Florida International University

FIU Football Hits the Field With Heavy Hearts After Knox's Death

“Any time someone near to you passes away, it really makes you think, makes you introspective ... so I know all our young men are doing that,” MacIntyre said.

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They took a day off in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy, but on Friday, with heavy hearts, the Florida International University’s football team was back on the practice field. 

“They said it’s good to kind of get back into some exercise and a little bit of normalcy," said head coach Mike MacIntyre. "We’ve had our psychologists there to work with some of the kids that needed that."

On Wednesday night, the team lost linebacker Luke Knox. The 22-year-old was found unresponsive in his dorm room and died at the hospital. MacIntyre said after consulting with mental health professionals and coaches who have had similar incidents on their teams, he decided to hold a full practice Friday morning. 

Luke Knox, who played on the football team at Florida International University and was the brother of Buffalo Bills tight end Dawson Knox, has died at 22. NBC 6's Ari Odzer reports

“There’s no perfect formula, but you love the kids, you’re with ‘em, you’re listening to what they say, and like I told every one of them, and our coaches told ‘em multiple times, everybody grieves differently, so you don’t know when it’s gonna hit ya,” MacIntyre said. 

Losing Knox, who had transferred recently from the University of Mississippi, hits especially hard for MacIntyre. He’s known Luke’s dad since they were in high school together. 

“We miss Luke dearly, I coached him at Ole Miss. I’ve known him for a while, and then getting him here was really exciting, so we’re working through that, he’s a young man that I love and cherish,” MacIntyre said. "Kind of easy going, comfortable to be around, you know how when you’re around people that are comfortable to be around you can joke with ‘em, hang out, that’s the type of guy Luke was.”

MacIntyre was pleased with practice from the football aspect but mostly from the way he saw players supporting each other emotionally. 

“Any time someone near to you passes away, it really makes you think, makes you introspective, look inside your soul, look inside your mind, start evaluating your priorities, so I know all our young men are doing that,” MacIntyre said.

Like everyone else, MacIntyre said he’s waiting to find out what caused a healthy athlete to become unresponsive in his dorm room and then pass away at the hospital. Miami-Dade police are investigating the case and have not yet released a cause of death or the scenario around it.

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