Coach
Farrow
Head Coach Clayton had called everyone off the recruiting trail for a quick meeting. Summer school was starting next week, and they had thirteen new additions to USC football arriving on campus. Fourteen, if you counted David Dawson.
This year’s class was small because Coach Clayton had signed a big class his first year, causing class sizes to be out of balance. A typical recruiting class would have been twenty to twenty-five new players. Nevertheless, though this class was small, the recruiting services had ranked them in the top ten nationally once again. With so few scholarships to offer, they’d had to be picky about who they brought in.
With a class size that was close to average, they would have offered a handful of players who weren’t four- or five-star rated. Every program needed three-star athletes to balance out their roster. Those were the ones who didn’t receive all the press but who typically worked their asses off to make the team and who eventually earned playing time.
What had Coach Farrow confused was why they were called back to campus. This was an open recruiting period for next year’s class. All the coaches should be on the road meeting potential players. He’d been scheduled to be back on campus on Saturday.
Coach Farrow had a few minutes before the meeting, so he went to the office of USC’s recruiting coordinator, Bryant Franzese, to update him on what he’d been up to.
“Coach?”
“Hey, Bryant. How’s everything going?”
“Not so good. I just got word that the quarterback from Clemson decided to transfer to Michigan. So with Travis Barry going to Western Michigan, we’re left with Jaden Ponder as our backup QB,” Bryant shared.
“I bet Matt’s relieved,” Coach Farrow said and immediately wished he hadn’t.
His opinion was that the Clemson kid was much better than Matt Long, their current starter. Matt would have likely been their backup for another year if Coach Clayton had held an open competition during fall practice.
“The Clemson guy was told that he would back up Matt,” Bryant shared.
That would explain why he decided to go to Michigan. They were in desperate need of a quality quarterback.
But as Bryant said, that left a junior, Jaden Ponder, as QB2.
During spring ball, Jaden’s throwing mechanics had steadily gotten worse. Coach Farrow believed it was because Coach Clayton, deliberately or not, had gotten into the kid’s head and messed him up. By the end, Jaden had been overthrowing every receiver. When the ball sailed, defensive backs quickly figured out to play behind the receivers and intercept the wayward passes. When that happened, Coach Clayton would lose his mind, making things worse.
The vicious cycle had gotten so bad that Coach Farrow was shocked when Jaden hadn’t transferred out. The only reason he didn’t was that the kid could read a depth chart. With Travis leaving, two lightly recruited redshirt freshmen were his only competition to back up Matt Long.
Bryant looked at the clock.
“We have to go.”
◊◊◊
Coach Farrow was almost to the coaches’ conference room when he came up short. Waiting by the door was someone who looked sort of like his daughter.
“What did you do to your hair?”
“I got a perm. Do you like it?” Rachel asked.
The earnest look on her face made him swallow the laugh that begged to come out.
“It’s just different. I’m used to your straight hair,” was the best Rachel’s dad could come up with.
He could tell his daughter wasn’t amused. She shoved a stack of sticky notes into his hand.
“Here are your messages,” she said and stomped off.
He planned to talk to her after the meeting and apologize.
He took his usual seat next to Coach Clayton’s spot at the head of the table. Across from him was his counterpart, Offensive Coordinator Wyatt Thomas. On his side of the table were his defensive position coaches.
Coach Clayton walked in and took his seat. Two of his staff handed out stacks of paper.
“Gentlemen, we have a major problem. With Travis transferring to Western Michigan, our only viable backup for Matt Long is Jaden Ponder. Matt was already injured this spring; we’d be crazy not to have a backup plan.
“I don’t see Jaden as that backup,” Coach Clayton continued. “I’ve been working with Jaden, and he’s just not going to get there.”
“Coach, I think you were too hard on Jaden,” Coach Thomas stated. “Jaden isn’t Ridge Townsend. Nor is he Matt Long. You’re not going to be able to mold him into something he’s not, no matter how much you may want to. Trying to do that is just frustrating both of you and seems to be making Jaden worse.”
“That’s why I called this meeting and insisted you all attend. While everyone gets settled, you are getting a list of every available quarterback in the transfer portal.”
“I thought we were getting the kid from Clemson,” Coach Thomas said, looking upset.
Coach Farrow ducked his head. Coach Clayton would have to clean up his own mess.
“That fell through. He’s going to Michigan,” Coach Clayton said.
“But I talked to him yesterday, and he was making arrangements to sign his financial aid paperwork this morning. It was a done deal,” Coach Thomas pressed.
“I don’t think it was as done as you thought,” Coach Clayton shot back irritably.
“Did Michigan offer him something?” Coach Thomas asked.
“They guaranteed him a chance to start. I had to explain that it would be an uphill battle to unseat Matt Long,” Coach Clayton said.
“But if he is better …” Coach Thomas began.
Coach Clayton slammed his hand on the table. Every coach in the room froze in their seat.
“Matt Long is my starting quarterback, and that’s final. Do you have a problem with that?”
Coach Thomas tentatively shook his head ‘no.’
“Then let’s get busy. First, we need to go over this list again and see if there’s anyone better than Jaden Ponder who is interested in USC.”
It took three hours of discussion for Coach Clayton to finally admit that anyone better than Jaden would also want assurances of a shot at playing time.
“What about Dawson?” Coach Thomas asked. “He’s already starting the first game. I say we move him to offense and let him play his natural position.”
The room went quiet as all eyes turned to see how bad the blowup was about to be.
“That might work,” Coach Clayton said, shocking everyone. “I’ve got him so confused that he wouldn’t dare challenge Matt for the starting job. Do you think he would accept being a backup?”
“I have him penciled in as starting at outside linebacker,” Coach Farrow said.
Coach Farrow had thrown that out because privately, he was still pissed off at how much David Dawson had been jerked around during the spring. Coach Farrow felt responsible for talking him into coming to USC. He also knew that David wasn’t cowed by Coach Clayton, despite Clayton’s remarks about confusing the boy. David wouldn’t be the obedient lapdog his head coach was looking for.
Coach Farrow didn’t have to think too hard to see how this would play out. If he became the backup quarterback, David would start the first game against a weak UNLV team due to Matt’s one-game suspension. USC would handle them easily, and David would look good playing that position. USC’s next game was against a respectable Stanford team in a nationally televised contest. If Matt struggled, they would have a full-blown quarterback controversy.
God forbid they lost the following week at Texas, which was very likely. But, of course, that was also going to be nationally televised. That would make them a below-.500 team, and that would have everyone clamoring for the guy who led them to their lone victory.
If he thought that might have changed the outcome, Coach Farrow would have helped Coach Thomas salvage the Clemson kid situation. But unfortunately, in all likelihood, they would be one and two, regardless of who the starting quarterback was.