“So, what do you want to do about it?” David asked.
“Early on, I’m going to ask you to run the ball to get them out of their comfort zone. They love their 4-2-5
alignment. It allows them to keep everything in front of them and forces shorter gains. They’ll have to account for you if you gash them for a couple of nice runs. Then we hit them with one of Coach Mason’s deep routes. Taking the top off their defense and worrying about you running is their worst nightmare,” Coach Thomas said.
Taking the top off a defense generally meant an offensive player getting deep beyond the defense’s coverage; more specifically, a receiver with blazing speed.
This was what Coach Mason had been famous for in the NFL with the Raiders. He loved the deep pass because of the devastating effect it could have on a defense.
Most defenses played only ten to fifteen yards deep since they wanted to stop a first down, which took ten yards to gain. That was why Coach Mason had them
practicing receiving routes that were thirty yards downfield. With their zone concepts, only one to three defenders were responsible for the deep parts of the field.
If USC ran four or five deep, Notre Dame couldn’t cover all of them.
The problem with this approach was David would have to hold the ball longer, but with his legs, he could extend the play long enough for this to work.
David recognized that if he ran the ball, and they had to go to a more traditional 4-3-4 lineup, it would make the deep passes easier.
Coach Thomas opened his laptop to show them film.
“This is what I want us to focus on …”
◊◊◊
When the three of them were wrapping up, David got a call. When he saw it was from Greg, he took it.
“Is there any way Nate can spend the night with you?”
“Well, hello to you too,” David said.
“He has it in his head that he needs his Uncle David, and he won’t change his mind,” Greg said.
David could hear his brother was at his wit’s end.
“Hang on. Let me ask,” David said, turning to Coach Thomas. “My nephew is having a meltdown. Would it be okay if he stayed with me tonight?”
“How old is he?”
“Three and a half.”
Amy didn’t look too sure, but Coach Thomas nodded his assent.
“I’ll come get him,” David said as he put his phone to his ear to talk to his brother.
“Thanks. I owe you big,” Greg said and hung up.
David wondered what was going on.
◊◊◊
Like an oversized Rottweiler, the Demon grumbled to life.
“I know, baby. I promise I’ll let you run free after football season,” David swore to his car.
Traffic was light, so it only took twenty minutes to get to Greg’s place. He saw Nate’s booster seat on the sidewalk by the driveway, so David set it up in the back seat. Joey came out while he was installing it.
“What’s going on?” David asked.
“He asked if you would be at Thanksgiving tomorrow, and Greg said ‘no.’ Nate insisted he had to see his uncle.
Finally, Greg called you. Now Kyle and Mac want to go stay with you, too.”
David settled back on his haunches and gave his future sister-in-law a look of frustration.
“It would give Greg and me some alone time,” Joey said.
He now knew why she was sent to ask him. He would have told his brother to pound sand.
“Fine, but you have to come to get them in the morning.
I have commitments,” David explained.
He then sent a message to Alex to tell him that he was being kicked out of their room so his niece and nephews could stay with him.
“If they breathe a word of this to my kids tomorrow …”
David threatened.
Joey nodded and went to get two more booster seats. It was a tight fit, but David managed to get them installed.
Meanwhile, Joey loaded their luggage and brought out three well-behaved children who couldn’t be related to him.
He noted that Greg was being a wuss and nowhere to be seen. Between the two of them, they got everyone in the car and strapped in. Nate was the only one who really needed any help since the older two knew how everything worked.
When they were on the road, Mac said, “Uncle David, Daddy says you take us to the pool.”
And so it began …
◊◊◊
Nate needed some attention. His two older siblings had big personalities, while Nate was more of the quiet one.
Mac and Kyle were okay with that, so David focused on their younger brother. They had worked to win over the football team.
At dinner, Kyle had challenged Willie to a dance-off. The offense had heard the challenge, so Willie couldn’t lose face. David handed Willie his phone with the music he usually danced to with Greg’s kids.
“How do we do this?” Willie asked.
“Just dance with him, and don’t be surprised if Mac joins in. If she does, you’re toast,” David said to the amusement of the crowd that now gathered around.
Kyle loved it when the offensive line began to chant his name.
“Kyle! Kyle! Kyle!”
Willie turned on the music, and Kyle began to dance. As predicted, Mac joined in, and Willie was soon at a serious disadvantage. Everyone says that white people have no rhythm, which is a funny truth. But those people must not have met David and his niece and nephew. Willie looked like a dancing bear at six-three and 300 pounds compared to the little tykes shaking it.
Big Cat finally jumped in and mimicked their moves to the cheers of the team. That was when Mac broke out her back walkover. The room groaned when Big Cat all but killed himself.
Mac and Kyle were declared the winners.
David then took them to the pool so the four of them could swim.
◊◊◊
Nate was a happy boy when Greg came to pick him and his brother and sister up in the morning.
“So, what was the deal?” Greg asked.
“I think Mac and Kyle are sucking up all the attention, and he just wanted someone to talk to,” David said.
Greg frowned and nodded.
“I need to make some alone time with him. Maybe I can take him for a walk after dinner, just the two of us.”
“It’s hard,” David admitted.
With his limited time, he had to remember to make time for each of his children. He was lucky that they were used to all being together and learning to take turns. But there were days when he had to jump onto video chat so one of them could tell him what was wrong.
“Do me a favor and give all of mine a hug from me. I’ll be home after the game,” David said.
“I’ll let them know.”
David hugged his brother, then spent a moment with his niece and each of his nephews. When it was his turn, Nathan wrapped his arms around his uncle’s neck and about choked him. There was no doubt that he loved his uncle.
◊◊◊
Chapter 44
Today USC played number three Notre Dame. It was slotted for the coveted 8 p.m. eastern showing on ABC. The team gathered in a ballroom to watch the early game between Big Ten rivals number four Michigan and number ten Ohio State.
David had received a message from his former high school teammate, Ty Wilson, that he was penciled in to the Michigan three-deep running-back spot. As David watched the game, Ty was rotated in during the second quarter and had a nice run.
Then David’s blood ran cold as his old rival, Mike Herndon, was inserted into the game at quarterback because the starter was all but killed. As much as he wished for Mike to fail, he had a steady game. The problem was that Ohio State was dominant in all phases of the game and won 62–39 to knock out one of the top five teams from the college football playoffs.