“Hike! Hike!” David barked.
From their drills and practice, the defense had figured out that Bill was David’s go-to target, so Coach Farrow had his defensive backs keeping a close eye on him. Bill was David’s favorite because he was almost impossible to stop if the football got close to him. Bill had an uncanny ability to snatch balls out of the air. He might not be the fastest receiver USC had, but when it came to crunch time, he was the one David counted on.
Coach Farrow had brought in extra defensive backs. That gave him the luxury of putting two defenders on Bill. Bill ran hard off the ball, causing the defense to back up to maintain a cushion. If they’d been right on him, David would have been more comfortable. With them back, they had the play in front of them, and they could see the ball when it was released. Bill made a hard jab step and cut over the middle to shorten the throw for David. He had the ball on a rope to Bill as soon as Bill made his cut. The play picked up five yards.
The following two plays were well defended, and David did the right thing by throwing the ball away.
It was now fourth down, and David lined them up. He had Nolan switch to Bill’s side of the field to balance out the formation. David made the call.
“Down!” he barked.
Amari stepped back from the line of scrimmage while Tyrell stepped forward to take his place. Amari then began moving towards David.
“Hike!”
Amari sprinted now.
“Hike!”
On the snap, Amari was almost to David. He held the ball out as Amari ran in front of him. The offensive line blocked, thinking that Amari was running the ball. David saw that the defensive backs were in man coverage, and Amari’s guy had kept up with him as he crossed the field.
That meant that there was one less defender on the side of the field Amari had just come from. The alternate to Amari doing a jet sweep was a two-man option in the other direction. To this point, David hadn’t run the ball.
His first read was the defensive end. He saw that the defender had sold out and left his position to try to catch Amari. The next read was the outside linebacker, who zeroed in on David to prevent him from running to pick up the yardage for the first down.
The defense was used to Matt playing quarterback. Running was not Matt’s skill, so the linebacker expected that as soon as he showed David pressure, he would toss the ball to Marcus, which was what Matt would do. When the backer got close, he veered off to try to intercept the pitch.
David showed him the ball and then tucked it as he ran right by the linebacker and exploded upfield. The safety closed and decided to take David head-on. There was a tremendous crack of pads because the safety was six-two and weighed 200 pounds. David’s 35-pound advantage allowed him to bull the would-be tackler over and just shrug off the hit, unlike any quarterback the Trojan defense had ever faced.
David could have walked in from there. He tossed the ball to the back judge and jogged back. He was met by his offense, swarming him as they celebrated the score.
David looked over at the sideline and saw Matt stalking off. That put a bit of a grin on his face. This might be Matt’s worst nightmare. David suspected that Matt would start in the fall, but if they had a situation where they needed a quarterback to run, he might get some playing time.
He had no illusions that he was ready to take over. Give him the summer, though...
Chapter 45
David
It was Thursday, and Senator Hatley’s fundraiser was scheduled for that evening. When David had stopped in at the coffee shop in the morning, Kat had been equal parts excited about seeing the senator and dreading running into both her family and her ex, Daniel.
For David, the week had flown by. He’d finished all his midterms and felt good about how he’d done. As for baseball, they’d dropped another game. This time, they’d lost to Pepperdine, which made five straight losses. Coach Deneau was glad that they were going on spring break so that everyone could relax, have some fun, and get their heads back into the right frame of mind.
Football had been a mixed bag. Coach Clayton had made it clear to the team that David was only standing in for Matt until he returned after spring break. That meant that David would be going back on defense then.
That didn’t dampen David’s spirits because he gave it his all and shined at times to show what he was capable of.
David had been coached in high school by a retired Marine Corps major who never minced words. And on one of his movies, he’d had a director who absolutely hated him. Were it not for those experiences, some of Coach Clayton’s remarks might have shaken him. He’d learned to look through the bluster and focus on what Coach Clayton was trying to convey.
Sometimes, it was just him being a dick. Other times, they were legitimate criticisms. Thinking back on it, Coach Clayton was a lot like the director who’d hated him, though with the asshole dial turned down a bit.
David made it a point to never let Coach Clayton see that he sometimes got to him. He didn’t want to give him the satisfaction. He’d watched the other players to see how they handled it. The younger guys wilted when the head coach confronted them. As for the older quarterbacks, Jaden, the junior, would get mad, while Travis, the senior, didn’t care.
At first, David thought that Travis was putting up a brave front. Then they talked, and it became apparent that Travis genuinely didn’t care what Coach Clayton had to say anymore. What Travis shared made sense. His self-worth as a football player wasn’t dependent on what Coach Clayton thought. Yes, their coach controlled Travis’ playing time, but his comments didn’t mean that Travis wasn’t a worthwhile person. David immediately recognized that for what it was: a life lesson he should take to heart.
Then Travis confided in David that he planned to transfer because he wanted a chance to start, and it was apparent to everyone that he wouldn’t get that chance at USC. That was particularly evident since David had stepped up and taken the majority of the practice time since Matt was injured.
David immediately thought of his former personal coach, Bo Harrington, who’d gone on to be the quarterback coach at Alabama and was now the head coach at Western Michigan. They’d gone 11–3 last year and had a good core of players coming back. Their starting quarterback had graduated, and they would have to rely on a redshirt freshman to lead them this coming year.
David knew that Travis could play. If anyone could get Travis to the NFL, it was Coach Harrington. He was thought of as a quarterback fixer and had made his living doing just that until he took the coaching job at Alabama. He’d helped David become the best high school quarterback in the nation. David surmised that Travis might be a good fit to tide Western Michigan over until the younger guy was fully ready to lead their team.
David offered to put Travis in touch with Coach Harrington once he placed his name in the transfer portal. To do so before that could be seen as tampering, which was frowned upon.
After class, David was almost back to his dorm when he spotted Cassidy standing out front with the Delta he’d fought when he saved Matt. The guy was still sporting two black eyes and had a splint taped to his face from David shoving him into the side of the house and breaking his nose. When the Delta saw David, he stiffened and glanced over at Cassidy, who gave him a narrow look before turning to David.
“David, this is Silas Kemp,” she said.
“Mr. Dawson, I want to let you know that there are no hard feelings over what happened at the Phi Sig house,” Silas said, holding out his hand.
David took it, and they shook.
“Can I go now?” Silas asked Cassidy.
She nodded and then smiled at David.
“What was that all about?” David asked.