After unexpected bad weather pushed Friday’s Tour Championship Round 2 tee times up by three hours, Russell Henley leads for the second consecutive day, but after Friday, he shares the top spot with Tommy Fleetwood.

Fleetwood, who is seeking his first win of the season, finished the second round with a score of 63, placing him in a tie for the lead at 13-under par. The competition for the top spot has been fierce among Fleetwood, Russell Henley and Cameron Young. However, it was Henley who ultimately took the spotlight and continued the momentum by making birdies on his last two holes to finish with a score of 66, also achieving a tie for first at 13-under through the second round.

USA TODAY Sports provided ongoing coverage of the Tour Championship on Friday. Here are the leaderboard updates and highlights of all the action from Round 2.

Tour Championship leaderboard

T1. Tommy Fleetwood: -13
T1. Russell Henley: -13
T2. Cameron Young: -11
T4. Robert MacIntyre: -10
T4. Patrick Cantlay: -10
6. Scottie Scheffler: -8
T7. Shane Lowry: -7
T7. Chris Gotterup: -7
T7: Sam Burns: -7
T7. Rory McIlroy: -7
T7. Ben Griffin: -7
T7: Akshay Bhatia: -7
T7. Justin Thomas: -7
T14. Keegan Bradley: -6
T14: Harris English: -6
T14. Collin Morikawa: -6
T14: Jacob Bridgeman: -6
T14: Nick Taylor: -6
T14: Ludvig Aberg: -6

Fleetwood finishes second round

Tommy Fleetwood has completed the second round with a score of 13-under, currently holding the top spot as the last golfers finish the round.

Fleetwood claims the solo lead

After a birdie on the No. 13 hole, Tommy Fleetwood has taken the lead with a score of 11-under, one stroke ahead of Cameron Young, who is in second place with a score of 10-under.

Cameron Young has three birdies in a row

Cameron Young made three birdies on the front nine and has kept it up on the back nine with three consecutive birdies on Nos. 11, 12 and 13. Young has shot up the leaderboard all the way to a tie for third place at 8-under for the tournament.

Shane Lowry cards 7-under in second round

Shane Lowry finished his second round on absolute fire with six birdies on the back nine and carded a 7-under for the day. That gives Lowry a 7-under for the tournament and puts him in a tie for sixth place overall.

Scottie Scheffler drops a shot, too

Scottie Scheffler’s 14-foot putt for par rolled to the hole but just sit next to the lip to force the World No. 1 to tap in for bogey. Scheffler is now 7-under for the tournament and in a five-way tie for third place behind Russell Henley (-9) and Tommy Fleetwood (-8).

Russell Henley drops a shot

After nearly making a birdie on No. 3, leader Russell Henley had to settle for a par. On No. 4, he overshot the hole on his third shot and two-putted for a bogey that dropped him back to 9-under for the tournament. Henley clings to a one-shot lead over Scottie Scheffler and Tommy Fleetwood.

Scottie Scheffler makes birdie on No. 3

Scottie Scheffler rolled in a 12-foot birdie putt to move to 8-under for the tournament and pick up one stroke on leader Russell Henley, who lipped out his own birdie on No. 3 and settled for par.

Keegan Bradley, Harry Hall continue to sizzle in second round

Keegan Bradley and Harry Hall are both at 5-under for the day, which makes them 5-under for the tournament and in a tie for ninth place. They have the best scores of the day so far.

Scottie Scheffler tees off

Scottie Scheffler (-7) and Russell Henley (-9) are the last group to tee off in the second round of the Tour Championship. All 30 golfers are now on the course.

Robert MacIntyre starts with a birdie

After an excellent first round during which he shot 6-under, Robert MacIntryre began Friday with a birdie to get to 7-under for the tournament, tied with Scottie Scheffler and just two strokes behind leader Russell Henley.

Harry Hall surging in second round

After starting his round with pars on the first two holes, Harry Hall has birdied four of the next six holes to run his overall score to 4-under, which puts him in a tie for 10th place overall.

Rory McIlroy birdies first hole

Rory McIlroy got off to a nice start Friday making a birdie 3 on the first hole. He ripped his tee shot perfectly down the middle of the fairway to set up a second shot that he stuck within 10 feet of the hole. And then he rolled his birdie putt in to get to 5-under for the tournament.

Tour Championship tee times, pairings 

Second Round – Friday

All times ET 

8 a.m.: Maverick McNealy, Sepp Straka
8:11 a.m.: Andrew Novak, Keegan Bradley
8:22 a.m.: Shane Lowry, Corey Conners
8:33 a.m.: Chris Gotterup, Harry Hall
8:44 a.m.: Hideki Matsuyama, Justin Rose
9 a.m.: Harris English, J.J. Spaun
9:11 a.m.: Sungjae Im, Viktor Hovland
9:22 a.m.: Brian Harman, Cameron Young
9:33 a.m.: Nick Taylor, Sam Burns
9:44 a.m.: Rory McIlroy, Jacob Bridgeman
10 a.m.: Ludvig Åberg, Ben Griffin
10:11 a.m.: Tommy Fleetwood, Akshay Bhatia
10:22 a.m.: Justin Thomas, Robert MacIntyre
10:33 a.m.: Collin Morikawa, Patrick Cantlay
10:44 a.m.: Russell Henley, Scottie Scheffler 

Watch the Tour Championship

Here’s the broadcast schedule for Friday’s second round of the 2025 Tour Championship:

All times Eastern

11 a.m.-6 p.m. on ESPN+ 
1-6 p.m. on Golf Channel,Fubo 

Rory McIlroy tee time

Rory McIlroy will tee off at 9:44 a.m. ET, as the top 10 at the Tour Championship are getting ready to take the course. McIlroy shot a 4-under during Thursday’s first round while being paired with ‘Happy Gilmore 2’ castmate Scottie Scheffler.

How many rounds is the Tour Championship?

The Tour Championship at Atlanta’s at East Lake Golf Club will be like a typical weekend golf tournament: four rounds, one round each day on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. (Weather permitting, of course.)

Keegan Bradley off to fast start

Keegan Bradley entered the second round at even par, and scored a par on each of Friday’s first two holes. But Bradley has gone on to birdie two of the next four holes, including No. 6 when he stuck his third shot within 2 feet of the hole and tapped in the birdie putt. Bradley is at 2-under for the tournament, which puts him in a tie for 17th place.

Tour Championship weather

According to Accuweather, the forecast at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta is expected to be cloudy and humid with heavy thunderstorms late in the day. These rains are expected to arrive as early as 2 p.m. ET.

Tour Championship begins

With heavy thunderstorms in the Atlanta forecast Friday, the Tour Championship’s second round started at 8 a.m. ET with Maverick McNealy and Sepp Straka teeing off.

What time is Tour Championship? 

The 2025 Tour Championship continues Friday, Aug. 22. The first tee time on Friday is 8 a.m. ET. This differs from Thursday’s 11:16 first tee, which is due to expected inclement weather.

How to watch Tour Championship: TV channel, streaming 

The 2025 Tour Championship, the final event of the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup Playoffs, will be televised nationally on the Golf Channel and NBC. It can be live streamed via ESPN+, Peacock and Fubo depending on the time. Here’s the full broadcast schedule for all four rounds: 

All times Eastern 

Friday, Aug. 22 

11 a.m.-6 p.m. on ESPN+ 
1-6 p.m. on Golf Channel,Fubo 

Saturday, Aug. 23 

Noon-7 p.m. on ESPN+ 
1-2:30 p.m. on Golf Channel, Fubo 
2:30-7 p.m. on NBC, Peacock 

Sunday, Aug. 24 

11 a.m.-6 p.m. on ESPN+ 
Noon-1:30 p.m. on Golf Channel, Fubo 
1:30-6 p.m. on NBC, Peacock 

FedEx Cup standings 

Here are the 30 players who qualified for the 2025 Tour Championship and their FedEx Cup points following the BMW Championship, won by Scottie Scheffler: 

Scottie Scheffler: 7,456 points 
Rory McIlroy: 3,687 points 
J.J. Spaun: 3,493 points 
Justin Rose: 3,326 points 
Tommy Fleetwood: 2,923 points 
Ben Griffin: 2,798 points 
Russell Henley: 2,795 points 
Sepp Straka: 2,783 points 
Robert MacIntyre: 2,750 points
Maverick McNealy: 2,547 points 
Harris English: 2,512 points 
Justin Thomas: 2,477 points 
Cameron Young: 2,185 points 
Ludvig Aberg: 2,179 points 
Andrew Novak: 2,030 points 
Keegan Bradley: 1,993 points 
Sam Burns: 1,871 points 
Brian Harman: 1,735 points 
Corey Conners: 1,719 points 
Patrick Cantlay: 1,661 points 
Collin Morikawa: 1,656 points 
Viktor Hovland: 1,637 points 
Hideki Matsuyama: 1,630 points 
Shane Lowry: 1,607 points 
Nick Taylor: 1,564 points 
Harry Hall: 1,475 points 
Jacob Bridgeman: 1,475 points 
Sungjae Im: 1,422 points 
Chris Gotterup: 1,414 points 
Akshay Bhatia: 1,409 points 

Quenton Marcelles Brown, father of Celtics guard Jaylen Brown, was arrested and charged with attempted murder.
The incident allegedly stemmed from a parking lot dispute over a ‘door ding.’
The victim sustained multiple stab wounds and was in critical condition.

The father of Boston Celtics guard Jaylen Brown was arrested and charged with attempted murder after allegedly stabbing another man in a parking lot.

According to jail records, 57-year-old Quenton Marcelles Brown was booked on that charge, and his bail bond was set at $300,000.

According to a report obtained by the news outlet, the victim, who was in critical condition, was stabbed in his back, upper right clavicle area, and left hand. He also suffered a broken right rib that might require surgery.

Brown is a four-time NBA All-Star and 2024 Finals MVP, and has played with the Celtics since being drafted in 2016. He averaged 22.2 points, 5.8 rebounds, and 4.5 assists last season.

The Women’s Professional Baseball League is holding tryouts ahead of its inaugural 2026 season.
Committed players include history-makers including Kelsie Whitmore and Mo’Ne Davis.
‘We’re finally being seen,” Whitmore says of the WPBL.

For one of the few times in her more than decade-long baseball career, Kelsie Whitmore doesn’t have to worry about creating her own path.

At 27, she has experienced an entire spectrum of emotional highs and lows in her quest to simply play ball, from assimilating with all the boys on her high school baseball team, to a significant diversion from the path forcing her into college softball, to the trailblazing glory, but also the punishing loneliness, of being the first woman to play alongside former and current big leaguers in the independent Atlantic League.

So perhaps it will feel a little strange when Whitmore reports Aug. 22 for tryouts with the Women’s Professional Baseball League, which is staging four days of evaluations in Washington, culminating at Nationals Park on Aug. 25, setting the stage for the league’s first player draft in October ahead of its inaugural 2026 season.

Whitmore will see so many familiar faces among the 600 players registered for tryouts, such as her teammates on the U.S. Women’s National Team who are the backbone of this tight-knit yet often overshadowed community. And she’ll also see players young enough to have drawn inspiration from her and, in turn, will inspire the next generation.

The logistics and uncertainties of such a bold new venture can wait a moment. For Whitmore, the space has been created for athletes like her to flourish, and she cannot wait to see what that will look like.

“Everything starts with a foundation,” Whitmore tells USA TODAY Sports. “Us women in baseball have been doing it on our own for so long. “And to see the people behind the scenes at the league getting involved in it like we as women have: That’s what we need. The people outside of it who are willing to step into our world and tag along.

“And now, being able to have other people see the vision we do – that’s where everything’s going to blossom, where opportunities are going to grow.

“I’ve always dreamt of it. I didn’t know if it was ever going to happen.”

The intended reality of what was once Whitmore’s dream looks like this: The WPBL will consist of a handful of ballclubs playing at one or two central sites beginning in May 2026. Games will be Thursday through Sunday, the better to fit players’ schedules and appeal to fans.

Players will be paid within a salary structure determined by their selection in the draft, with a revenue-sharing program based on the league’s sponsorship income. Committed players include former Little League World Series star Mo’ne Davis, back on the diamond after a college softball career at Hampton, and Olivia Pichardo, the first woman to play in a Division I college game, for Brown.

Co-founder Justine Siegal also founded Baseball for All, a girls baseball organization whose annual national tournament recently marked its 10th anniversary; fellow co-founder and chief investor Keith Stein, like several key members of the organization, hails from Canada, where, along with Japan, women’s baseball flourishes in a manner never seen in the USA.

Chair Assia Grazioli-Venier is a venture capitalist who has invested in the NWSL’s Washington Spirit and the sports vertical Just Women’s Sports.

It is all very ground-floor at the moment, lacking, for better or worse, the financial backbone and overlord status the NBA lent to the WNBA for its 1997 launch.

Eventually, success will be measured by attendance and cultural currency and, perhaps, TV ratings. For now, Whitmore only sees one significant triumph: A destination for young, talented ballplayers.

“Success within it is allowing them to not go through what I went through when I was younger, which was not knowing what path to take to do what I loved,” says Whitmore. “There was no path. There was no direction.

“I had to create the path, create the direction.”

Detours and destiny

For Whitmore, that meant staying on the diamond by any means necessary. She played, and flourished, on her baseball team at Temecula Valley High School, a baseball-rich exurb an hour north of San Diego.

Yet finding a place to play collegiately, even a small-college option like former pitcher Ila Borders was able to find in the 1990s, proved elusive.

So she, like Davis, accepted a softball scholarship, to Cal State Fullerton. By her senior year in 2021, Whitmore was the Big West Conference’s player of the year, with a .395/.507/.824 slash line.

Yet the lack of an outlet forced Whitmore into bifurcating her talents in order to get her education paid for, as she was forced to shelve pitching for most of those years. She hopes more former baseball players gravitate back to the big diamond.

“I had to play softball in college, unfortunately,” she says. “I did not want to. It was just where my path led me to. I wouldn’t change it. But there’s a lot of girls that grew up playing baseball but transitioned into softball.

“I think those girls that grew up playing the game of baseball still have a lot of passion for it and can coexist with us women who are in baseball. And I think they should.

“They had a lost opportunity a while back and maybe if they came back to it, they’d fall back in love with it again.”

Yet Whitmore’s precocious ability enabled her to stay in it. She first earned a spot on the USWNT in 2014, when she was 16. By 17, she joined Stacy Piagno as the only women on the roster of the short-season independent league Sonoma Stompers, spending two summers playing against men a decade her senior.

After college, another opportunity presented itself: The Staten Island FerryHawks, members of the independent Atlantic League, offered Whitmore a shot.

She’d be the first woman since Borders to play at such a high level, and the first to play in a Major League Baseball-affiliated indie league after the minor leagues were reorganized.

Whitmore spent two seasons with the FerryHawks, the challenges between the lines and beyond both significantly challenging. She had one hit in 54 at-bats, and in 24 appearances on the mound gave up 27 earned runs in 22 ⅔ innings.

She found more success playing pro ball in Mexico but noted that “they weren’t ready for a woman.” She opted to end a stint with the independent Oakland Ballers after one season.

It was equal parts invigorating, intimidating and isolating.

“Sonoma, Staten Island, the Ballers and Mexico – all of it I’m thankful for,” she says. “I loved each one, but there were also times it was really lonely. Like, really lonely. It was scary sometimes. It was hard. It made me really crave being able to be on a team full of women.

“I didn’t feel like I could be myself as a player and a person. Not that anyone made me feel that way. But you’re trying to compete and keep your spot and not get cut and trying to prove yourself. It felt like a lot of pressure over the years, but I learned so much. And I was surrounded by a lot of great players.  I would not take it back one bit.

“I just made a hundred more brothers than I had before.”

She emerged just a little disillusioned, yet the perfect vehicle to discover her joy for the game was just around the corner.

Going Bananas

When Whitmore opted not to rejoin the Ballers for a second season, she was sans team. A year earlier, though, the Savannah Bananas had reached out, inquiring about her services.

Figuring their vaudevillian brand of Banana Ball was just a little too unserious, she declined. Yet by this year, she was ready to join the circus.

“When they called, it was a sign that maybe, instead of me chasing all these teams that aren’t wanting me the way I want them, the Bananas wanted me for me,” she says. “That really hit me. I was like you know what? I’m gonna take a chance on it.”

At the least, she says, it enabled her to fulfill some dreams, such as playing in big league ballparks, in front of overflow crowds, even. Come September, she’ll play at the ballpark of her youth when the Bananas visit Petco Park for a two-night gig.

And she knew she made the right decision on Aug. 15, when Bananas founder and owner Jesse Cole approached her in the Chicago White Sox clubhouse with a message before taking the field.

“He says, ‘Listen, I want you to have fun out there. People know you’re having fun, they’re having fun, too,” she recalls. “Because I’m very serious, I put pressure on myself, I get mad at the little things, I take the game so seriously.

“He says, ‘You’ve already won being out there. You don’t have to prove yourself anymore. Just go out there and enjoy it.’

“I had a really good inning and I had fun and I felt the most me out there.”

And it is not like the baseball is bad. The Bananas feature former professional and collegiate players, mixed in with regionally-appropriate MLB alum cameos, such as White Sox lefty Mark Buehrle, who at 46 worked an inning in Chicago with old batterymate A.J. Pierzynski.

Whitmore recently induced three ground balls in an inning of work, all of them to a shortstop who performed some form of acrobatics in converting all three into routine outs.

“It’s making me be more creative and honestly, helping me be more me, as a player,” she says. “That’s something I’ve always felt more restricted to in conventional pro ball, where it’s like, ‘Hey, you can’t throw 90? Well, we need you to train in the offseason to get as close as you can to 90,’ and that’s all they want. Velo, velo, numbers, numbers. It’s trying to fit this cookie cutter.

“With Banana Ball, they don’t want you to be cookie cutter. They want you to come as yourself and be as you as you can and compete. And have fun.”

Time to ball out

That freedom has allowed Whitmore’s mind to wander when it comes to what the WPBL can become. She envisions the league hub as a place where a loyal, local following can be developed, along with a destination for out-of-towners to visit for a game.

She hopes the USWNT can, through the WPBL, develop more cohesion as a unit, since they’d be playing together or against one another, rather than convening biannually. That should only enhance their chances of breaking Japan’s stranglehold on the Women’s World Cup gold medal, which they’ve won seven consecutive times since the USA’s last gold in 2006.

She hopes a high quality of play will attract sponsorship and support from USA Baseball and MLB, which produces a Trailblazers Series for teen baseball players and in May partnered with Athletes Unlimited to “strategically invest” in their softball league.

And she hopes ballplayers can eventually join their sisters in soccer, basketball and tennis and “get to a point where us women in the league can make a living off this, honestly.”

It all starts this weekend, when Whitmore reconvenes with friends old and new and expects to have her eyes opened by the talent around her.

‘I’m excited to see girls that I don’t even know that show up and they’re balling out,” she says. “Women’s baseball is such a small world and we kind of all know each other. However, the ones that maybe haven’t played on the national team and I haven’t met them before – I’m excited to see those faces too. At the end of the day, it’s exciting to see how many girls love baseball and want to be a part of it.

“It gives reassurance that wow, I’m really not the only one that loves this game. It shows how powerful women in baseball are. We’ve been here, it’s just that now, we’re finally being seen.”

The Washington Commanders are moving on from their lead back by sending him to an NFC team in search of backfield support.

The Commanders on Friday agreed to trade running back Brian Robinson Jr. to the San Francisco 49ers pending a physical, a person with knowledge of the deal told USA TODAY Sports’ Tyler Dragon. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the trade was not yet official.

ESPN’s Adam Schefter first reported the move.

Robinson, 26, eclipsed 700 yards rushing in each of his three seasons with the Commanders. But the team appeared to put him on the trade block last week and held him out of last week’s preseason game against the Cincinnati Bengals. Third-year ball carrier Chris Rodriguez Jr. and seventh-round rookie Jacory ‘Bill’ Croskey-Merritt – a training camp standout – took over the bulk of the work, and both could be in line for larger roles upon Robinson’s departure. Austin Ekeler and Jeremy McNichols round out the position group.

‘Going into training camp we thought this was a deep room,’ Commanders coach Dan Quinn said after the loss to the Bengals.

The 49ers, meanwhile, add depth behind Christian McCaffrey, who appeared in just four games last season after his 2023 Offensive Player of the Year campaign. Backup Isaac Guerendo returned to practice this week after a shoulder injury sidelined him for San Francisco’s first two preseason games, while fifth-round rookie Jordan James has also been sidelined with a broken finger.

Iowa State and Kansas State play their season opener in Dublin, Ireland.
Iowa State has done extensive logistical planning, including a detailed 1,083-line spreadsheet of equipment and supplies.
Pre-trip visits to Ireland allowed staff to scout locations and customize menus for the team’s stay.

Greg ‘Skip’ Brabenec made a list and checked it more than twice, becoming well-acquainted with more than 10,000 pounds of inventory and all 1,083 lines on his spreadsheet.

It’s far from Christmas time, but Iowa State football’s 2025 season opener against rival Kansas State in the Aer Lingus College Football Classic in Dublin, Ireland, is a gift for Cyclones and Wildcats fans. The unique opportunity marks the first time that Iowa State is playing a football game outside of the United States and is the first Big 12 Conference contest to be conducted internationally. Also, with both teams ranked in the preseason US LBM Coaches Poll poll, the matchup will be the first Week 0 game to feature two ranked teams since 2002.

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With the added excitement comes added logistical hurdles and challenges for the schools as they prepare to play on the Emerald Isle.

Between securing passports for players, creating a list of items and equipment to pack for their trip across the pond, Brabenec — Iowa State football’s chief of staff — has been overseeing the school’s behind-the-scenes preparation since January.

‘Normally, no matter where we travel — whether it’s Utah, Florida, Arizona — our stuff’s going by truck,’ Brabenec said. ‘We got a big trucking company here in Iowa that are huge Cyclone boosters, donors and all that, and we’re contracted through them. We got our own football trailer and they’ll just kind of haul it wherever, so this is the first time since I’ve been at Iowa State that we’ve had to actually fly our equipment somewhere.’

Brabenec worked closely with equipment, technical, medical and nutrition support staff members to build the spreadsheet of inventory of what to pack.

For stateside road games, the Cyclones have their organized process and routine for preparation. Since they ship their equipment by truck and trailer, they can just load it up to whatever necessary capacity it can hold.

This week, with customs and air transportation involved, there’s a greater sense of detail involved and meticulous care needed.

‘It’s all detailed out to the number of pieces, monetary value of each piece, country of origin, where these things are from, dimensions of it, weight and where it’s going — whether it’s going to the hotel or the stadium,’ Brabenec said, referring to the spreadsheet and carnet that is required for shipping equipment and goods. ‘It’s pretty detailed as best as we can.’

The 1,083-line spreadsheet accounts for everything including practice and game-day equipment, ball driers, different outfit combinations for Iowa State coach Matt Campbell, medical supplies, Band-Aids, headsets, the exact serial numbers for the iPads they’re bringing, Frank’s Red Hot Sauce and Sweet Baby Ray’s barbeque sauce.

Each trunk or bin containing items and equipment is thoroughly broken down by its contents and weight.

Each line of the document likely mirrors the sets of eyes and number of times it was reviewed by Brabenec or another support staff member to ensure Iowa State has everything it needs for this unprecedented trip.

The inventory list was finalized in the weeks leading into the Ireland trip. An aircraft carrying all of the Cyclones’ equipment left from Chicago to Dublin a week before the team would arrive there for game week.

‘The main thing is when you pack, our goal was to pack as if we won’t be able to buy it,’ said Marshall senior associate athletics director Mike Valentine, who previously oversaw Northwestern’s equipment room preparation process when the Wildcats played in Ireland against Nebraska in 2022. ‘There were some things we had to go out and adjust on. Power, electricity and power strips, and the converters, that was the big one. We brought a whole bunch and we ended up having to buy some because they would just get fried and you could smell it.’

There are no Wal-Marts or Targets in Ireland. Superstores aren’t as common in Dublin as they are in Des Moines.

‘For a bowl game, (equipment) is on a truck, so we just kind of throw everything on the truck and go,’ Brabenec said. ‘If we miss something, we can probably just go to the sporting store and get it before a game or something like that. With this, we really can’t go to the sporting store and go buy football cleats or something like that, so we definitely made sure that we pack everything and extras of certain things.’

As for passports, Iowa State made sure to get a jump on the process as early as possible. For the Cyclones, that meant waiting until after the December transfer-portal window closed. Although there was another transfer window during spring football, that winter window helped narrow down which players would likely remain on the roster for the 2025 season.

For many of the Cyclones, this is their first international trip. Brabenec said approximately 40 players on Iowa State’s 120-man roster already possessed a passport.

‘We worked with them to make sure they can start getting their passport, whether it was in Utah or here in Iowa, just making sure they knew what they could do and how to get that,’ Brabenec said. ‘If they weren’t able to do it on their own, we just made sure they brought their stuff with them when they got here. And to be honest, it was a fairly easy process.’

In addition to the stateside preparation that the Cyclones have done, they also took a few trips to Ireland to scout out the land.

Brabenec and the nutrition staff toured the team hotel earlier this year and sampled food to customize the menu for their time in Ireland.

‘Last summer, I got a chance to at least go over there and see the space for two or three days, personally,’ Campbell said. ‘Kind of go on the same three-day trip that our players are about to go on, so it gave me a great lay of the land. My whole mission is, how do we try to keep everything as normal as we possibly can?’

Aug. 23 will be anything but normal, but the Cyclones are hopeful that their preparations and research will have them ready for a smooth trip to Ireland and back.

‘A lot of effort has gone into it, and I really appreciate what they’ve done to kind of give us a platform to get over there and try to get into normalcy as fast as we possibly can,’ Campbell said.

Eugene Rapay covers Iowa State athletics for the Des Moines Register.