concern in the United States.

As of Tuesday, there have been more than 1.2 million confirmed cases of the coronavirus and more than 70,000 deaths in just the United States alone.

By the age of two, it was clear Chase Claypool would be an athlete. He climbed the monkey bars with ease. Only a few years later, he would be playing baseball and trying gymnastics, however briefly. There was a foray into BMX riding and karate, which he practiced at a dojo next to his house. He tried and challenged everything. But nothing captured his imagination like football.

As a kid growing up in Abbotsford, British Columbia, the four-year Notre Dame wide receiver didn't just like playing the game—he absorbed as much as he could as a fan too. He watched the Seahawks religiously during the NFL season and the BC Lions when the CFL was in session. He idolized running back great LaDainian Tomlinson, who inspired Claypool to wear the same No. 21 throughout his early athletic pursuits. He tried to emulate the defensive ethos of safety Sean Taylor.

He finally joined a community tackle football team at the age of eight. A year later, he was playing against kids two and three years older than he was in a summer flag football league. The age gap didn't faze him; he just wanted to be tested.

When Claypool was 12, his mom, Jasmine, recalls driving home after a football game her son dominated and wondering out loud, "Wouldn't it be cool if you played in the CFL?" Chase pleaded with her to "let me get through high school first."

In the fall of 2011, however, the Claypool family context was changed forever.

One morning in late October, around 6:30 a.m., Chase, 14, was awakened by his mother in their Abbotsford house. She told him that his 17-year-old sister, Ashley, had taken her own life. Still half asleep, the news didn't register. He went back to sleep and thought it was a dream.

A few hours later he woke up, went to the bathroom and then heard his mother crying in the kitchen. That's when the shock and numbness kicked in. It wasn't until Ashley's funeral, where he was surrounded by grief-stricken family members, that the reality of her loss clung to him tightly. He didn't want to believe it was real.

Claypool realized then that he had to find different ways to live without his big sister, one who used to tell him to keep playing sports.

"I just want to make her proud," he said.

If he hadn't already done that by morphing into a team leader for one of college football's most storied programs, he's about to leave no doubt after he's selected as an under-the-radar X-factor in next week's NFL draft.

---

His clips had gone viral on Facebook, and it was clear why. On the screen was a big, muscular kid catching a punt return and racing through defenders. Few touched him, and those who did bounced off him. Eddie Ferg watched it 20 times to see if it was real. Ferg is the founder of Air Raid Academy, a Canada-based program that helps train and promote high school athletes to get into colleges.

"Seeing such a big kid moving like he was 5'9", I've never seen such a large individual move like that," Ferg said. "This kid was special."

Indeed, Claypool's elite athleticism made him a multisport threat. On the basketball court, he showed the ability to do a little of everything—dunk, shoot threes, spread the floor. Soon enough, though, Claypool began training with Ferg and other elite football talents, playing seven-on-seven tournaments against U.S. high school teams as far away as New Jersey.

He refined his game, working on running more efficiently, navigating cleaner routes, catching away from his body, playing more aggressively and reading defenses. He gravitated toward the learning process and picked things up rapidly.

"Chase has a ruthless approach to everything he does," Ferg said. "He never loses or wants to lose. If he does lose, he's challenging the person that beat him until he wins."

If he dropped a catch in practice, he'd run the play again until it was perfect. He regularly filled his time on trips to football tournaments by asking Karen Lopez, a personal trainer for Air Raid Academy, about how to improve his release off the line of scrimmage or his footwork. He'd set up shoe markers in the hallway of the hotel, film his form and send it to Ferg. On nights where he couldn't sleep, he would work out.

"Everything that he's dealt with in his life, losing his sister, is something that motivates him to be the best," Ferg said. "He was doing what he needed to do to not only improve but to be the best. It's the [Kobe] Bryant effect. That is Chase. It's not fair to compare him like that, but that is the closest comparison to Chase I could give anybody."

By his senior year in high school, Claypool was dominating the Abbotsford sports scene. In the fall, he led the Panthers football team in receiving yards (1,473), touchdowns (18) and tackles (74). With winter sports came a season that saw him average more than 40 points per game while scoring more than 50 four times.

Though some say he could have played Division I basketball, once the football offers started to come in, his belief in himself as a football player grew. And with an offer to play for Notre Dame, Chase moved to South Bend in 2016.

---

The Claypools were an active, outdoorsy family. There was knee hockey with mini sticks and soap on the floor and building BMX ramps in the street. There were laughs—lots of them. And there was a close-knit group of siblings (three boys and one girl, as well as two step-brothers), of which Chase was the youngest.

The last time he remembers talking to Ashley was a few days before she died. He was walking home from a friend's house and saw her walking in the opposite direction. He ran across the street and gave her a hug.

It's been almost nine years since. He thinks about her every day. Now, on his right arm is a tattoo that reads:

"A thousand words won't bring you back. I know, because I tried. Neither will a thousand tears. I know, because I've cried. Until we meet again."

He says the words aren't used as motivation, because she's always on his mind.

His mother is a good reminder too. She's a lot like his sister. Same humor. Similarly down to earth. But a relationship with a sibling is different, and Chase was close to Ashley. She used to put him in dresses when he was young. Later, she made it clear to him the potential she felt he had as an athlete, as a football player.

It's easy to see now what Ashley saw then.

As he prepares to watch the draft with his family in Canada, Claypool is a portrait of what modern offensive coordinators dream about: 6'4", 238 pounds and sporting a physique that brings to mind a CrossFit world champion as much as a football player.

If you've seen his press conferences from Notre Dame or, more recently, at the NFL combine, you would have also noticed his laser-like focus and confidence. "I've shown that I have size. If I can show that I have speed to go with it, that separates me from most of the guys," Claypool told scouts at the 2020 combine.

Those scouts are guardedly optimistic about Claypool's NFL future. Though he's prized for his size, hands and speed, his suspect ability to shake free of defenders after the catch has raised some concerns, according to NFL.com. "Everyone is going to talk about his 4.48 speed, but I didn't think he played that fast," one AFC director of college scouting told B/R. "Hopefully you can get that out of him, but the height/weight/speed is so intriguing that you almost have to roll the dice and hope for the best. I bet he goes top 50."

As far as Claypool is concerned, "Obviously, you want to get drafted as high as possible. I have set my expectations high. I'm honestly excited for the opportunity to even get drafted. I gotta keep my head on straight and focus on the little things to get better every day at football, being a good person, and the rest will take care of itself."

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It was a basketball game that convinced Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly that Claypool would be a good fit under the watchful eyes of Touchdown Jesus in South Bend.

In a game against local rival Pitt Meadows, Claypool dropped 51 points, and Kelly, who had flown up to Canada on a recruiting trip to see him, was there. There were dunks, threes, put-backs, kids bouncing off him. He was a man among boys.

To Kelly, it wasn't just Claypool's performance that impressed him but his desire to dominate.

"We never really got to see him play football in person," Kelly said. "Once we were able to see the athleticism that he had and the competitive fire. … He piqued our interest. We took a bit of a flier."

Still, Kelly knew that if Claypool was to be a cultural fit, he had to work within the Notre Dame system, a football engine Claypool knew little about. After a few days on campus hanging out with Fighting Irish players in the dorms playing video games, talking football over dinners, getting a feel for life at the university, the Abbotsford native got the thumbs-up from the school's players, which was enough to convince Kelly he would fit in.

It didn't take long for Claypool to acclimate himself. He proudly displayed a Canadian flag in his dorm room as well as pictures of his family. There were practical jokes with his dormmates, like the time he hid his roommate's mattress in a bathroom only to have his own possessions emptied out of his room in retaliation.

"He just liked to fit in with everyone else and do what every other normal college kid was doing," said Chris Wilcox, who met Claypool in his freshman year and eventually became the roommate whose mattress disappeared. "It's funny, I think that sometimes when he's not in that football atmosphere he almost forgets he's a football player."

With each year, though, Claypool's importance in the Notre Dame offense grew. As a senior, he caught 66 passes for 1,037 yards and 13 touchdowns in 13 games, earning team MVP honors. And that wasn't only for what he accomplished on the field.

"To go from somebody who is not sure to being someone who is extremely confident in who he is, that's what I'll always remember about Chase," Kelly said. "To play this game of football, you have to be somebody that people can count on. He doesn't miss games. There's a consistency in him that I think, for the scouts and everybody that is now evaluating him, they're starting to see something that is very unique."

---

Every step Claypool has taken throughout his football journey, Jasmine has been there with him. Though she often worked two jobs while he was growing up, she rarely missed a practice or a game.

When Chase went to Notre Dame, she made it to at least five games per season, and last year she attended all of his home games. She was there at the Navy game when Chase put up four touchdowns. She went to Texas in December one year, where they dined on barbecue. She watched him practice in the rain.

No matter whether this all led to a football career or something else, Jasmine felt her son had a personality that would always help him make the best of any situation.

"I thought he might be a lawyer," Jasmine said. "He always had an excellent argument for whatever I was going to say," Jasmine said. "He was always outspoken. He challenged teachers. He would rally his friends to do workouts at the gym to constantly improve."

Ahead of the NFL's virtual draft because of the coronavirus, Jasmine's plans for a big party have been downsized into a Zoom get-together with a small core group of family eating Caribbean oxtail stew—Chase's favorite dish.

"Whatever happens, the world is completely open to him," Jasmine said. "Chase has always been successful at everything he does, whether it is academics or sports, so we're feeling pretty confident for the next stages for him."

It's not a stretch to imagine that Ashley would have felt the same way.

   

Matt Miller contributed to the reporting in this story.

Justin Robertson is an Australian journalist living in Toronto. He has written for Vice, Sportsnet, the Guardian and Yahoo Sports. Follow him on Twitter: @justinjourno

Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick said he does not want the school to play games without fans, even if college football receives approval from the medical community to play games. 

"I don't see a model where we play, at least any extended number of games, in facilities where we don't have fans," Swarbrick told ESPN's Adam Rittenberg. "College football is about the cheerleaders and the band and the campus environment on game day. We're interested in solutions that allow us to have a traditional game-day experience."

Swarbrick did not say Notre Dame would outright refuse to play fan-less games, but his comment ranks among the strongest rebukes of the idea since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.

College football is one of the few sports leagues that has not had any major impact yet because of the coronavirus. While spring games and other team activities have been wiped out by the virus, the impact hasn't even been as great as the NFL, which has had to conduct a virtual offseason. 

Conferences and the NCAA are currently in contingency-planning mode. President Donald Trump said over the weekend he hopes sports can return "sooner rather than later," but the idea of fans being in stadiums anytime soon seems unlikely. Even sports leagues that are putting potential plans in place for a return are doing so while planning for stands to be empty.

Swarbrick seems vehemently opposed to the concept. 

"There might be a middle ground where you say, the first two games of the season, you might have to make some accommodations," Swarbrick said. "Maybe you only have students in attendance and you don't invite other fans. I couldn't see us going past a very limited example of that."

Notre Dame is a football independent, so it would not be bound to any conference-wide declarations. However, the university likely would have to forfeit television revenue and repay opposing schools who were slated to be on their schedule if the university refused to play games without fans. 

An investigation conducted by West Point officials has reportedly determined three cadets were involved in a "misplaced joke" rather than a display of white supremacy during ESPN's College GameDay broadcast for the Army-Navy game on Dec. 14.

The cadets could be seen flashing the "OK" hand symbol on multiple occasions during the broadcast:

West Point Clears Cadets of Hate Speech Over 'OK' Symbols at Army Navy Football https://t.co/f5V1ahN3bA

— TMZ (@TMZ) December 20, 2019

The report concluded the gesture was not made in a racist manner, per TMZ Sports:

"The evidence strongly supports a finding that [the cadets] made 'OK' hand gestures during the ESPN broadcast of GameDay because they were playing the 'circle game' or 'gotcha game.' There is no evidence that [the cadets] hold any racist of white supremacist views or attempted to communicate such messages by using the 'OK' hand gesture on national television."

The three cadets who were involved were questioned during the investigation and denied any malicious intent, saying they were only looking "garner attention from a national audience as well as surrounding cadets" as part of the game.

According to the Anti-Defamation League, the hand gesture became associated with white supremacists around the year 2017. The gesture can be viewed as a hate symbol, as a "W" and "P" (which stands for "White Power") are created by the person's fingers.

This is not the first time a fan making the gesture on television has led to an investigation.

In May, a Chicago Cubs fan was banned from Wrigley Field after he made the gesture during a live broadcast behind NBC Sports Chicago reporter Doug Glanville.

The Army Black Knights football team has dropped its "God Forgives, Brothers Don't" slogan and the accompanying black skull-and-crossbones flag after an internal investigation into the origins of the saying revealed ties to white supremacist gangs.

ESPN's Dan Murphy reported Friday that West Point officials and members of the school's athletic department were alerted of the issue in September, which led the team to stop using the GFBD slogan for the 2019 season.

It's now been removed permanently following the probe.

"It's embarrassing, quite frankly," Lt. Gen. Darryl Williams, the superintendent of the United States Military Academy, told ESPN. "... We take stuff like this very, very seriously. Once I found out about this goofiness, I asked one of our most senior colonels to investigate."

Army traced the origins of its football team using the slogan to the 1990s and made contact with the cadet who helped establish it, but he told investigators he was unaware of the phrase's background, per Murphy. School officials declined to name the former cadet.

Athletic director Mike Buddie told ESPN that head coach Jeff Monken was "mortified" after being alerted of the background information and attempted to use it as a "teaching moment" for his players.

The investigation's final report deemed the team's use of the phrase as "benign," stating there was no evidence there was knowledge of its origins within the program, and it wasn't established to align with the beliefs of "white supremacist groups or any other disreputable organizations," per Murphy.

Army holds a 5-7 record in 2019. The Black Knights finish the campaign Dec. 14 with the annual Army-Navy game. The Midshipmen are 9-2.

Navy also dropped its slogan for the 2019 season, "Load the Clip," in August after concerns were raised it was insensitive toward people who've suffered from gun violence. It was replaced by "Win the Day."

It is two days before the Army Black Knights will silence 107,601 Michigan fans at The Big House and nearly pull off the biggest college football upset of 2019. Army linebacker Amadeo West and cornerback Jaylon McClinton are inside Thayer Hall on the banks of the Hudson River in West Point, New York.

A former horse stable for the U.S. Cavalry, Thayer is now a United States Military Academy academic building frequently compared to Hogwarts thanks to the heavy wooden doors and 1800s gothic architecture. In Room 355, Col. Archie Bates begins his Social Psychology class. The lesson this day? Social cognition, a subtopic of psychology focused on how people process and apply information in social situations.

Bates leads his class of 15 cadets—almost all of whom are West Point athletes—through a thought experiment about how they would handle an increasingly problematic, potentially criminal situation within their battalion. With work piling up and a barrage of incomplete information flying at you, how do you make sound decisions?

"We can handle more than most people," McClinton tells the class, confident that he and his fellow cadets are capable of managing a greater burden than the average civilian.

"That's what you like to think," Bates says. "But have you studied that?"

There's no right answer, nor does it mean the cadets can avoid any damage in real-world applications—a lesson they will soon learn as Army officers. Toward the end of the 75-minute discussion, Bates shares an emotional truth: This "experiment" is based on a series of real events that led to two of Bates' battalion members being discharged and another killing himself after a sexual harassment investigation by the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command.

In an era of seemingly endless wars, West, McClinton and the rest of their teammates understand that they haven't just signed up to understand the managerial stresses of one day leading a 40,000-person battalion you can't completely control. They've signed up to serve the country in whatever way the country sees fit. Even in early September, with a massive opportunity to play the University of Michigan just days away, that responsibility is always on the mind. At least during non-football hours.

"It's concerning, for sure," says West, a senior sociology major who hopes to join the Field Artillery Branch after graduation. "I know we're talking about real death and real bullets flying, but it's kind of a similar feeling to football practice. We're doing all this practice just in case we go to war."

A day later, West and his teammates fly to Ann Arbor, Michigan, at 8 a.m. That Friday afternoon, they have a walkthrough at Michigan Stadium. Practice for a much simpler battle, and a chance at making history in one last season before real life, and potentially real war, comes calling.

"I can't wait to run out of that tunnel in front of all those fans," West says, shooing a bee away from his second breakfast—or first lunch—after psychology class. Between football, school and military training, it's tough to keep weight on at West Point. With four NFL draft prospects on the Michigan offensive line, West needs all of the fuel he can get.

"Aside from Navy, this is our biggest game of the year."

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For two-and-a-half quarters on Sept. 7, the Black Knights dominated the first Top 10 opponent they had played since they lost to Oklahoma in overtime last season. With Army leading 14-7 at halftime—the vaunted triple-option producing 107 first-half rushing yards to Michigan's 47—the mostly silent Big House booed the Wolverines off the field as they jogged to the locker room. With 10 straight wins entering the weekend, the possibility of Army pulling off an 11th felt real. Until it didn't.

Ultimately, Army wasn't perfect in the second half. After forcing three turnovers in the first half—including two fumbles by Michigan quarterback Shea Patterson—Army gave two back in the second half. Still, Army had its chances. After Michigan tied the game at 14-14 in the third quarter, Army freshman kicker Cole Talley missed his first career field-goal attempt (a 50-yard try) as time expired in the fourth. While Army briefly took a lead in overtime, it couldn't keep pace and wound up losing.

It might have felt like a moral victory to outsiders—Army proved that it can play with anyone—but it didn't feel that way to a Black Knights team that had aspirations of an undefeated season.

Since taking over as Army's head coach in 2014, Jeff Monken has preached ball control, toughness, field position and fundamentals. The strategy has worked. After two early losing seasons, Monken's Army teams won 29 games from 2016 through 2018. But against a program like Michigan, where 5-star recruits dot the roster, Army needed perfect execution to pull off an upset win.

"I don't know if there's a single position on the field where we have a talent advantage over Michigan," Monken says during an interview in his office, overlooking the south end zone at Michie Stadium, days before the game. "But that's not as important to me as having good football players who protect the ball.

"Unless somebody hits you with a sledgehammer—which they're not allowed to do—you don't have to fumble the ball."

Monken learned the triple-option offense as an assistant coach under Paul Johnson at Georgia Southern (1997-2001), Navy (2002-07) and Georgia Tech (2008-09). Johnson retired after 10 years at the helm of Georgia Tech, but not before winning Tech's first ACC championship in more than a decade and spawning a small coaching tree of triple-option devotees like Monken and Navy head coach Ken Niumatalolo.

"That's why Army hired me, because I'm a Paul Johnson guy," Monken says. "This offense has worked everywhere I've been, so we're doing what we need to do to win here."

The reason why the service academies run the triple-option, and why a program like Georgia Southern became a FCS powerhouse under Johnson and Monken, is simple. Without the benefit of top athletes on your offensive line, you have to avoid turnovers and create opportunities for your skill players. In the triple-option, that means rarely throwing the ball (fewer interceptions and sack-fumbles) and using double-team blocks and misdirections to create points of attack for the ball-carrier.

Since hiring Monken, Army leads the nation with an average of 312 rushing yards per game. In a sport where teams that win the rushing battle emerge victorious more than 70 percent of the time, the triple-option is a program-changer.

When Monken took over at Army, he joined with an understanding that the university was committed to upgrading every aspect of a program that had gone 35-84 in the 10 years before his arrival. That meant scheduling games against College Football Playoff contenders like Ohio State (2017), Oklahoma (2018 and 2020) and Michigan. It also meant getting a commitment for the upkeep and modernization of the program's training center as well as a comprehensive nutritional program—Army has a full-service food counter inside the weight room—to help cadet athletes manage the grind of the academy.

According to new athletic director Mike Buddie, Monken has embraced the characteristics of West Point and become a tone-setter on campus. He's even become an early-morning regular—we're talking 5:30 a.m. early—in the Kimsey Athletic Center weight room beneath the football offices.

"We're trying to give these kids the successful student-athlete experience they deserve,"  Buddie says. "In 10-12 months, they might be in Afghanistan."

"That was the [recruiting] pitch," West says, looking back on why he chose Army as a 17-year-old high school linebacker from California. "Play big-time football and be a part of something bigger than yourself. You could go to Navy or Air Force, but they were already good."

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Following the close call at Michigan, Army bounced back with a win over UT-San Antonio in Week 3. However, the Black Knights have struggled since, losing four of their last five.

But the biggest remaining game on their schedule is the last one.

"The first thing people ask you around here is, 'Did you beat Navy?'" Buddie says. "They kicked our butt for [14] straight years."

Army and Navy will meet for the 120th time in Philadelphia on Dec. 14, a clash of cultures that appear similar to outsiders but are noticeably distinct to anyone within the academies.

"There's a very real culture of toughness here," says Monken, noting that every West Point graduate leaves as an officer. "But also an emphasis on supporting. We've got a lot of equipment that you drive and fly and shoot, but nothing more valuable than the personnel. These soldiers are heading into very real life-or-death situations."

As non-uniformed members of the West Point community, Monken and Buddie know that athletics have to work in concert with the rest of the academy to be successful. They're helping to mold young men who will ultimately hold high-ranking positions in the military.

Part of their job is to mentor players who are struggling to decide which military branch to pursue, and visiting with them during the monthlong Cadet Field Training in which the cadets undergo extended field-operations training deep in the wilderness. It also means making sure that football meets the academy's accountability standards.

"Coach Monken has realized that if these kids come up here feeling like this is the easiest part of their day, they're going to want to stay [at the athletics facility] and not go fulfill their duties as soldiers," Buddie says from the sideline at practice as Monken screams at a special teams player for missing his assignment. "Some days are better than others, but he kicks their butts. ... He's the perfect fit for West Point."

Athlete or not, most cadets struggle to adjust to West Point culture early on. Being tough is one thing, but figuring out how to efficiently manage your time and balance the overload of football, school and military responsibilities is another.

In an effort to find the right players, Monken focuses on recruiting selfless, team-first athletes who he believes will embrace the cadet brotherhood.

"Nobody wants to go to a service academy," Monken says. "Certainly some people do, but they're rarely D-1 football players."

Most players at Army are under no illusion of a future in the NFL. But Monken targets overlooked recruits who have played high-level high school football in hotbeds like California, Texas and the South.

At West Point, players that otherwise would have ended up on Division III campuses have the chance to play big-time college football. Once Monken gets a recruit on campus and can show him the program's culture and the benefits of attending one of the top public universities in America with a passionate alumni base, it becomes an easier sell.

Then reality sets in.

To a man, every player on the roster said that, yes, they almost reached a breaking point during Plebe Year. On top of adjusting to life in the barracks, maintaining an unrelentingly rigid schedule and completing all individual responsibilities, first-year cadets—or "plebes"—are required to complete plebe duties. That includes cleaning the barracks, serving food in the mess hall and "calling minutes"—a daily routine when plebes across campus bellow long, loud synchronized blurbs to alert upper-class cadets of the required uniform and time remaining before formation or inspection.

Coupling all of this with the anxiety of meeting West Point's high academic standards and juggling football responsibilities is enough to make a young cadet second-guess his decision.

"It's a very independent experience—some people get it right away, but for some people, it takes longer," Army quarterback Kelvin Hopkins Jr. says.

For the North Carolina native, time management and the ability to separate the three worlds—academics, football and military—took longer than anticipated.

"It started to click halfway through sophomore year," he said. "Separating the lives as much as possible while still learning the playbook."

West, meanwhile, went home for Thanksgiving during Plebe Year and almost never came back.

"The toughest part is going from being the best in high school to the lowest man on the totem pole—in football and the military," he explains.

But after sitting down with his mother, Maria LoMedico, to review transfer options closer to home, West had a change of heart. In so many ways.

"[My mother] told me my options were unacceptable," West laughs, as he speedwalks from his room in the MacArthur Barracks across The Plain to golf class near the West Point tennis courts.

Yes, cadets do get to enjoy classes in the "lifetime sports" like tennis, skiing and golf. With all of their other duties on campus, the few hours spent weekly at golf class, and the more grueling time spent at the football facility, is where these student-athletes find reprieve. They don't have much free time, but at least they can shank some irons and win ballgames like any other college athlete.

"Coming back was the best decision of my life," West says. "But they never go easy on you."

West says that a newfound confidence and pride was evident around the program when he returned. Monken's "control what you can control and never flinch" mantra was producing results, and by Monken's third year at the helm, the program had its first winning season (8-5) since 2010.

"Guys cared more about the little things," West said.

Now a senior, West hasn't had an easy go of it at the academy. After appearing in five games as a freshman, he tore his ACL during fall camp in 2017 and missed his entire sophomore season. He then blew out his right Achilles the following spring.

The cycle of injuries, which kept West sidelined until the final five games last season, presented another brutal hurdle for the linebacker. There's no leniency given to cadets, not even those that are hobbling through formation on crutches.

"No one goes easy on you," West says. "You have to fulfill all the same responsibilities as any other cadet, even when you're drugged up on Percocet."

Now, the winningest senior class in Army history is focused on the end. There are showdowns with Air Force and Navy and trip to Hawaii ahead. After that, of course, are plans with far more serious consequences ahead.

The path to this point hasn't been easy, and it has forced them to confront obstacles no one would relish (even losses to a storied Big Ten program). But that's no reason to look back on what could have been. There's too much to do ahead.

"We really love each other," says senior running back Malik Hancock, "so that helps us get through."

   

Matt Foley is a writer based in New York. His freelance work has been featured in SLAM, the New York Times, Ozy and theScore. Follow him on Twitter: @mattyfoles.

A week after coaching from a hospital bed, Liberty football coach Hugh Freeze has a more manageable setup for this week's game against Louisiana.

Freeze will coach from a "medical chair" Liberty sent to Louisiana to be installed in the press box for the game, per Pat Forde of Yahoo Sports.

Forde also provided a snapshot of the chair:

The Chair has arrived at Cajun Field https://t.co/dvputW41Zx pic.twitter.com/PXvyiaKbl6

— Pat Forde (@ByPatForde) September 6, 2019

The coach is recovering from surgery for a staph infection that was considered life-threatening. He had complained of back problems during training camp before his diagnosis.

"The doctors told me if it had been another 24 hours, that strand of bacteria could have gotten to my heart and that I would have been fighting for my life," Freeze told ESPN's Chris Low. "It's the way God works because there's no doubt that bacteria would have killed me if [Liberty President Jerry Falwell Jr.] wasn't so quick to make sure we got the right people involved."

Liberty had Freeze coach from the press box in a hospital bed for last week's 24-0 loss to Syracuse. He even spoke to the team at halftime and provided adjustments via FaceTime. 

Louisiana's press box does not have enough room for a hospital bed, so an alternative plan had to be made. 

Freeze is in his first season as Liberty's head coach. He coached at Ole Miss from 2012-16 before resigning amid a recruitment scandal. 

Notre Dame running back Jafar Armstrong will reportedly miss significant time after suffering a groin injury during Monday’s 35-17 win over Louisville. 

Pete Sampson of The Athletic reported the news, noting it is "optimistic" to suggest he will be back in five weeks. Sampson said the sophomore could be out as long as two months.

According to Adam Rittenberg of ESPN.com, Armstrong underwent an MRI on Tuesday that revealed he suffered a groin/abdominal injury. He had just two carries in the win before exiting the game.

Armstrong tallied 383 rushing yards, 159 receiving yards and seven total touchdowns last season, although he missed three games with a knee injury.

Look for the Fighting Irish to turn toward a combination of Tony Jones Jr. and Jahmir Smith in the backfield while Armstrong is sidelined. Jones finished the Louisville game with 15 carries for 110 yards and a touchdown, while Smith scored twice on the ground.

Quarterback Ian Book is also capable of contributing in the rushing attack and posted 14 carries for 81 yards and a touchdown in the season-opening victory.

While Notre Dame has enough pieces to remain afloat without Armstrong, a two-month timeline would mean he missed some of the biggest games of the entire season. The Fighting Irish travel to Georgia on Sept. 21 and Michigan on Oct. 26 and will surely need to win at least one of them to be seriously considered for a College Football Playoff spot.

A health issue will keep Liberty Flames head coach Hugh Freeze from being on the sidelines as his team takes on the 22nd-ranked Syracuse Orange on Saturday, but it won't stop him from coaching during the game.

According to Stephen Bailey of Syracuse.com, Freeze will work from a hospital bed in the coaches' booth.

Yahoo Sports tweeted out a picture of Freeze coaching from the booth:

Here's Hugh Freeze coaching from his hospital bed pic.twitter.com/SSURR2KErM

— Yahoo Sports College Football (@YahooSportsCFB) August 31, 2019

The 49-year-old underwent surgery on Aug. 16 after a "potentially life-threatening strand of staph infection entered his bloodstream" and worsened the pain in his back caused by a herniated disk. Bailey noted Freeze is most comfortable when reclined.

According to Hank Kurz Jr. of the Associated Press, Freeze plans to address his team by video before the game, during halftime and after the game.

The first-year Liberty coach revealed to ESPN's Chris Low earlier this month that he had been dealing with back pain for years but it reached a new level during a scrimmage. At that point, his back had tightened up to the point where it was difficult for him to climb up the stairs at his house and, ultimately, to walk in general.

Freeze was transported to the hospital by an ambulance the next day and doctors later discovered a staph infection. Freeze explained to Low how doctors caught the infection just in time to prevent it from potentially threatening his life:

"The doctors told me if it had been another 24 hours, that strand of bacteria could have gotten to my heart and that I would have been fighting for my life. It's the way God works because there's no doubt that bacteria would have killed me if President Falwell wasn't so quick to make sure we got the right people involved."

Since then, he has had to get creative in how he has coached:

https://twitter.com/GameOnLU/status/1164677803159314433

Freeze has been away from college football the past two seasons following his five-year run at Ole Miss coming to an end amid an NCAA investigation for recruiting and academic violations. He resigned in July 2017 after it was discovered during the investigation that he made phone calls to a number associated with a female escort service.

Ole Miss received, among other punishments, three years of probation and a two-year postseason ban as a result of the scandal.

Liberty hired Freeze in December 2018.

Notre Dame wide receiver Kevin Austin will miss the entire 2019 season, according to Irish Illustrated's Tim Prister.

Bryan Driskell of Blue & Gold Illustrated reported Austin would already serve "an unofficial suspension for a violation of team rules" that ruled him out for the first four games.

Austin made four appearances as a freshman in 2018, catching five passes for 90 yards.

The Pompano Beach, Florida, native was the No. 14 wideout and No. 82 player overall in the 2018 recruiting class, per 247Sports' composite rankings.

With a full season under his belt and the team's leading receiver Miles Boykin now in the NFL, Austin was seemingly poised to play a larger role in the offense in 2019.

However, The Athletic's Pete Sampson wrote in June the odds of him suiting up for the opener Sept. 2 against Louisville were looking slim. Sampson noted the circumstances of Austin's situation were unclear but pointed to two similar cases:

"I wouldn't expect [head coach Brian Kelly] to go any further on the Austin subject between now and Louisville, which is how he played the scenario with Kevin Stepherson and Dexter Williams the past two seasons. Both were suspended for the season's first four games for a second offense of Notre Dame's marijuana policy, which amounts to missing one-third of competition for that sport’s regular season. For football, that’s a four-game suspension."

Sampson added that Austin was in good academic standing at Notre Dame, while Prister reported he's "expected to remain enrolled" following Monday's new development.

In addition to Austin, the Irish will open the season without tight end Cole Kmet and wideout Michael Young. Kmet suffered a broken collarbone during practice Aug. 8. Nine days later, Young suffered the same injury while practicing with the team.