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Unusual offseason presents mental health issues for athletes, experts say

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Like most college football fans on Aug. 11, Syracuse’s football players refreshed their Twitter feeds and sent texts in their group chats.

They were in the third month of voluntary offseason workouts and then training camp, all with strict COVID-19 measures in place, and their friends in the Pac-12 and Big Ten had just found out their seasons were postponed. Was the Atlantic Coast Conference next?

“We weren’t sure if we were going super hard for no reason if we weren’t going to have a season,” linebacker Mikel Jones said on Sept.