The guys in the huddle roared their approval, and Bear got a look on his face that made David more than a bit nervous. He hoped to God that Bear never looked at him like that.
The offense ran up to the line of scrimmage and got set. David was in the shotgun and clapped his hands to signal the snap. The defense was used to the quarterback taking a moment to read his defensive keys. David had cheated because he knew that Coach Farrow would have his defense in their basic set, man-to-man coverage on his receivers.
Bear roared and exploded off the line. Percy was no slouch and surged forward in response. Percy was more than a match for any offensive tackle when he got his feet set. This time, he didn’t have the opportunity because Bear bulldozed him over and landed on top of Percy. That had to hurt.
David was glad that the play was going that way because he got to see it unfold in front of him. Usually, Percy would have been his first read at the defensive end. With Bear handling him, David looked for the following line of defense, Todd Davis, their outside linebacker.
The Alabama transfer now had a decision to make. Did he defend against Marcus or David? He did the smart thing, which was getting the ball out of David’s hands. Right before Todd reached him, David made the pitch, and Marcus showed why he was second-team Pac-12 last year as he picked up thirty yards.
The whole offense was bouncing around, excited that Bear had earned them steaks. Poor Percy looked shell-shocked, and David knew that he would shake it off and try to show up the freshman left tackle.
David huddled them up.
“Same play, but this time we’re going on the second clap. Hold your position, and don’t jump offsides.”
They were all smiles as they ran to the line. David clapped his hands, and Percy jumped offsides. David waited until he started to scramble back and clapped again. With his momentum going backward, Bear demolished him.
David knew this was a free play, and because of that, this wasn’t going to be a run. He went down the line and smiled when Todd went wide to cover Marcus this time. Coach Farrow didn’t want to give him a chance to pick up another significant gain. Instead, he’d called a run blitz from the inside linebacker to loop around and catch David as he cut upfield. It might have worked if David wasn’t already planning to pass.
Chuy had run a skinny post right where Todd’s pass responsibilities were. David threw him a ball as he looked back, and Chuy gathered it in and ran straight up the field. Twenty-eight yards later, he was brought down.
They keep a stat for gains of over twenty yards for a reason. If you are picking up large chunks of yardage, it indicates that you would win a game.
Coach Farrow lost his shit at that point and stopped the practice to explain how he expected his defense would not be humiliated again.
Bill had snuck over to the sideline and informed everyone what would happen if Bear pancaked Percy again. Even the coaches got excited, and Coach Farrow gave the offense the evil eye.
David huddled up his troops.
“When we get to the line, I’m going to read the defense because I suspect Coach Farrow plans something evil.”
The men in the huddle knew how Coach Farrow could make them look silly, so they chuckled.
“Same play,” David said as he broke the huddle.
When he got set, he recognized what Coach Farrow was up to. Todd was going to blitz from his outside linebacker spot.
“On me! On me!” David barked as he waited for a beat, and the offense all turned to see him give a hand signal.
He’d just changed the play to the ‘run’ option of that RPO play. This time, Chuy would block Todd instead of going downfield. Bill would act like he was doing his short flat route and run straight up the sideline. Marcus would act as the pitch man but flare out into the flat following Bill. If the safety thought the corner could handle Bill, he would come up to cover Marcus.
Percy did much better on the snap, but Bear was a man on a mission. He put his hands under Percy’s shoulder pads and lifted him off the ground, and Percy was pancaked for the third straight time by the rookie.
Chuy got a piece of Todd to slow him down. David waited for Bill to make his move, and then he acted like he was going to throw the ball to Marcus in the flat. Todd now was running toward David, so he stepped up and unleashed a long pass down the sidelines.
“Son of a …!” Coach Farrow screamed as his clipboard went flying.
Todd held up blasting David to earn him a steak tonight.
Bill did what David knew he was capable of from their high school days. He had another gear, got separation from the cornerback, caught the ball in stride, and finished the play by scoring.
“We can do this all day!” David chirped, which earned him a smack in the back of the head from Todd.
“We’re done,” Coach Farrow said as he pulled his defense off the field.
He motioned for Cassidy to come over.
“Kill them all,” he said and marched off the field.
David looked over at Coach Thomas.
“Surely we don’t have to do that?” he all but begged.
“I think you’ve earned a night off. Get home and start grilling steaks. I like mine medium,” he said with a big grin.
◊◊◊
David had Alex go with him to the grocery store, where he all but cleaned out their meat section and deli. He had to blink twice when he saw the bill, but he felt it was worth it. There would be fifty-plus football players, who could eat at least two steaks each, arriving at his house in less than an hour.
Alex enlisted the help of Crystal and Chloe to help set up because Cassidy was having fun with the defensive team right now. Chloe made the executive decision to invite the girls rowing team to help, which David fully endorsed.
He took enough meat up to the roof to load the grill. He seasoned it and then ran downstairs to get more food out of the car.
Crystal found him.
“You need chicken and salad supplies for the girls.”
He handed her his keys and debit card and gave her his pin.
“They had boxes of rotisserie chickens and double-fried pieces. Buy them all and bags of salad. Get a couple of gallons of dressing.”
One of the rowing girls went with her.
David made it upstairs in time to flip the first steaks. He saw the girls had everything in hand and relaxed as the first wave of football players showed up.
As he’d expected, the football players took full advantage of his hospitality and cleaned him out of food.
But it was worth it to see them come together. Bear became the center of attention as he regaled them with how he’d destroyed Percy. David didn’t want to dampen his spirits because Percy would show him why he was the best high school defensive player in the nation when he reached campus.
Bear also got the freshmen together to help clean up. Without their help, it would have taken David all night.
Cassidy was pouting when she came in during the middle of the goings-on.
“I didn’t kill any of them,” she complained.
“But?” David asked.
“I think they all threw up,” she said with a big grin.
David was about to leave to return to the dorm when he noticed Coach Stackhouse watching him.
“I thought everyone had left.”
“Not quite. I wanted to have a word,” she said and indicated that David should take a seat.
He grabbed a water bottle and sat down.
“Did you really tell Bear to pancake Percy?”
“I did.”
“I had no idea he had that in him,” she admitted.
“To be honest, I don’t think Bear did either, but I’ve seen glimpses of what he could potentially do over the summer. I made the challenge to try to get his inner nastiness to surface. If he plays like that in a game, John will never get another start at left tackle,” David predicted.
“What do you think practice will be like tomorrow?”
David got a big smile.
“Coach Farrow will get his boys ready. It will be a glorious battle.”