As their final season in Naval Academy football uniforms are about to unfold, seniors Marcus Edwards and Travis Brannan unquestionably have earned the chance to make their most significant contributions to Navy's cause.  Both of them earned their first varsity letter in 2018, Brannan by appearing in 10 games as an effective cover man on special teams, Edwards as a backup in the Mids' defensive line rotation who appeared in every game.

Edwards anxiously awaits his first taste of the varsity game as a starter, while Brannan expects for the first time to be in the regular slot back rotation on Saturdays. Each of them is also laser focused on the future that awaits him in a United States Navy uniform.

Edwards, a 6-feet-4, 295-pound defensive tackle who will graduate in May with a degree in robotics and control engineering, will be commissioned a submarine officer, having qualified a year ago as an early selectee in the submarine community. He begins his senior season with a 3.33 grade point average.

At 6 feet, 180 pounds, Brannan aims to be a Navy pilot. He will receive a degree in ocean engineering next spring. He also brings a spotless, 4.0 GPA into his final go-round on the playing field.

In terms of their football experience in Annapolis, Edwards and Brannan have had their patience and wills tested, due mainly to injury in Edwards' case and competitive reality in Brannan's. They have spent formative years toiling in the anonymity of the scout teams. They have paid their extended dues, without complaint.

In Saturday's season opener against visiting Holy Cross, Edwards hopes to make an early impact, possibly by forcing his first fumble, notching his first sack or collecting the sixth tackle of his collegiate career. Should he carry the football against the Crusaders, it would mark the first touch during Brannan's time in Annapolis.

In the eyes of Ken Niumatalolo, Navy's 12^th-year head coach, Edwards and Brannan sum up the essence of a Navy football player.

"You need perseverance and grit in this game, and [Edwards and Brannan] definitely have that," Niumatalolo says. "As a coach, you always pull for guys like that, because you see all they've been through and all they've sacrificed for the team. I have all the respect in the world for them."

Like so many high-level, high school talents, Edwards and Brannan envisioned themselves doing good, maybe great things at their chosen, Division I school.

By his junior year at Sabino High School in Tucson, Arizona, Edwards was fielding offers from Ivy League members Cornell and Princeton, while drawing serious interest from Air Force. He already had earned first-team, all-state recognition, and was headed toward induction in the National Honor Society and the National Football Foundation Hall of Fame.

At that point, according to his father, Douglas Edwards, Marcus was the only player in the Southern Arizona region fielding a Division I offer.

Then, in a cruel twist of fate at the end of spring football in 2014 – literally on the last day of workouts – Edwards tore the ACL in his right knee. The non-contact injury forced Edwards to miss his entire senior season, and Division I interest in him evaporated. Until Navy called, that is. 

Edwards says he was two weeks removed from knee surgery, when the offer to be a Midshipman came via a phone call. A visit to Annapolis was scheduled. Later, a one-on-one meeting with Niumatalolo was all Edwards needed to commit to the academy.

"Navy didn't care about my [injured] knee. They were going to stick with me throughout my rehabilitative process. They wanted me," Edwards recalls. "That's why this program means so much to me. That's why I play hard every day, to give back to this program."

That's why Edwards, despite setbacks with the knee at Naval Academy Prep School and during his first two seasons with the Mids – problems that relegated him to the sideline or the scout team or training room – kept pushing forward. That's why he finally broke through a year ago by recording tackles in five different games.

Brannan's story is more about being humbled from another side of the competitive ferocity of Division I.

As a junior at Vandergrift High in Austin, Texas – in the middle of one of the nation's true football hotbeds – Brannan rushed for 2,685 yards and 42 TDs to lead the Vipers to the Class 5A semifinals. He was named the 5A Offensive Player of the Year. An undersized back, he shined brightly enough to attract interest from Navy, Army, Harvard and Texas State. Nearby Rice University offered him a full football ride.

"Most of my friends were going to the same state schools, joining the same fraternity, getting the same business degrees," says Brannan, who would rush for 2,692 yards and 39 more scores as a senior. "I wanted something different. When Navy came knocking, whoa, that's about as different as it gets. No one had served [in the military] in my family, so I went out on a limb and rolled the dice. It worked out."

Not without some pride being punctured. Brannan came to the academy direct, thinking he would make an immediate impact with the Mids, who traditionally stack their spread option offense with under-recruited, under-sized, speedy slot backs.

"Travis told me he was going to be the fastest guy on the team. Navy would have to get him on the field. He fully expected to start right away," recalls Allen Skinn, who was a Pop Warner league coach of Brannan's and who has been a mentor of his since his early teen years. "[Brannan] is a real talent with the ball in his hands, but I advised him that he'd be going up against some grown men in Annapolis."

"Everybody thinks he is going to be The Guy coming in. You think you're going to make a difference instantly," Brannan says. "Pretty much as soon as I got here, I saw that's not the way it was going to be.

"There were guys like [Toneo] Gulley and [Dishan] Romine and Tre Walker already commanding the position. Those guys were such a presence," he adds. "For me, it became a process that was a bit frustrating."

It took Brannan nearly two full seasons to dress on game day. He made his collegiate debut against Virginia in Navy's blowout victory over the Cavaliers in the 2017 Military Bowl. Then, he cemented his role on special teams in 2018.

During his first two seasons, Brannan immersed himself in and mastered his studies – emerging as an informal tutor for teammates – and learned to embrace his scout-team responsibilities. Those consist primarily of giving the first-team defense a good look at that week's opposing offense and bringing high energy to the practice field, weight room and meeting room daily.

He remembers following the lead of ex-teammate Cam Dudeck, who finished four years without touching the ball and earned one varsity letter.

"Cam was one of the hardest-working, most passionate people I've ever seen in my life. I'd like to think of myself as a student of his by emulating his work ethic," Brannan says.

"I'm nowhere near a 4.0. How does he manage that?" asks starting junior slot back C.J. Williams, who spent considerable time on the scout team after getting injured early in his plebe year. "Travis has always had a positive mentality about everything, balancing school and football and the military. It's eye-opening being on the scout team. You learn a lot about yourself as a player and teammate, how to analyze yourself closer and give more effort. Travis always brought the energy."

"Scout team is where you show how much you truly love this game," adds Joe DuPaix, who coaches Navy's slot backs. "Travis is incredibly driven and very consistent in the way he does everything. If we have an early-morning workout scheduled, he'll get up extra early, so he can eat right before the workout. He's certainly a guy I can trust. I have high expectations for him this season."

It didn't take first-year defensive line coach Jerrick Hall long to see the same traits in Edwards, who is the son of a former Air Force officer. Douglas Edwards enlisted in 1979 and spent 22 years in service, before retiring as a Chief Master Sergeant.

Hall was familiarizing himself with player backgrounds as pre-spring conditioning workouts began, and he noticed immediately how Edwards would be at the front of the stretch line, or seated at the front of the classroom taking notes and asking the right questions or running out early or staying late on the practice field.

"Marcus is very detail-oriented. He organizes the classroom with the defensive linemen before I get there," Hall says. "He's always making sure he's crystal-clear on what he's doing so he can play fast. Coaching guys like him fuels my fire."

Edwards says his father's military background – his grandfather also served in World War II, his uncle in Viet Nam – clearly influenced a path that likely would have led him to a service academy.

"I saw the type of role model my Dad was. I knew I wanted to serve my country one day," Edwards says.

"Marcus saw me in a uniform every day [as a young boy]. That resonated with him," Douglas Edwards says. "As he got older, he asked me more and more about the military. By age 10, he was saying that he wanted to serve. I'd say, 'We've already done that, Marcus, you're good.'"

"Marcus later would say how much he wanted to get a great education, play ball and serve his country. Once he met Coach Ken [at Navy], it was over. His words to me were, 'I'm home.'"

What sticks out among the coaches and teammates at Navy is how Edwards confronted those injury setbacks – head down, pushing forward, his mind set on missions.

During the summer following his sophomore year, Edwards fell in love with the idea of serving on a submarine, after a two-week cruise aboard the nuclear-powered USS John Warner. He applied for early selection to the sub community, went through grueling studying (a packet exceeding 100 pages) during preseason camp in 2018 then earned his early selection as fall semester classes were beginning.

Edwards says it was fitting that, just as he found his service calling, he began the 2018 season as healthy as he'd been since his junior season in high school.

"When I first got to the academy, the last thing I wanted to do was to be aboard a submarine. But then I decided that [the summer cruise] would be the first and only time I'd do it," Edwards says.

"But that cruise changed my life and my perspective. What an incredible crew I worked with, from the enlisted to the officers," he adds. "They really opened my eyes and inspired me with their camaraderie and how they use their minds. It's like another type of football team.

As for the season that lies ahead, Edwards is savoring every practice, every meeting. He expects he will have to control his emotions before the Holy Cross game.

"My junior year was a breakthrough year for me, playing in every game. It was finally my time, even though I've never felt like I've arrived," Edwards says. "It's crazy. I've been in this program for five years. I feel like preparation and opportunity finally have met at the crossroads."