“Believe me when I say college coaches don’t give a flip that I was the number one recruit coming out of high school if I’m not doing what they ask in practice.
“I know that if you make it a habit of being consistent in your effort in practice, it will show up in the game. If the coaches see you doing all the small stuff that affects winning, you will be on the field. That means you need to get over all the accolades and quit listening to all your friends and family telling you that you’re the best. The quicker you do that, the quicker you will get onto the football field at the next level,” David said and then smiled.
“Now, I’m going to make a couple of bold predictions.
The first is that USC will shock Notre Dame and win on Saturday. The Trojans are one of the few teams that Notre Dame has played that has the talent to match theirs. I won’t say they’ve only played cupcakes to this point, but I guess I am.
“I also know that USC has been our own worst enemy, which has put us under .500. If we win on Saturday, the Trojans will reach that magic six-win mark that will give us a bowl game. The cherry on top will be that we will show that Notre Dame is just a paper tiger. It will also knock them out of the College Football Playoffs, which will crown this year’s national champion,” David said with a satisfied look.
Then he took a deep breath and looked straight into the camera with a determined expression.
“Next year, I predict USC will be the National Champions. The Notre Dame game will be the first step in that happening. It will lay the foundation and provide the road map USC will use to shock the world. I’ve used this season … no … we’ve used this season to figure out what it takes to win.
“The coaches are right; winning is hard. But if you follow your coaching, work with your trainers, and focus on doing your job to the best of your ability, good things will happen.
“Fight on!” David cried as he held up two fingers for victory.
Then began the music for Fight On, the official fight song for USC, to close out the video.
“What do you think?” David asked.
Tracy raised her eyebrows and said, “I think you just put a big target on your back. Other than worrying about your safety on Saturday, I liked the twist. It helped make your point when you showed all your accolades and followed it up with the coaches redshirting you. Even Superman finds himself on the bench.”
He ignored her jab. David had dressed up like Superman for his freshman-year dance in high school. He’d learned long ago to just own it.
“Does it need any tweaks?” David asked.
“Nope. Just email me a copy,” Tracy reminded him.
He was smart enough to know that she planned on sending this to the Pac-12 Network for a filler piece.
Something he’d learned from his uncle was that saying your goals out loud made them real. Unlike most people who might tell a couple of people, David announced to the world that he intended to be a National Champion next year.
He was no longer hiding who he was or what he would accomplish. He’d said it, so now all he had to do was make it happen.
◊◊◊
After meeting with Tracy and planting his flag in the ground for all to see, David felt like his old self. He was done waiting for everyone. It was his time to lead.
When he walked out to practice, he had his old swagger back.
After stretching and running a few drills, Coach Thomas had the number one offense lined up against the defensive scout team to mimic Notre Dame’s defense.
David huddled up the offense.
“The most common alignment for Notre Dame’s defense is a 4-2-5 with corners in off coverage.
“Up front, they’re solid, and they mix zone principles at the back with some confusion up front. The back end helps the front end and vice versa. Focus on what you’re supposed to do and make the right reads,” David said.
In the public practices, they were running USC’s standard playbook. To start the game, they usually ran the ball off their right tackle. If the run gained three or more yards, their second-down play would also be a run. It was a gauge to see how stout the opposition’s run defense was.
David handed the ball off to Chuy, and he gained five yards.
“Bear! Just because the play is going away from you doesn’t mean you let your defender go. I expect you to put him on his ass and then find someone else to destroy!”
David yelled.
Then he turned his ire on the wide receivers.
“You all need to run your routes. I don’t care if the whole stadium knows it’s a run. It is until it’s not as I pull the ball and throw it to one of you. If you haven’t run your route, how am I supposed to get you the ball?”
“Dawson is right. Run it again!” Coach Thomas yelled.
David felt like he was in Cuba, and his director yelled at him to get it right because they ran the play twenty times.
Then Bear went crazy and knocked three defenders onto their backsides.
“Dammit, Bear! Where has that wild man been?” David asked.
“I just got so mad,” Bear said.
“Then I want you pissed off from now on,” David said with a big smile.
Bear’s antics had the whole offensive line fired up. When Coach Farrow saw his scout team getting owned, he brought in the number one defense.
David gave them an evil grin.
“I’ll even tell you the play, and we’ll still knock your dicks in the dirt,” David crowed.
“Fuck you, Dawson. Bring it on!” Todd, their outside linebacker, called out.
“It’s coming right at you, Todd. You better tighten your chin strap,” David warned.
David lined them up.
“Down, set … Hike!”
David saw that Todd was blitzing on the snap and intended to bury Chuy in the backfield. David chuckled because Chuy wasn’t Marcus. Chuy was as big as Todd and currently had a bad attitude. They met in the hole with a tremendous crack of pads. Chuy had gotten lower, so Todd was stood up. The funny part was his helmet went flying, Chuy barreled through Todd and ran for daylight. Bear, having destroyed his defender, ran down the field. Chuy saw him and tucked in behind the raging bull. Bear buried the other linebacker and knocked him into one of the defensive backs. Chuy stepped around Bear and gained another twenty yards before being taken down.
David danced up to where Todd was lying on his back.
“You okay?” David asked as he offered Todd a hand.
Todd had a big grin on his face as he was helped up.
“Did you get the license plate on the truck that ran me over?” Todd joked.
“I’m calling this before someone gets hurt,” Coach Thomas called out. “Great practice today.”
◊◊◊
Chapter 43
David had gotten out of the shower and was pulling on his underwear when there was a light knock on his bedroom door.
“Enter!”
Galen, Alex’s security who lived in the single next door, stuck his head in. As far as security went, Galen was perfect. You never knew he was there, for the most part.
But he kept an eye out; they hadn’t had anyone break in this semester and steal their booze or leave any stink bombs.
“There’s a woman who claims to know you waiting in the hall. She says you bought her coffee on move-in day.”
David wracked his brain for a moment, and then it came to him. Angelica Nance, Emily’s mom.
“I know her; you can let her in,” David said as he found a pair of USC shorts.