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Falcons owner: Bill Belichick never asked for full control of team

Many were surprised when former New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick didn’t secure the vacant Atlanta Falcons job after interviewing with the team twice.

Falcons owner Arthur Blank said Friday that Belichick was never offered the head coaching job and didn’t request full personnel control, as some have speculated.

‘There were 14 candidates and each were competing with each other,’ Blank said. ‘And we selected the one that we thought, for a whole variety of reasons, was the best choice for us.’

The Falcons hired Los Angeles Rams defensive coordinator Raheem Morris to replace Arthur Smith, who was fired last month after posting a third straight losing season.

Blank also discussed the rumor that Belichick asked for full personnel control during the interview process, but said the six-time Super Bowl winning coach did meet with general manager Terry Fontenot.

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‘Bill Belichick never asked for full control over personnel, the building, anything of that nature,’ Blank said. ‘It was very inclusive, very collaborative. All of these things that were being produced by the media are totally not true.’

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Alabama OC, who wasn’t even officially announced, jumping to NFL

Grubb was set to run the Crimson Tide offense in 2024 after Kalen DeBoer took over as Alabama’s coach in January. Legendary coach Nick Saban retired on Jan. 10.

Grubb was never officially announced as Alabama’s offensive coordinator, but he was seen out recruiting for the Crimson Tide, sporting Alabama gear.

Former Ravens defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald was hired as the Seahawks’ new coach recently and decided to bring Grubb back to Seattle; Grubb was the offensive coordinator under DeBoer at Washington the past two seasons. The two also worked together at Fresno State, Eastern Michigan and Sioux Falls.

While Alabama should be able to find a quality candidate to fill the offensive coordinator spot, the loss of Grubb is not a small one. He has coordinated some of the nation’s best offenses the past few years.

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‘I think Ryan is one of the best if not the best play callers in college football,’ said Jake Haener, a New Orleans Saints quarterback who played for Grubb at Fresno State. ‘Don’t get me wrong, Kalen is an unbelievable coach and has just as good of an offensive mind, but I think Ryan really holds that offense to a standard and holds people accountable. For me in my six years of college football and my first year in the NFL, there’s nobody even close to the type of coach he is.’

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Andy Reid’s best work yet? Chiefs coach’s season was one of his finest

HENDERSON, Nev. – Super Bowl 58 will mark a quarter-century as an NFL head coach for Andy Reid. And whether or not his Kansas City Chiefs win their third Lombardi Trophy in five seasons Sunday night in Las Vegas, some have already suggested the 2023 campaign represents Reid’s finest work.

“Yeah, I would agree with that,” Chiefs tight end Blake Bell told USA TODAY Sports on Thursday.

“He kept it all together and made sure, with the ups and downs we went through this year, coming back during the week of practice, he’s like, ‘Hey, man, everyone just stay the course. Keep doing us. We don’t need to change anything, we’ve just got to correct a few things here and there and be us.’

“We’ve kept it going through the playoffs, and now we’re here at the Super Bowl. Like he always says, ‘Don’t peak too soon, man.’”

It’s an apt statement following a season of peaks and valleys.

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The Chiefs opened their title defense in September with a one-point home loss to the Detroit Lions, stars Travis Kelce (knee injury) and Chris Jones (holdout) missing that Week 1 contest. Then Kansas City reeled off six straight wins before dropping five of the next eight – that stretch culminating with an ugly Christmas defeat at Arrowhead Stadium to the division-rival Las Vegas Raiders. Kelce tossed his helmet in frustration on the sideline during that setback, causing Reid to get into his Pro Bowl tight end’s face.

“I don’t know if it’s his best (season). I think he’s always been great,” Hall of Fame coach Bill Cowher told USA TODAY Sports. “I think what was exposed this year was his ability to adjust and adapt to his football team.

“The low point they reached on Christmas Day – people throwing helmets – getting back and realizing they are a defensive football team with a good running back in Isiah Pacheco, and Patrick Mahomes can make the plays when he needs to make them to win football games.

“Andy adjusts, adapts, is a great teacher, and I think showed that this year because we saw more flaws than we have in the past.”

But those blemishes seemingly diminished, the Chiefs currently riding a five-game winning streak post-Christmas as they prepare for their fourth Super Bowl in five seasons. And, as Cowher suggests, that’s been accomplished with a formula mostly antithetical to a club that’s captured six consecutive AFC West titles. This year, that was largely accomplished thanks to perhaps the best defense a Reid team has ever fielded and a more methodical, ball control offense that required fewer highlight moments from two-time MVP quarterback Mahomes.

“He’s done a great job. I mean, he’s one of those guys that can’t win Coach of the Year because he’s done it too great for too long,” Mahomes said Thursday while also praising the stable culture Reid also fosters.

“(H)e’s been able to really just get the best out of every single team that he’s had. And he’s done a tremendous job this year of dealing through adverse times, having that same mindset every single day of, ‘We’re gonna get better,’ and obviously gotten us to the Super Bowl.”

Ask enough players and assistants, and the clear throughline with Reid is his consistency and even-keeled approach. It starts with a detail-oriented offseason, followed by a rigorous training camp conducted an hour from Kansas City – and, eventually, a playoff berth and likely appearance on Super Sunday.

“I mean, I’ve been here 13 years with him, and he’s never gotten off track. This has been a constant incline of greatness, and I’ve been very fortunate to (have) him overlooking my career, helping me out both on and off the field, as a professional (and) as a human being. I owe so much to him,” Kelce said Thursday. ‘Just extremely, extremely fortunate that I landed here in Kansas City 13 years ago to be able to build this thing with him like this.

“We’re just so fortunate to have the big guy here and at the helm.”

Yet 2023 wasn’t without its unique challenges.

The Chiefs had to integrate a pair of new offensive tackles with veterans Donovan Smith and Jawaan Taylor. They ranked 15th in scoring (21.8 points per game) while the offense rated ninth overall (351.3 yards per game), both the lowest ebbs since Mahomes became Reid’s starter in 2018. An 11-6 regular-season record was also the worst under the Reid-Mahomes partnership and forced the team onto the road for playoff games for the first time since the 2015 season – not that games at Buffalo or Baltimore turned out to be much of an impediment.

“Andy’s had a lot of good years of good coaching, so it’s hard to pick any one. The one thing about Andy is he’s so steady and consistent no matter what year you’re in,” defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo, who’s totaled 13 years on Reid’s staffs in Philadelphia and Kansas City, told USA TODAY Sports.

“And I think because this year had some ups and downs, I think people recognize it as one of his better years because you never saw him waver – and the players feel that. Andy’s rock solid, and there’s nothing that gets him out of his routine. He never gets too high, he never gets too low – and I think the rest of us feed off of that.”

Offensive coordinator Matt Nagy, who has aggregated 12 years on Reid staffs with the Eagles and Chiefs, echoes that.

“The one reason why people probably steer toward this (season) as one of his more successful ones is just probably because some of the doubt that went on from outsiders – never within our building – but there’s always challenges, too. We weren’t a top-three offense like we normally are,” Nagy told USA TODAY Sports.

“But he’s resilient. The beautiful part about Coach Reid is that he just shows a lot of belief in his coaches and players, and then you feel that and then it helps you stick together.”

And now?

Despite the relative trials and tribulations, K.C. is one win from the first Super Bowl repeat in 19 years.

“There’s a method to the madness. He’s been doing it for a long time, and it’s worked, and I think guys respect that,” said Bell. “Coach Reid knows exactly what it takes to get to the Super Bowl and to win a Super Bowl. Guys love that.”

Added veteran safety Justin Reid: “Coach Reid does what he does, man. We’re exactly where we wanted to be.”

***

Follow USA TODAY Sports’ Nate Davis on X, formerly Twitter @ByNateDavis.

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Trump mocks Haley by asking where her deployed husband is: ‘Where is he? He’s gone’

Former President Donald Trump mocked fellow Republican presidential contender Nikki Haley during a speech Saturday by asking why her husband hasn’t been on the campaign trail — even though he is deployed.

Michael Haley, who serves in the South Carolina Army National Guard, began his year-long deployment to Africa in June. He serves as a staff officer with the 218th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade.

Trump was seemingly unaware of his deployment when he started questioning his whereabouts during a campaign stop in Conway, South Carolina, on Saturday.

The former president began his rant by calling Haley a ‘birdbrain.’

‘Birdbrain loves mass asylum,’ Trump said, prompting laughter from the audience. ‘There’s nothing nice about her.’

”I will never run against President Trump. He’s a great president, the greatest president in my lifetime,” Trump quoted Haley as saying. ‘She said, ‘I will never run against him.’’

‘Then she comes over to see me at Mar-a-Lago…’Sir, I will never run against you.’ She brought her husband.’

The Trump Organization founder then turned his attention to Haley’s spouse.

‘Where’s her husband?’ Trump questioned. ‘Where is he? He’s gone. He knew, he knew.’

Haley did not mince words when she shot back at Trump two hours later in a social media post.

‘Michael is deployed serving our country, something you know nothing about,’ the former South Carolina governor wrote on X. 

‘Someone who continually disrespects the sacrifices of military families has no business being commander in chief.’

Fox News Digital reached out to the Trump and Haley campaigns for comment, but has not heard back.

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Obama’s WH physician says special counsel report proves Biden has ‘serious issues’: ‘Worse by the day’

Texas GOP Rep. Ronny Jackson, a former White House physician, said special counsel Robert Hur’s report ‘validates’ what he and many have known for years: President Biden has ‘serious issues.’

Hur, who had been tasked with investigating Biden’s mishandling of classified documents, described the president in a report this week as appearing like a ‘sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.’

‘It validates what most of us have known,’ Jackson told Fox News Digital. ‘I’ve been saying since he was candidate Joe Biden that this man is not cognitively fit to be our president, our commander in chief and our head of state. I’ve been saying that over and over. 

‘I watched the man every day, you know, in and around the West Wing for eight years when he was vice president. There’s a drastic, drastic difference between then and now.’

‘Go back and look at the videos from whenever he was first vice president and compare them to now. It’s not even the same person,’ Jackson added. ‘He’s got some serious issues. I’ve been saying that for a long time. Now the report says that — the special counsel report came out and said exactly that. That was a special counsel appointed by the Biden DOJ, and they’re saying the same thing that I and many Americans have been saying for a long time now.’

Despite the rampant concern over his mental acuity, Biden told Americans from the White House Thursday evening his memory is ‘fine’ and defended his re-election campaign, saying he is the ‘most qualified person in this country to be president.’

Biden’s address to the nation came just hours after Hur released his report, which did not recommend criminal charges against the president for mishandling classified documents. Those records included classified documents about military and foreign policy in Afghanistan, among other records related to national security and foreign policy that Hur said included ‘sensitive intelligence sources and methods.’

Addressing Biden’s follow-up speech to the report, Jackson said the president made ‘all kinds of gaffes and proved in real time to the entire world that the report is accurate, that everything we’ve been thinking for the last three years is accurate.

‘He’s cognitively unfit to be our commander in chief, and it’s going to be a problem for us,’ Jackson said.

‘It’s a real national security issue. I mean, it’s always been a national security issue, but it’s a national security issue that just gets worse by the day.

‘We have lots of stuff going on overseas. Our adversaries absolutely, positively have no respect for us. They have no fear of us and our allies. I mean, they don’t trust us, and they don’t really know if we’re going to be there if something bad happens.’

Aside from Biden’s memory and mental acuity, Jackson said he believes the report ‘validates that the government has been weaponized for political purposes.’

‘The Democrats have weaponized the government against Donald Trump. Anybody just has to beat Donald Trump for political purposes — the FBI, the DOJ,’ he said.

Jackson, who previously served as the White House physician to former presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump, faced criticism from Obama for his critique of Biden’s cognitive health on the 2020 campaign trail.

In his 2022 memoir, Jackson detailed a ‘scathing’ email he received from Obama about comments he had made on Twitter about Biden’s mental state when Biden was a presidential candidate.

‘I have made a point of not commenting on your service in my successor’s administration and have always spoken highly of you both in public and in private. You always served me and my family well, and I have considered you not only a fine doctor and service member but also a friend,’ Obama wrote in the email to Jackson.

‘That’s why I have to express my disappointment at the cheap shot you took at Joe Biden via Twitter. It was unprofessional and beneath the office that you once held. It was also disrespectful to me and the many friends you had in our administration. You were the personal physician to the President of the United States as well as an admiral in the U.S. Navy. I expect better, and I hope upon reflection that you will expect more of yourself in the future.’

Last February, after Biden had his annual physical, Jackson told Fox News, ‘The majority of Americans can see that Biden’s mental health is in total decline. Yet there is no transparency from the White House on what’s going on, if anything, to address this issue and his inability to do his job.’

He also took issue at the time with there being no mention of the president undergoing a cognitive test amid his ‘deteriorating mental health.’

‘Nowhere in the report was there mention of Biden’s deteriorating mental health,’ the GOP lawmaker said. ‘This is alarming, considering I have already sent three letters to the White House demanding that Biden receive a cognitive test and that the results be made public, all of which have been ignored. Everyone can see something is wrong — the cover-up needs to end.’

A Monmouth University poll released in October found that 76% of voters viewed Biden, who was 80 at the time, as ‘too old’ to serve another term, compared to just 48% who said the same about Trump, 77.

Fox News’ Brooke Singman contributed to this report.

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Israeli military kills Hamas terrorists, finds ‘significant’ weapons and assets inside UNRWA headquarters

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) says that it recently launched raids on Hamas facilities in Gaza, killing 120 terrorists, while discovering a ‘significant’ amount of assets and weapons, including inside a United Nations-affiliated building.

In a joint statement made with the Israel Security Agency (ISA), the Israeli military announced Saturday that the raids were conducted in northern Gaza over the past two weeks.

‘The forces operated in the areas of Shati and Tel al-Hawa in northern Gaza,’ the joint statement read. ‘Approximately 120 Hamas terrorists were killed, and 20 terrorist infrastructure sites were destroyed as part of the operation.’

The IDF explained that the ISA initially led them to a tunnel shaft near a school run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). 

‘The shaft led to an underground terror tunnel that served as a significant asset of Hamas’ military intelligence and passed under the building that serves as UNRWA’s main headquarters in the Gaza Strip,’ the IDF explained.

The Israeli military said that it seized a ‘wide variety of intelligence assets’ while raiding the 700-meter-long tunnel, but did not specify what exactly was found.

‘The newly-found intelligence will allow the forces to operate against additional Hamas targets,’ the IDF said. ‘The dismantling of the tunnel weakens Hamas’ intelligence capabilities.’

That discovery ultimately brought the military to the UNRWA’s headquarters, where Israeli forces found that the UNRWA building supplied the Hamas tunnel with electricity.

‘Following these findings and based on preliminary ISA intelligence, the forces conducted a targeted raid on UNRWA’s central headquarters, which contains offices for various humanitarian and international organizations,’ the statement read. ‘Large quantities of weapons were found inside the rooms of the building, including rifles, ammunition, grenades and explosives.

‘Intelligence and documents discovered in the offices of UNRWA officials confirmed that the offices had in fact also been used by Hamas terrorists.’

On Saturday, UNRWA Commissioner-General Phillippe Lazzarini said on X that his organization, ‘did not know what is under its headquarters in Gaza.’

‘UNRWA staff left its headquarters in Gaza City on 12 October following the Israeli evacuation orders and as bombardment intensified in the area,’ he wrote on X. ‘We have not used that compound since we left it nor are we aware of any activity that may have taken place there.’

Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant recently told Fox News Digital that ‘dozens’ of UNRWA employees took part in the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks that launched the Israel-Hamas war.

‘I think the world needs to wake up and address this issue in a different way, while also addressing Gaza’s needs,’ Gallant told Fox News Digital. ‘UNRWA is a group of terrorists who receive salaries from many countries – these countries gave money to people who raped, murdered and took people into captivity.’

Fox News Digital’s Ruth Marks Eglash contributed to this report.

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Dems one step closer to replacing Biden with Michelle Obama after damning report, Ramaswamy says

Former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy doubled down on his theory that Democrats will swap out President Biden with Michelle Obama on their party’s ticket following the release of the special counsel’s report. 

The bombshell findings from Special Counsel Robert Hur put a spotlight on Biden’s cognitive abilities, saying he would not bring charges against him in part because a jury would find him to be a ‘sympathetic, well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory,’ despite the acknowledgment that the classified documents were ‘willfully’ obtained by Biden both as vice president and as a senator. 

Ramaswamy, who was outspoken on the campaign trail about the belief that the 81-year-old president will ultimately not be the Democratic nominee, told Fox News Digital the special counsel’s report marks the ‘convenient path’ for Democrats to nominate the popular former first lady. 

‘The main obstacle stopping the Democratic Party is they have a Kamala Harris problem, which is to say that if they do sideline Biden, the natural person normally that would be the nominee, could be the vice president of that same sitting president. But that vice president is unable, I think, to effectively carry forward that job,’ Ramaswamy said. ‘She didn’t make it to the Iowa caucus in the year that she ran, right, even and within her own party, let alone an issue with broader popularity in the country.’

‘If race and gender are your basis for selecting someone for a job, and the identity of your party is tied to that temple of identity politics, then they will risk looking hypocritical if they sideline her after they sideline Biden. And I do think Michelle Obama offers them a convenient path out of that problem, somebody who checks the boxes that they need to have checked per their own ideology, while also selecting an alternative to Biden that they may view as more palatable in a general election . . . it’s looking increasingly like it’s not going to be Biden as the nominee. And I think that it should not be shocking to see someone like Michelle Obama take the role of the nomination,’ Ramaswamy said.

When asked about Hur’s decision not to bring charges against Biden, Ramaswamy said it signaled Biden’s ‘willingness’ to eventually step aside. 

‘I think that coincides within recent months [of] him saying things like, you know, other Democratic nominees could also be successful in the general,’ Ramaswamy said. ‘So I think that we’re seeing a general trend towards what I predicted . . . which is that they would move Biden out of the way. And I think this is one more step in that direction.’

Hur, who was appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland to investigate Biden’s handling of classified documents, revealed that Biden had a ‘hazy’ memory about when he was previously in office and when his son Beau died, which happened in 2015.

‘In his interview with our office, Mr. Biden’s memory was worse,’ the report states. ‘He did not remember when he was vice president, forgetting on the first day of the interview when his term ended (‘if it was 2013 — when did I stop being Vice President?’), and forgetting on the second day of the interview when his term began (‘in 2009, am I still Vice President?’).’

‘He did not remember, even within several years, when his son Beau died,’ the report continued. ‘And his memory appeared hazy when describing the Afghanistan debate that was once so important to him. Among other things, he mistakenly said he ‘had a real difference’ of opinion with General Karl Eikenberry, when, in fact, Eikenberry was an ally whom Mr. Biden cited approvingly in his Thanksgiving memo to President Obama.’

These revelations, in addition to his recent slew of gaffes, continue to fuel concerns among some voters about the advanced age of Biden, the oldest president in U.S. history. His likely 2024 opponent, former President Trump, will turn 78 in June.

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Israeli strikes in Rafah leaves 31 Palestinians dead ahead of planned ground invasion

At least 31 Palestinians, including 10 children, were killed in Israeli airstrikes in the city of Rafah in the Gaza Strip early Saturday as President Benjamin Netanyahu gears up for a ground invasion there to take out several Hamas battalions. 

Three airstrike strikes killed 28 people, including multiple members of three families, with the youngest victim being three months old, according to a health official and The Associated Press journalists who saw the bodies arriving at hospitals.

Later on Saturday, another strike killed three senior officers in the civil police, according to Rafah city officials.

Israel says that Rafah, which borders Egypt at the southern end of the Gaza Strip, is the last remaining Hamas stronghold in Gaza after more than four months of war. Israel has carried out airstrikes in Rafah almost daily.

Rafah’s population stood at 264,000 in early 2022, but since the onset of the conflict, the population has ballooned to around 1.4 million as people seek shelter there, according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics. More than half of Gaza’s population is now packed into the city with some of the recent arrivals living in tents. It is unclear where they would be able to flee to next.

Netanyahu’s office has ordered the military to develop a plan to evacuate the population of Rafah and destroy four Hamas battalions it says are deployed there. Netanyahu said he asked the military to plan for the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of people from the city ahead of a ground invasion.

Earlier this week, Netanyahu vowed that Israeli forces would fight on until ‘total victory,’ including in Rafah, after cease-fire talks failed. 

A timeline for a potential ground invasion is not known. 

On Saturday, Saudi Arabia warned Israel of ‘extremely dangerous repercussions’ if it launches a military operation in Rafah and called for the United Nations Security Council to intervene.

At least 28,000 Palestinians have been killed and 67,600 others have been injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since Oct. 7, the health ministry in Gaza said on Saturday, according to Reuters.

The conflict has been raging for four months and was sparked after a surprise terrorist attack by Hamas on Oct. 7, in which militants crossed the border from Gaza and massacred some 1,200 people. 

Saturday’s strikes come just two days after President Biden described Israel’s actions in its war against Hamas as being ‘over the top.’

‘I’m of the view, as you know, that the conduct of the response in the Gaza Strip has been over the top,’ Biden told reporters at the White House.

He said that he has been pushing for a deal to normalize Saudi Arabia-Israel relations, increased humanitarian aid for Palestinian civilians, and a temporary pause in fighting to allow the release of hostages taken by Hamas.

‘I’m pushing very hard now to deal with this hostage cease-fire,’ Biden said. ‘There are a lot of innocent people who are starving, a lot of innocent people who are in trouble and dying, and it’s gotta stop.’

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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Three children among seven dead in Russian drone attack on Ukrainian gas station

Seven people, including three children, were killed in a Russian drone attack on a gas station in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv on Saturday, regional authorities said.

The victims included two children aged seven and four, as well as a six-month-old child, Kharkiv region Governor Oleg Synegubov said on the messaging app Telegram. 

An Iranian-made ‘Shahed’ drone hit civilian infrastructure in the Nemyshlyan district of the city, causing a massive fire that burned down 15 private houses. Kharkiv is Ukraine’s second-largest city and is located in the northeast of the country.

‘Unfortunately, the death toll from the occupiers’ attacks on Kharkiv have risen to seven,’ Synegubov wrote. ‘The occupiers struck Kharkiv with ‘Shahed’ kamikaze drones.’ 

Synegubov said that the bodies of five people, including the three children, were found in a private house. The adults were the children’s parents, Syniehubov said.

Two more people – a couple aged 66 and 65 died at another facility, according to reports. ‘More than fifty people were saved!’ he wrote. 

The houses caught fire after three drones hit a petrol station in the Nemyshlianskyi district, according to the local prosecutor’s office in Kharkiv.

Video from the scene shows heavy flames ripping through buildings. 

Kharkiv regional prosecutor Oleksandr Filachkov said three drones hit Kharkiv’s Nemyshlyanskyi district.

‘As a result, a building for critical infrastructure was destroyed. There was a large amount of fuel, which is why the impacts of the fire were so terrible,’ Filachkov said in a video posted online.

The Ukrainian air force said air defense systems destroyed 23 out of 31 drones launched by Russia overnight. The drones primarily targeted the northeastern Kharkiv region and the southern province of Odesa, the statement said, according to the Associated Press.

Firefighters and rescuers worked through the night to cope with the consequences of the strike, extinguish fires and clear through the debris, officials said.

Russia has previously said that it does not deliberately target civilian sites.

The attacks came as the Russian invasion and ongoing conflict approached its second anniversary.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report. 

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Furman football player dies two days after collapsing during workout

GREENVILLE, S.C. – Furman defensive tackle Bryce Stanfield died Friday, two days after collapsing during a workout at the school’s football stadium.

Furman president Elizabeth Davis said in a letter to the university community that the 21-year-old Stanfield died while “surrounded by his family and his Furman family.”

Davis said Stanfield had collapsed at a Wednesday morning workout and was taken to a hospital and placed on life support. No other details were released.

“We are heartbroken beyond measure with Bryce’s sudden passing and ask that everyone, first and foremost, lift up his parents, Fred and Teri Stanfield and their family, in prayer on this day and in the days ahead,” Furman coach Clay Hendrix said in a statement.

Stanfield was conferred his Bachelor of Science degree in health sciences, magna cum laude, by Davis in a Friday morning ceremony while surrounded by family members, teammates and coaches.

Stanfield came from Acworth, Georgia, and was a three-year letterman for Furman. Davis said Stanfield had aspirations of attending dental school after graduation.

He played all 13 games for Furman last fall and had 13 tackles and 2 1/2 sacks while helping the Paladins go 10-3 and win a Southern Conference championship.

“Bryce was an outstanding young man and an equally fine student, football player, and friend,” Hendrix said. “He was so much a part of who we are as a program and school, and was pivotal in our success on the football field and through giving of his time in outreach to our community. In every sense, he was the best representative we could have.”

Stanfield was a two-time Southern Conference Academic Honor Roll selection. He served in Furman’s Heler Service Corps Men of Distinction, visited patients at Greenville Children’s Hospital and read to children at local schools.

“Bryce was a beautiful soul, a loving son, loyal friend, tremendous teammate and great student,” Furman vice president for intercollegiate athletics Jason Donnelly said in a statement. “We are grateful for the outpouring of love and prayers from our entire community. Bryce will be dearly missed but will be remembered in our hearts forever.”

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