As he prepared to begin his final season in a Navy football uniform, senior outside linebacker Kenneth McShan said he was bracing for the end of days playing the sport that has been a dear companion for 15 years.
 
McShan, an energetic, analytical type who majors in naval architecture and marine engineering at the Naval Academy – from where he will graduate in May, with the hopes of becoming a Navy pilot – has been contemplating other pastimes while accepting the looming finality of his football life.
 
"I have wrestled with that dog for a while. I wanted to deny [the end] as much as possible," McShan said. "It's bittersweet for sure, but it also teaches you gratitude. I really appreciate the guys who have been around me."
 
"I've been thinking about hobbies after football is over, because I'm going to be at a loss. I won't know what to do with myself. I'm used to devoting so many hours to this game."
 
McShan sees himself spending more time in 2026 in the academy's familiar wood shop, where he loves to build things with his hands. As a guy who grew up as a passionate fisherman – among his favorite childhood memories is catching bass and catfish near his hometown of Birmingham, Alabama, in a serene place called Smith Lake – McShan sees himself "casting hundreds of times." He also is determined to learn the game of golf.
 
One thing clear to McShan is that his four years tethered to the Navy Football Brotherhood will not be defined by two devastating knee injuries he experienced on the football field. Those non-contact ACL injuries, which ravaged each knee about 11 months apart and demanded lengthy rehabilitation time, cost McShan nearly his first two full seasons.
 
"It's like being stuck in punishment, when your mom won't let you go outside to play, and you look out the window and see all of your buddies having fun," McShan said.
 
"It pains you, because you can't do what you have loved and cherished for so long. With the amount of effort and emotion that goes into the game of football, if you are without it, you feel like a part of yourself is missing. My only choice was to work as hard as I could and take on a supporting role and grow my game in a different way."
 
After first trying the game at age seven, McShan's raw athletic ability showed. He soon enjoyed tackling ball carriers and the hard contact that sometimes came with it. He eventually grew into a four-year varsity middle linebacker force at Gardendale High School.
 
His command of the defense was so thorough that McShan was defensive captain as a sophomore, junior and senior, under Eric Firestone, then the defensive coordinator at Gardendale.
 
"I would put in the game plan, and Kenny would make the [pre-snap] checks. He would do his thing for over half of the plays," Firestone said.
 
"He knew what I wanted and how we had prepared for that week's opponent. Very rarely did I overrule Kenny's call. He always led by example – in the classroom, playing through pain, supporting his teammates. As a sophomore, he started for me from day one."
 
While lettering in football for four years and excelling in the classroom, McShan also held a part-time job running a florist shop. Firestone trusted McShan to babysit his young children. Over his four years, he was part of the school's Homecoming Court. As a senior, the school's faculty and his peers voted to honor McShan as "Mr. Gardendale High School."
 
Following Gardendale's nine-win season in his senior year in 2020, McShan, who had recorded 143 tackles, was named First-Team All-State by the Alabama Sportswriters Association. He also was voted the Class 6A All-Region 6 Most Valuable Defensive Player.
 
After receiving more than 10 college offers, including a handful from the Ivy League and all three service academies, McShan decommitted from Air Force and chose Navy.
 
McShan continued his impressive development during a year at the academy's prep school (NAPS) in Newport, R.I.
 
"At NAPS, you could feel disconnected from Navy football. Not Kenny. He was constantly watching Navy film, going hard in the weightroom, letting our guys know if practice needed more energy," recalled Kendall Whiteside, a senior defensive tackle with the Mids.
 
"Kenny is one of those dudes who eats, sleeps and breathes ball. It showed in his game, how he was all over the field at NAPS," he added. "It was very easy to see that he was a natural leader, on and off the field. He was our guy, our superhero."
 
By the time McShan was grinding through plebe summer in Annapolis in 2022, he had never suffered a serious football injury. That good fortune continued through Navy's preseason camp in August, when McShan immediately drew the attention of the coaching staff with his athletic prowess, football acumen and commanding presence.
 
"From the time I first met and recruited [McShan] on Zoom calls [during COVID], he was a violent hitter with charisma and a million-dollar smile and a steel jaw. People gravitated to him," said P.J. Volker, Navy's defensive coordinator and former linebacker coach.
 
"Even on those plebe summer legs, he flashed immediately as a freshman," he added. "He jumped off the practice tape with the way he flew around and did the instructive things we teach. He was on the depth chart as an inside linebacker. We bumped him up to special teams quickly."
 
McShan had been elevated to rare air in a plebe's world. He was slated to be a game-day player and part of Navy's travel squad.
 
Then, in the first half of the second game of the 2022 season against visiting Memphis, as McShan sprinted downfield with the kickoff coverage squad and before any blocker had even engaged him, he suddenly heard the pop in his left knee. He briefly tried to continue running, before he hit the ground. McShan got back up and hobbled to the Navy sideline.
 
"To feel my body failing me was heartbreaking and mentally wrenching," he said. "To have my helmet taken away and be told that I was out indefinitely was mind-boggling."
 
Along with numerous plebes not playing who are allowed to be on the Navy sideline at home games, Whiteside described the group as "ecstatic" watching McShan on the field that day.
 
"I was recording Kenny on my phone when it happened. It hit the team hard," Whiteside said. "When I first talked to him after it happened, he recognized it was a big setback, but already was saying it was not going to stop him. I think the people around him worried more than he did. If he had any doubt about coming back, he would never let that show."
 
Following season-ending surgery to repair his torn left ACL, McShan's arduous, painful rehab began. And it was clear early on that he was determined to remain an engaged part of the football team.
 
While his rehab schedule came first, he managed to attend many position or team meetings, where he was an eager participant. He showed up often at practice and on game days, observing the defense closely, dispensing encouragement and suggestions to his linebacker mates. He worked out with teammates when he could. He was all-in on his comeback.
 
"I've never seen someone so dedicated to the team and all of the people around it, while in a hands-off position," Whiteside said. "Kenny was always around if he could possibly be there."
 
McShan healed on schedule and was cleared for preseason camp in 2023. He was looking forward to running with special teams again and working his way up the depth chart, as the Mids prepared to open their season against Notre Dame, in Dublin, Ireland.
 
But on the first day the team practiced in full pads, the unthinkable revisited a healthy McShan, who had been converted to outside linebacker after dropping about 15 pounds.
 
During a pass rushing drill, McShan suffered a season-ending injury to the ACL in his right knee.
 
"I remember throwing my helmet. I knew exactly what it was, before the MRI told me. I was filled with more anger than sadness," said McShan, who comes from a family of deep faith. "I felt like God was hanging the opportunity in front of me, but there was more work to be done.
 
"Over time, I've realized this [experience] helped me develop into the person and player I am. All of the mental reps, the film I watched, the preparation for stepping on the field again. I was truly ready when my time came."
 
McShan's time finally arrived in the fall of 2024. Before the opener against visiting Bucknell, McShan ran onto the field and stopped to stand on the spot where his first injury occurred, two years earlier.
 
Ricky Brown, Navy's special teams coordinator and outside linebackers coach, got emotional that day. During a seven-year NFL career in which he played for Oakland, New England and Baltimore, Brown endured 11 football-related surgeries, after sticking as an undrafted free agent out of Boston College. Two of those were season-ending surgeries with the Raiders.
 
"I couldn't imagine losing a whole season to an injury in college. Kenny has spent nearly 10 percent of his college life rehabbing knee injuries. I know what those rehab days are like, the self-doubt that's there," Brown said.
 
"Will I get back to my normal self? Will I get injured a third time? Kenny came out the back end like an absolute stud. He still brings everybody up. He knows how to lead, in good times and bad."
 
McShan's heartening comeback last year might have gotten lost to those on the periphery watching last year's 10-3 comeback season, but not in the Navy locker room. Not by a long shot.
 
McShan appeared in all 13 games and worked his way quickly into the linebacker mix as a backup, before starting the last five contests. In that closing stretch, he produced 19 of his 34 tackles, featuring excellent, eight-tackle showings in wins over USF and Oklahoma. He grabbed an acrobatic interception in the rout over Army.
 
But it was McShan's late pick in game two – a 38-11 blowout over Temple at home – that sparked a stirring reaction on the Navy sideline, where the entire squad exploded with joy. Countless players were on the playing field, celebrating the fact that McShan indeed was back.
 
"A lot of people without Kenny's resolve probably would have hung it up. He has an immense amount of resiliency," Volker said. "No player who comes through Ricketts Hall is more respected."
 
"You can't control what happens to you, but you can control how to respond to it. Kenny is a brilliant example of that," Navy head coach Brian Newberry said. "He is an inspiration."
 
Kenneth McShan, the father of Navy's hugely respected outside linebacker, said, "What an honor it has been to parent him. When I'm feeling lousy, I think of Kenny's painful experience – twice. I think of him getting up at 5am and busting his ass. Kenny picks me up. He keeps me going. I can't believe I raised my role model."
 
"The 'why me?' moments visited me, especially the second time I got hurt. Having that void, when a part of you is missing, it makes you question things like, 'Do I really love this game?' I battled with that," McShan said.
 
"Faith is at the forefront of my life. The academy has given me an illustrious free education, an opportunity to play football and some of the greatest friends and relationships I could have asked for. I have experienced these injuries. Now I can be a pillar for those who are going through those same kinds of things."