He could try to sell David on the idea that he could make this right after that fact, but once David signed away his rights, there were no guarantees. Coach Michaels couldn’t, in good conscience, do that to the young man. If he couldn’t get this worked out, he would advise David to not accept a scholarship.
“He’ll walk, and I predict the other two will as well,” Coach Michaels said. “Wolf Tams is one of the better tight-end prospects and one that I planned to use next year. Tim Foresee is a bit of a project, but he could start his junior and senior years for us. Those were three key recruits I was counting on to fill out this class.”
Coach Michaels had another thought.
“And you two need to remember something: none of these three has signed a National Letter of Intent. Without those in our hands, they can walk and enroll at another school without any consequence to them. They won’t have to sit out any time at all.”
From Dr. Wilken’s stunned expression, Coach Michaels could tell that the idiot had thought they were locked in. If they’d signed the National Letters of Intent and decided to transfer, they would have to sit out another year before playing ball at their new school. Glancing over at Chadwick, though, Coach Michaels could see he was trying mightily to hide a smirk.
“That’s not really a problem. All you have to do is have them sign their enrollment and scholarship papers before you tell them,” Chadwick said, showing that the man had no morals.
Coach Michaels had to fight hard to master the upwelling rage that now threatened to consume him.
“I doubt David will leave,” Dr. Wilken said doubtfully, but then he firmed up, obviously reciting a prepared litany. “We are the University of Oklahoma and just produced the latest Heisman winner. He picked us because he knows that we are his best shot at both winning a national championship and landing in the first round of the NFL draft.”
Coach Michaels shook his head in disgust. This idiot was making a colossal mistake. Heaven help them if they ever met David across the field of play.
“David can make one phone call, and every top program in the country will roll out the red carpet for him. We’ve never had a quarterback with his raw talent step on this campus, and I include Hayden in that statement. I have him penciled in as next year’s starter, and everyone knows that I hate playing freshman quarterbacks. He is the exception to that rule,” Coach Michaels tried one last time.
“Like I said. The decision has been made.”
“That’s fine and dandy,” Coach Michaels said and then turned his gaze unblinkingly on Stewart Chadwick. “However, if you think for one second I am going to be the front man for your little scheme to defraud these young men, you’re dead wrong. I will not be getting them to sign binding documents without telling them about what it means for David.”
He thought for a second and turned back to the interim AD.
“Like you said, we’re the University of Oklahoma, and we do things the right way. I’ll meet with them and try to salvage this, but I don’t hold out much hope.”
Coach Michaels made a mental note that as soon as Dr. Wilken was gone, he would make it his life’s mission to get Stewart Chadwick drummed out of the university.
He went back to his office, where he found his brother, Tom, who was his defensive coordinator, waiting for him.
“You will not believe what Wilken did this time,” he said without preamble.
“I have a healthy imagination. Why don’t you just tell me?”
“He just jerked the waiver David Dawson needed so he could promote his movies.”
“I thought we agreed to that already, and him coming was a done deal.”
“It was, but some jerk in the compliance department got into Dr. Wilken’s ear. The long and the short of it is we just lost our starting quarterback for next year,” Coach Michaels said.
“And we turned away the kid from Texas. Do you think he’ll still be open to us?” Tom asked.
“I don’t know. Tell Charlie to get in touch with him soonest. We need to come up with a way to not make this worse than it already is. David will never sign, but Wolf Tams and Tim Foresee are both with him, and they plan to sign today.”
“Have them come here first, and we can separate them from David when we tell him,” Tom suggested.
“It’s bad enough that we’re going back on our word to David, but you don’t know what else that weaselly little compliance prick tried to get me to do. He actually wanted me to wait until after they’d signed their enrollment documents before letting any of them know, including David.
“I have to be able to look at my face in a mirror, to begin with. We aren’t some desperate program that has to stoop to underhanded tactics. I won’t try to deceive any of them,” Coach Michaels said.
Tom looked embarrassed by his initial comment.
“You need to go to them. Making them come to the football offices sends the wrong message.”
What Bob loved about his brother was that while Tom might want to go a bit too far, his moral compass was just fine when he had a moment to think about it.
“They’re flying in on a corporate jet over at the university’s field. I’ll have the tower contact them and let the guys know to be looking for me. Doing this there lets them know I’m taking this seriously.”
“Do you want me there?” Tom asked.
“No. I don’t want them to feel like we’re ganging up on them.”
“I’ll give Charlie a call. I think he’s in Dallas, seeing that receiver we want. After he’s done with that, I’ll send him to Houston,” Tom assured his brother.
“Tell him to do whatever it takes. We may have to start Jordan Murphy, but we need the Texas kid after that. We’ll have to save a scholarship for a transfer to back up Jordan,” Coach Michaels planned.
He could see the domino effect that losing David was going to cause. If David had come, he would have had spring ball, all summer, and then preseason practice to get ready. The kid from Houston wouldn’t get here until summer school started. They would lose five months of his learning the offense.
Jordan would be a junior. The party line would be an open competition at quarterback, but Coach Michaels knew that Jordan wouldn’t win the job unless David fell flat on his face. He would then turn into the security blanket in case the pressure or an injury got to David.
While a top prospect, the kid from Houston couldn’t be expected to walk in and be the backup at Oklahoma. He might be ready by the last third of the season, but they couldn’t trust him early on.
Coach Michaels mentally prepared to put on his kneepads so he could apologize to David and hopefully keep the other two.
The University of Oklahoma Westheimer Airport was designated a regional business airport serving general aviation aircraft, including business jets. Coach Michaels had arrived early enough to watch the plane carrying the guys land.
He put on his game face as they made it to the building. The first thing Coach Michaels noticed was that David looked exhausted. He had dark circles under his eyes as he stretched at the entrance. Wolf and Tim were joking with him, and he saw a tired smile touch David’s lips in response to whatever had been said.
“Coach Michaels, you didn’t have to come to pick us up,” David said as he led the group to say hello.
It wasn’t lost on him that David had been the one who’d initiated the conversation.
“I need to talk to all of you before we get to campus. They have a small conference room this way,” Coach Michaels said as he led them. “How was your trip?”
“Much better than the flight out. When you’re with David, you get the perks,” Tim said.
“I’m so ready to get started. Working for the last several months just highlighted how good college kids have it,” Wolf added.