Arcata >> Standing outside the door from their locker room to the Redwood Bowl field as the clock headed toward 2:30 p.m., Humboldt State football players were unsure of what they were about to hear regarding the future of their program.

Come 2:35 p.m., the tone at one of Division II’s best football venue’s had swiftly swung toward jubilation.

After months of uncertainty, Humboldt State football is sticking around after President Lisa Rossbacher announced to a crowd of several hundred at the Redwood Bowl on Tuesday afternoon that the program will see a 91st season come 2018.

Those same players who had no idea what to expect all of a half-hour earlier experienced emotions from shock to jubilation to just about everything in between.

“It means a lot because I’ve had countless people in my life that have meant so much to me been brought to this community through football,” said HSU linebacker Connor Cox, an Arcata High School grad who grew up around the Jacks program. “I think it’s just huge for the community now because we get to keep bringing those people and so much more to our community. Now, everybody else can experience the same thing. It’s just huge.”

The uncertainty about the football program’s future has been there for months, and was only taken up a few levels right before the 2017 season opener against Azusa Pacific on Sept. 9.

Ever since HSU’s season-ending loss to Great Northwest Athletic Conference champion Central Washington on Nov. 11, it simply became a waiting game.

Rossbacher announced at an Associated Students meeting that a decision would come on Dec. 1, but a death in the family pushed the decision back once more.

The Jacks got their long-awaited answer on Tuesday.

And it was one that even the most optimistic of players might not have expected.

“The last few weeks have been hectic,” HSU offensive lineman James Bain said. “Not only with finals, but the whole situation with Lumberjack football. This meeting came up with President Rossbacher and we really did not feel too good about it going into it. But the tide has changed and the Jacks are back, baby.”

Coaches weren’t recruiting due to the fact they didn’t want potential players to commit to a program that might not be around come the 2018 season.

And players were left to ponder their futures as well.

It was a simple question with a not-so-simple answer: Do they wait everything out and see what the decision is or do they try and find another school to play at and enroll as quickly as possible?

“I’ve played football basically my entire life and I definitely wanted to play my last year somewhere. If it wasn’t here, then probably somewhere else that wanted to take me. That played a huge role in my decision,” said HSU defensive lineman Daniel Lavulo, a transfer from College of San Mateo who joined the team this season. “I thought it was done for sure. I talked with [defensive coordinator Barry Sacks] yesterday and he was saying the same thing. We were talking about a plan to go to another school. Then the announcement was made and I think it caught everybody off-guard.”

Like Lavulo, a lot of players sought permission from Humboldt State to be recruited by other schools as the possibility of the football program being cut became more and more of a possibility.

However, with Tuesday’s news, those who have gotten a release from Humboldt State to be recruited by other schools now have to decide if they want to continue with the plan or stay in Arcata.

Or, as head coach Rob Smith put it, the Jacks are going to have to start recruiting by re-recruiting some of their own players.

“It’s switched up a lot of things on my decision,” Lavulo said. “It’s been a hard process, definitely, because I’ve never been put in this situation before. I’ve talked to some of my old coaches about it and started reaching out to schools. Now that there’s been an announcement that they’re going to keep football, it changes the whole thing.”

Cox, who just finished his junior season of eligibility, chose to wait until a decision from Rossbacher before plotting his next move.

“It is stressful with school going on and then all of this going as well. It is a lot to process,” Cox said. “I feel like I can now focus, at least, so I know a lot of the guys are feeling the same way. … I’m pretty ecstatic. It’s pretty unexpected right now because of what we’ve been hearing around campus and during the football season. I almost feel caught off-guard, but it’s a good feeling, it’s a good feeling.”

But after playing a season with so much uncertainty hanging over their team’s head, the Jacks can do what they’ve wanted to do all along.

And that’s focus on football.

“With the whole situation, we don’t know what recruitment is going to be like for us,” Bain said. “We lost a lot of key guys [who were seniors on the 2017 team], so the guys who are seniors now have to really stick together if we really want to make this thing happen. Otherwise, it could go south really quick for us.”

Danny Penza can be reached at 707-441-0528