The room chuckled, which told David they’d been watching.
“But then it hit number one in its time slot. I talked to some of the football team, and they were all watching it, too. So, I took Tracy’s suggestion and contacted Abigail Barnes to see if we could get a showing after dinner before it’s on live TV, and she agreed.
“I called Brent to make sure we wouldn’t be breaking any rules. He gave us the okay, so long as the Pac-12
network could cover it. He also suggested that we invite UCLA to the preview. They asked for their own, not wanting to cause any friction before the game,” Drew said.
Brent stood up.
“I decided that if we were doing a separate showing for UCLA, why not the rest of the league? So, in a little over an hour, every team in the Pac-12 will be watching the sweeps-week finale for The Young and The Wild.
“The studio agreed IF we would capture the reactions and get feedback. The Pac-12 Network will be filming at each location tonight,” Brent said.
David relaxed because this could be fun.
◊◊◊
The hotel had set up theater seating in one of their ballrooms. He agreed to give Tracy an interview that would be played tomorrow as a filler piece, so he missed the first third of the show. When they were done, he slipped into the back and found Abigail fidgeting as she paced along the back wall.
David gave her a one-armed hug.
“You worried about the last bit?”
“We’ve been getting crazy feedback about your character this week, and the studio is worried that we shouldn’t have … you know,” she whispered.
“You got it right, or the cast would’ve told you. Besides, I don’t have time to help you out.”
“Maybe you had a twin,” Abigail said to float a tried-and-true soap-opera way of bringing someone back.
His teammates erupted in laughter and started to call out catcalls because David was once again half-naked on screen.
“Come on. Let’s grab a couple of seats and just enjoy ourselves,” David suggested.
Suddenly a bright light was on him as the Pac-12
cameraperson was in his face. His teammates saw him, and several jumped up to give him fist bumps. He’d come a long way in winning over the team since his arrival. He and Abigail found a couple of seats next to his grandmother.
“Your mom is going to kill you,” Grandma Dawson said.
“She never quite got over your naked phase when you were little. I see it wasn’t a phase.”
He could tell she wasn’t bothered by it because Ron was shaking his head and gave David an eye roll.
It didn’t take long to get to the climactic finish. David hadn’t seen the final cut, so he watched the scene. Abigail couldn’t take it and bolted from her seat so she could stand and watch everyone in the audience.
Zak’s character burst in with a gun pointing at Mick.
The audience gasped in surprise.
BLAM!
Mick jerked back, and blood sprayed everywhere. The stunt team had told him that they wanted it obvious he’d been shot and had strapped a couple of gallons of stage blood to his body. He’d channeled the time he was genuinely shot, and his reaction looked realistic as his chair tilted over and Mick sprawled on the floor.
Seeing the cast’s reactions almost made David feel bad.
At the time, they honestly thought he’d been shot. His teammates sat in stunned silence because there was a LOT
of blood spreading across the floor.
Then they erupted as the credits rolled. David saw that the Pac-12 camera people were prepared and filming the audience. Each guy had a different reaction. Some sat in stunned silence as their brains caught up with what they just saw, while others were at the other extreme of giddy jubilation.
David looked over at Abigail and saw her smiling. The scene had worked.
◊◊◊
After everyone had settled down, Coach Merritt announced that it was the coaches’ turn to pick the food for the team’s late-night snack. They’d arranged for a soft-serve sundae bar.
David made it a point to go around and talk to everyone before he grabbed his own sundae. The offensive line was having a debate as to whether he was a real actor or not.
“I thought his best work was lying face down in a pool of blood,” Willy quipped. “He looked dead to me.”
David flipped him off, which made their day.
Tracy found him as he was preparing to go upstairs.
“Pam tells me that you gave her a back rub.”
David raised his eyebrows because Pam had said nothing of the sort. He knew it was Tracy’s way of saying she wanted alone time with him.
He spotted Coach Stackhouse.
“Hey, Coach. Miss Dole has more interview questions for me. Is it okay if we go up to my suite?”
“Miss Dole doesn’t plan on keeping you up all night, does she?” Amy asked.
David looked at Tracy, who blushed.
“If it gets too late, I’ll kick her out,” David promised.
“Okay. I’ll cover for you,” Amy said.
Working with her for the last few weeks to gear up for Notre Dame had changed their relationship. They had
become friends … real friends.
◊◊◊
Before the game, they announced that the attendance was just over 57,000, the lowest-attended crosstown game since 1950. David took that as proof that the UCLA fanbase had given up on them for the year.
The Rose Bowl was one of four stadiums in the country that was designated a National Historic Landmark. The other three were Harvard Stadium, the Yale Bowl, and the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. In David’s opinion, this one was in desperate need of renovation.
They’d actually started doing some work, but they’d spread the project over a nearly fifteen-year timeline.
Obvious examples of the deterioration included one section where the concrete was stained orange from rust. Another, the red paint on rows of seats was fading.
What they should be credited for was that instead of tearing down the stadium, like they had the Orange Bowl in Miami, they’d made the commitment to save the Rose Bowl.
Coming out of the locker room, USC was all business.
They were favored to win easily, and if they took care of business, they were bowl bound.
They lost the toss, and UCLA deferred, taking the ball in the second half. David was happy to see that Coach Merritt agreed with his approach to a certain extent. He ran the ball but left John Johnson in as the starting left tackle.
The Trojans put together a nine-play drive but were stopped when John held on a third-and-two just inside the red zone. Matt threw an incomplete pass, which meant that Alex had to come in and kick a forty-seven-yard field goal to put them up 3–0.
UCLA wasn’t fazed as they put together two drives that resulted in touchdowns to take a 14–3 lead.
The problem was that UCLA’s primary running back was killing them. Unless USC’s defense figured out how to stop him, they were in for a long day.
David was proud of Matt because he gathered the offense on the sideline and got them fired up. They responded by scoring the next two touchdowns to take a 17–14 lead. From there, the teams traded touchdowns to end the half with USC up 24–21.
At halftime, Coach Merritt and his staff showed their confidence by not losing their shit because UCLA was still hanging around.
“I’ve always said that the least important score is at halftime. Offense … clean up the penalties and continue to finish in the red zone. We let the first one get away from us.
“Defense … stop the damned run and force their quarterback to play badly. We do those two things, and we win this game easily,” Coach Merritt said, sending them to prepare for the second half.