It would cause the show’s fans to erupt, similar to when Game of Thrones killed off one of their leads early on.
People lost their minds, and the reactions were all over social media. Of course, that was why Game of Thrones was so popular. You never knew what would happen next.
Before David could leave, they had one last shot of him in a coffin as the lid was closed. It would be used when they filmed his funeral. With that, he was done with the soap.
◊◊◊
Coach Mason had sent over the plays he wanted them to practice for the Notre Dame game. Two of them harkened back to David’s high school days: the onside kick and the multiple-option play. He was surprised they hadn’t included going for it on fourth down.
Coach Hope had gotten the idea from his staff when they found a high school coach in Arkansas who had an unorthodox approach of never punting. In twelve years of coaching, he’d taken his team to the state championship game six times, winning it five times. He had a career record of 152-24-1 using this system. This mattered because they usually weren’t the most talented team on the field.
This approach might not be the norm, but Coach Hope had his assistants research it, and the numbers backed this philosophy. They’d sprung this approach on a national powerhouse, Broadview Academy. It was a nationally televised high school game on ESPN, and Lincoln High had been an underdog. With this approach, the Bulldogs won easily.
The multiple options referred to more than two people touching the ball. An example might be the quarterback pitching the ball to the tailback and following the play upfield. Before the tailback was tackled, he would toss the ball back to the quarterback, the team’s best ball handler.
This caused two enormous problems for the defense.
They designed their scheme to stop one player. It was why the flea flicker was such a potent trick play. That was where they handed off to the running back, causing the defense to rush forward to stop the run. Then the running back stopped and tossed the ball back to the quarterback, who would throw deep to a wide-open receiver.
At Lincoln High, they took it a step further and would have David trail the play and be the man the running back tossed the ball to. You now had your second problem: a quarterback, who was the team’s most sure ball handler and possibly their best runner, was now loose in the defensive secondary. David could keep the ball, toss it to another running back, or throw a backward pass to a receiver across the field.
At Lincoln High, they’d found that the more times the ball changed hands, the more likely they’d score.
The guys took to the new approaches with gusto. This reminded everyone of sandlot football when they were kids; it was all about having fun. But David warned them that they would have to practice this for it to work. He had to talk to Coach Stackhouse to get the kicking team to work on onside kicks. He also warned that they couldn’t unveil any of this until they played Notre Dame, or they would have time to prepare the counter to this approach.
◊◊◊
Wren and Emily were at the sorority for pledge study time, which gave them a chance to catch up.
“How goes your quest to steal Crystal’s boyfriend?”
Emily asked.
Wren glanced around to ensure no one was paying attention to their conversation.
“I spent the night, and he took me to breakfast the next morning,” Wren said with a frown.
“What’s wrong?”
“I tried to get him to spend more time with me before class, but he refused. I also know he’s throwing a party Saturday night, and he hasn’t asked me to go,” Wren said.
Emily’s face brightened. “I got my invitation this morning.”
Wren looked at her expectantly.
“But it said we couldn’t invite anyone outside the dorm,”
Emily said as she gave her friend a fake ‘sorry’ face.
Wren saw right through that look. Since she lived in Sandoval Hall, Emily figured she would have her shot at David that night, and no one else in her sorority lived there.
“Maybe I’ll come over later, and we take David to the roof to relax,” Wren schemed.
They hadn’t seen Taylor when she came to check on the pledges, so they were startled when she interjected herself into the conversation.
“Crystal’s over at his place, studying,” Taylor said, giving them disapproving looks. Everyone knew she was on Team Crystal. “Plus, David has already invited Crystal and me to Saturday night’s party.”
“We have that pledge thing at Sig Eps,” Emily said.
“And I’ll make sure all the pledges show up to their party,” Taylor said to dash their plans to hook up with David.
Wren glanced over at Emily, and she could see her frenemy figuring a way to go to Sig Eps and end up at David’s party. Wren would make sure she kept a close eye on Emily so she could go to David’s party, too.
◊◊◊
David and Coach Stackhouse were the only two from USC on today’s call. David had sent the VR feed of today’s Notre Dame practice prep for Coach Mason and Coach Hope to review, and they had notes.
Coach Mason didn’t have much to say because he’d been focused on the technology and got buried in the fact that he could watch the play from multiple angles, stop the action, and either zoom in or rotate around a particular player.
David predicted he would be playing with it all night.
Coach Hope had run the two plays before, so he had better feedback. Coach Stackhouse took copious notes that she would distribute to the rest of the coaching staff.
When they were done, David found Rachel working on a stack of papers.
“What happened? I don’t think I’ve ever seen you do actual work,” David said.
“Bite me, pain in my ass,” Rachel snapped and added,
“How was dick girl?”
David took a moment to figure out if she was referring to a transgender woman or not. Then he remembered Wren’s message.
“She liked it,” David said with a straight face.
“I bet she did … I mean, bite me,” Rachel said as her whole face flushed.
“Whenever you start to repeat your insults, it means you lost this round. How about we dial it back, and I take you to dinner?”
Rachel stared at him for a moment.
“Why would you want to go out with me? You already said my hair looks awful …”
“The perm has calmed down, so you don’t look like a poodle anymore,” David interrupted.
“My point is that I’m just a girl and nothing special.”
“I know for a fact you can attract men, so you’re not totally unfortunate in the looks department. There was the guy you took to the away game who seemed nice. You probably should have slept with him instead of me,” David said and raised his palm to stop her objections over how it had all gone down. “And then the warlock was willing to go out with you until his sac blood convinced his ex to come back.”
“You just want to get into my pants.”
“And glasses and the warlock didn’t want to?”
Rachel gave him a defiant look. “Okay, but I can’t tonight because I have to finish this. How about next week?”
“I’ll pick you up Tuesday when we get out of here,”
David said.
“Fine. Now leave me alone so I can finish my work.”
David could see her hide a tiny grin, so he nodded and left her to it.
◊◊◊
Crystal was on the phone with Taylor when David walked in. She locked eyes with him, and his eyes went wide. She must have heard something that surprised and upset her.