After the events of Sept. 11, 2001, Jesse Andrew enrolled in the Army and served two tours in Iraq (photo by Nate Phillips).

For most college football players, the story about how they reached the NCAA ranks. It generally follows some variation of this trend: start playing at a young age — maybe in Pop Warner football, or at least junior high school. Move on to high school, collect assorted awards and accolades, go through the ritual of college recruiting and select a university at which to play.

SMU nose tackle Jesse Andrew’s path to the Hilltop included those roles, as he ended up starring at West Lafayette High School in Indiana as a tight end, punter, wedge buster on special teams (“that was my favorite job,” he said) and defensive end. Like many other college athletes, he was a versatile athlete in high school, also throwing the discus and running the 100-meter dash, the 200 and a leg of the 4x100-meter relay for his school’s track team.

That’s where the similarities between Andrew’s story and those of his teammates take different paths. Andrew enrolled at Ball State University in Muncie, Ind., in the fall of 2000 and began dating C’Koh, a girl he knew from high school, who had gone to college at Purdue University.

“I was in school, and going into my sophomore year, it really didn’t feel like the time was right,” he said. “I was kind of young … kind of wild …

“Then the whole Sept. 11 thing happened, and that kind of put a lot of things in perspective.”

The events of Sept. 11, 2001 convinced Andrew, now 27, that it really wasn’t the right time to be in school. He left and enrolled in the Army. A year later, he was sent to Germany. Shortly thereafter, he found himself in Baghdad, Iraq.

“I got (to Germany) in July 2002 and deployed (to Baghdad in the) spring of 2003, so I wasn’t even there for a year. In Baghdad, we were responsible for a checkpoint, which was one of the main checkpoints into the Green Zone, which was one of the busiest ones in Baghdad. We also patrolled a sector — you always have patrols, out walking around — and we had to put people in observation points, overlooking areas in the city to look for mortar fire or any kind of strange activity, and a lot of raids — kicking in doors … that kind of thing.

“When we showed up, it was right after Baghdad fell. We moved into a palace that had been bombed during ‘Shock and Awe.’ In the footage they always, show, you can actually see the building being blown up. But half of it was still standing, so we moved into that half. We cleaned up all the broken glass. It didn’t have any windows, electricity, running water.”

But serving his country was not Andrew’s only priority. Before being sent to Germany, he and C’Koh had gotten engaged, but the wedding had to wait while he was overseas.

“We got engaged before I deployed, and then when I was deployed, I (thought I) was supposed to be there for six months,” Andrew said. “Then it was nine months … then a year. A year came around, and we got ready to head home — we cleaned all of our equipment and headed down to Kuwait. Up to that point, I’d been telling C’Koh, ‘I don’t know the exact date I’m coming home, so let’s not set a solid date.’ She already had done all the planning and everything — she just needed a date. So when we got to Kuwait, I was like, ‘alright, I’ll be home in about two weeks. So date and this date are two pretty solid dates that I’ll be home’ … two Saturdays.

“So we went ahead and decided on one, and it wasn’t more than two days later that we got the call that we were going to get extended for three more months, so we had to scrap those plans, and basically put everything on hold. We loaded everything back up and headed back up north for three more months to about an hour south of Baghdad.”

A versatile athlete who also threw the discus and ran sprints for his high school track team, Andrew played tight end, defensive end and punter, and busted the wedge on special teams ... which he called his "favorite job" on his high school team (photo by Webmaster).

The couple was married in Indiana Aug. 7, 2004, meaning he'll be checking in for practice at SMU on his fifth wedding anniversary. He then returned for another tour in the Army, deployed in Kirkuk, Iraq, from 2005-06 before leaving the Army that year with the rank of Sergeant.

“I got out, and I was at Fort Campbell (in Kentucky) while I was out-processing,” Andrew said. “She was in Arizona — in Phoenix — so I moved out there for about a month, and she was in a job where she got promoted. They opened up a new office in Albuquerque, so we moved there for six months, and I did a semester there (at the University of New Mexico). But her job was really stressful, and she had sisters here who said, ‘go ahead and move out here — you can live with us for a couple of months.’ They knew a lot of people here, and they networked pretty well. So we did that — lived with them for a couple of months — and they pretty much set her up with her job as I was starting at Brookhaven College.”

Andrew knew he wanted to finish college, and he maintained his love of football, and wanted to give it one more try.

“When we moved here, I looked at all of the different schools, and SMU’s the best school in the area, so that was key — I had pretty good grades, so I was pretty confident I could get in,” he said, “and I always had a desire to at least try and play college ball. I’ve been working out pretty hard ever since I got in the military, and I guess it was a thought in the back of my head.”

Andrew said he talked often with his brother-in-law, who also played college football, about his desire to return to the gridiron, so his brother-in-law reached out to SMU director of football operations Randy Ross.

“My brother-in-law, who played football for Montana State — we’d always talked about it, and he’s actually the one who contacted Coach Ross,” Andrew said. “He called a couple of times, and then one day we were just like, ‘you know what? Let’s just go in there and meet them.’ So we did that, and we talked to Coach Ross, and kind of worked out the whole eligibility thing, because the whole military thing, and doing college before — it was kind of a unique situation. (Defensive line) Coach (Bert) Hill was in his office, so he came in, too, and we talked to him — they were very welcoming. We had a short discussion, and after that, I showed up for practice.”

Andrew turned heads when he arrived on the practice field last fall. The high school star-turned-soldier had massive arms hanging from his muscular frame, but the layoff since his senior year of high school left him very raw. He spent the season on the Ponies’ scout team, which actually slowed his process of re-learning the game, as he emulated different players in different defenses each week.

“The first couple of weeks that I put pads on … it had been so long since I’d put pads on and played defensive line, and it was all so foreign that all I was capable of was doing was a bull rush for the first two, three weeks,” he said. “I was like, ‘wow — I’m actually out here playing football.’ It took a while to adjust to everything, to get back in the football mindset and start working on the technique again. Once all that started coming back, it started to flow together.”

Getting admitted to SMU and back on a team were the first steps, but Andrew said it was the work he put in outside of practice that helped him regain the notion that he belonged on the field with his new teammates. He holed up in Hill’s office, watching tape of his performance in practice, and studying what he had done well, and the areas in which he struggled.

“Once I started watching some of the film from practice — why it wasn’t working and what I needed to work on and taking what Coach Hill was saying in practice and putting it to work, saying ‘if I did that here, it would work,’ or ‘if I did this in this particular situation, it would work’ — the next couple of days, I just went out and tried it, and things started coming together. Things started working.

“It just took trial and error — try things, have them fail, and then watch them on film, and actually see it and (say), ‘OK, this is what I thought I was doing there. I actually need to work on that.”

On his high school defense, Andrew played defensive end in a 4-3 system; at SMU, he backs up Chris Parham and Evan Huahulu in the Ponies’ 3-4 alignment.

“It’s taken a while to get used to it, but I feel I’m adjusting pretty well,” he said. “It’s not just shooting a gap — it’s gap control and reading the blocks off the nose, so that’s taken some adjustment.

Away from football for about a decade, Andrew continued to work out diligently while in the military and upon joining the Mustangs in 2008 (photo by Webmaster).

“Spring ball is actually the first time I’ve seen it. We did a little bit on scout team last year, but I don’t really think that counts because you don’t work on gap control or reading assignments — they just say, ‘just shoot this gap.’ So it’s foreign, but things are starting to come together. It was a great learning experience. I can’t wait for camp to start up so I can start going over things again.”

Andrew said that there were times last fall when he, as a member of the scout team, there were times when he reflected on his times in Iraq as a member of the Army. Football, no matter how competitive and violent it gets, can’t be compared to military service. But he believes there are similarities, and said his military career has helped prepare for anything the coaches ask of him on the field.

“It’s like work, like when I was in the Army,” he said. “You’d show up every day at 6:00 a.m., knowing that you’re either going to go run four miles or do push-ups until your arms fall off. So it’s like being back on the football field — you show up with the best attitude you can have and go out and do your best.”

The 6-4, 269-pound Andrew, who will be a junior this season, is lighter than Parham and Huahulu, but also is fast and extraordinarily strong. How he’ll contribute is yet to be determined, but as he gets accustomed to his role on the inside of the Mustangs’ defensive line, he anticipates his biggest impact, at least initially, will be on special teams.

“I hope they run us in there a lot,” he said. “I really don’t know how it’s going to be, but they want to keep everyone fresh, so I hope I’ll get some playing time. I’m pretty sure I’ll be on most of the special teams. I know that’s probably where my main playing time is going to come this fall, but I look forward to having as much playing time as possible."