Senior safety Adrian McDonald said that professors don’t give him special treatment. | File photo/ The Cougar

After their biggest game of the season, the Cougar football players have has to switch from winning a championship to going through the struggle of finals week.

“The worse of part finals week (would) probably be (last) week because I haven’t started on a book report that needs to be done,” senior safety Adrian McDonald said. “I might need to get that going.”

McDonald said his professors don’t give him any special treatment.

“No extended deadlines, no excuses,” McDonald said. “I just got to get it done.”

McDonald said he’s balancing football and finals by sleeping later and spending time after practice to study.

Senior inside linebacker Elandon Roberts said his worse experience has maintained football and finals at the same time.

“Sometimes you’ll be on the last game (of the season) and tired, and now you got to get ready for finals,” Roberts said. “It can be real hectic (with) the timing.”

Roberts said it’s been stressful this season, especially ahead of the American Athletic Conference championship game.

“It’s kind of a strain because (it was) real big game, but at the same time you got to know when to study, when to put the studying down and get on your football studying,” Roberts said. “It correlates kind of hard, it gets difficult.”

For senior offensive lineman Alex Cooper, thinking of finals brought back memories of a horrific finals experience.

“During sophomore year, I was in two online classes, and for one of the classes, we didn’t have a final,” Cooper said.

“For some reason, I got the two classes confused, and I didn’t realize we had the final until three hours before it was due.”

Cooper said that one of his teammates happened to be in the same class and asked if he had studied for the final.

“I panicked,” Cooper said. “I panicked and looked over some stuff. I managed to kind of squeak out a C, but I was going crazy for about an hour and half that day.”

—
“Finals in the gridiron: football players share their experiences” was originally posted on The Daily Cougar