TD Ierlan sat on his couch the night of Sept. 17, surrounded by a group of his Yale teammates, watching a Thursday Night Football matchup between the Cleveland Browns and Cincinnati Bengals. It was a nightly routine for the Bulldogs’ historic faceoff man — sitting around with any of his eight Yale teammates staying in the house during the fall semester.

Shortly after 9:45 p.m., as the boys watched Kareem Hunt catch a 6-yard touchdown pass from Baker Mayfield on NFL Network, Thomas Bragg turned to Ierlan.

“TD, you got drafted,” he said excitedly.

“What are you talking about?” Ierlan answered.

The Toronto Rock, who Ierlan had watched as a visiting team numerous times growing up as a Rochester Knighthawks fan, had chosen him with the 30^th overall pick in the NLL Entry Draft. He had not spoken with the team, but things were starting to get real.

“Oh, you’re going up North?” former teammate Matt Gaudet texted him.

He sat in disbelief for the rest of the night, watching in the common area of the off-campus house he and 10 others share in New Haven while they sit out the fall semester to retain eligibility for the spring season. It wasn’t until the next morning that it sunk in — Ierlan was a member of the Toronto Rock.

He got a text from fellow American and new Rock teammate Tom Schreiber saying he was excited to play with Ierlan.

“I gave it a little fist bump in the car,” the Yale star joked.

The night and morning after the NLL Draft were unprecedented experiences in a year full of unprecedented experiences. Ierlan wasn’t supposed to be sitting with his Yale teammates that night — had it not been for the COVID-19 pandemic, Ierlan would have been a professional lacrosse player with a summer season under his belt in the professional league of his choosing.

The spring of 2020 was supposed to be Ierlan’s swan song, his final season of college lacrosse after setting every faceoff record imaginable. He hoped to win an NCAA championship and ride off into an even brighter future.

None of that happened. Instead, Ierlan and many of his Yale teammates spent the spring and summer months figuring out their immediate futures. The Ivy League would not grant players an extra year of eligibility, meaning Yale seniors temporarily believed their careers were over.

Working with the admissions office and the NCAA, Ierlan found he was granted five semesters of Ivy League lacrosse after his transfer from Albany. Thus, he could elect to withdraw from the Spring 2020 semester and not enroll in the fall semester to retain eligibility for his final semester next spring.

Ierlan is the only player remaining from the 2020 senior class, some of whom transferred and some of whom moved on from college lacrosse. As for the rest of the Bulldogs’ program? Many followed his lead by withdrawing and taking the current semester off to preserve the year of eligibility.

“Our team didn’t get a chance to write their own ending, so we’re going to do it for them,” Ierlan said. “That’s what has brought me back. It’s an unreal chance to play for a great program again, and I’m doing it for the rest of those guys that didn’t get a chance. I’m definitely happy with my decision.”

Ierlan’s decision meant that he, along with most of the Bulldogs’ roster, needed to find a way to pass the time and stay in shape during a fall semester when they couldn’t take part in workouts and team activities. He and seven other teammates — Chris Fake, Luke Eschbach, Brian Tevlin, Jack Starr, Jack Ocken, Bryce Demuth and Bragg — live together in a house almost entirely full of players taking the semester off.

“I don’t know if it’s big, but it’s a house,” Ierlan said of the living arrangements.

With the group in need of something to replace classes, Andy Shay and Yale alumni stepped in to help the Yale contingent.

Jason Reese gave Ierlan, Tevlin and Bragg an internship with his investment banking company, Imperial Capital. Eschbach works a few days a week at Morgan Stanley. Some are working at a campus lab. Fake is interning at D.E. Shaw Renewable Investments.

“We don’t really know what he does, but it seems he has a lot of free time,” Ierlan joked.

Monday through Friday, the Yale teammates sit in the common room — decked with three long couches and a big-screen TV — plug in their headphones and get to work. Some days, they’ll turn on Spotify music for background noise.

“If Chris Fake is on the Spotify, we’re definitely listening to some hard, EDM music,” Eschbach said. “If Tevlin gets on Spotify, he’ll change it up with some country or some classics.”

After work wraps up around 5 p.m., the group has a few choices. They either head to New Haven High School to train on the turf fields or head downtown to train at Powerhouse Gym.

“It’s a real meathead gym,” Fake joked. “It has everything you could possibly need.”

When they get back to the house after working out, it’s time to watch some film. Ierlan and his teammates will find YouTube highlights online, like “College Lacrosse Best Moments (2009-2017)” or old-school Syracuse vs. Cornell games. The group will even watch highlights from incoming Yale freshmen.

When they’re not watching sports, they’re playing sports video games. The most popular game in the house at the moment is 2K’s PGA Tour, but not everyone in the house is on board.

“I don’t get the attraction to it, but guys get very competitive over that,” Fake said. “It’s very slow. I don’t understand it, but that’s OK.”

On nights like Sept. 17, the Eli Eight lounge on the couches and watch sports. These days, the NBA Finals are the talk of the house. Ierlan is a Vikings fan and Fake, Eschbach and Ocken root for the Jets, so the football season hasn’t been the easiest.

But they’re together, just like they’d be if they were competing in fall ball. The circumstances are much different in 2020, but the Yale teammates are growing stronger no matter the circumstances.

“The whole COVID situation has been terrible,” Fake said. “But the guys in the house are realizing that it’s been a blessing in disguise because of how much time we get to spend together and how much closer we’ve become. That wouldn’t be possible without getting to do work in the common room and hanging out at night. We don’t hate each other, yet, which is good.”