This story originally appeared in the Dec. 7, 2015, issue of Sports Illustrated. Certain statistics and sections have been updated to reflect the most recent developments. Subscribe to the magazine here.
By some estimates as many as 500 of the 55,212 people who watched Navy play Memphis at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium on Nov. 7 had a personal connection to Keenan Reynolds, the Midshipmen's senior quarterback. His parents, Donnie and Jackie, were there, of course, as was his 10-year-old brother, Quentin. The family had made the three-hour drive from their hometown of Antioch, Tenn.