We were told to be ready for our slotted time and to go out for practice. I was sent to the defense in the morning. Coach Erickson sent me to work with the linebackers. They were teaching us how to get in our stance and slide down the line, and then they had a tackling dummy for us to tackle.
They had pads to mark where each lineman would be. I slid down the line when it was my turn and tackled the dummy.
“Dawson, get over here,” Coach Erickson called. He had me get into my stance.
“Now get your hands up, palms out. When you slide down the line, punch out with both hands to keep the linemen off you. Linemen are taught to work inside out,” he coached me.
He had me in my stance, and he showed how a lineman would put his hands in the center of my chest and worked them out to control me.
“Your goal is to pop him to keep him from getting you under control. Shuck his block and slide down the line with your shoulders square, and when you have a shot at the running back, explode through the hole and tackle him.”
We did variations on that drill all morning.
Then they brought linemen over so they could practice on us and we could learn to evade them. Everything was done at three-quarters speed so no one got hurt. Right before lunch, they brought us running backs to add to the mix. We could wrap them up but not put them on the ground.
On the last play before lunch, the moons aligned! I got Ty as the running back and Trevor, the lineman I’d worked against yesterday.
“One time, full speed,” Trevor begged coach.
“You okay with that, Ty?” Coach Erickson asked, and Ty nodded ‘yes.’ “How about you, GQ?”
“Bring it on!” I yelled back.
They had round tackling dummies lined up along the sides, so they could only run in a ten-yard area. Ty’s job was to read the block and get past the linebacker. Trevor wanted to bury me. By now the defensive players were making so much noise that the offense came to see what was going on before lunch.
“You ready, ladies?” I taunted Trevor and Ty.
Trevor just growled at me and Ty did the Heisman pose, with one knee up and the handout, to show me what he was going to be doing once he got past me. On the snap of the ball, Trevor exploded towards me. Shit, he was fast and going to get locked onto me. I used the move that Cassidy had used on me hundreds of times: I used his momentum to do a modified hip-toss. Trevor’s hands were inside mine, so I hooked his elbow and let him catch my hip as he went flying by.
As I spun, I located Ty. It was one of those ‘Uh Oh’ moments for him. I swear I wasn’t trying to crush him, but I came out of the spin with more momentum than I thought. There was a tremendous crack of pads and the ball went over Ty’s head. I let go of him, picked the ball up, and went the other way. Ty was on his ass looking back as I did the Heisman pose.
I trotted back and helped Ty and Trevor up. Trevor gave me a good-natured head-slap and we went to lunch.
AFTER LUNCH, WE HAD our film session. Coach Styles was in a good mood and having fun with it.
“Coach Braun, get up here. In my thirty-two years of coaching, I’ve never seen such an epic failure. I want you to explain what happened here,” Coach Styles ordered.
He then ran our play. Everyone was laughing when I did the Heisman pose.
“Well, Coach, Trevor got off the ball really well,” Coach Braun said as they showed that Trevor had me right where he wanted me.
“And...” Coach Styles prompted.
“I’m not quite sure, Coach. I have never seen a three-hundred-pound lineman catch that much air.”
“Coach Erickson, do you have anything to add from a defensive point of view?” Coach Styles asked.
“That is a product of superior defensive coaching. GQ busted a move,” Coach Erickson offered.
That got the place rolling. The coaches wrapped up their comedy routine and we headed out to the field.
I GOT TO PLAY QUARTERBACK and we were running goal-line passing plays. Mike and I had a huge advantage because we’d been practicing this daily. It became more entertaining when they brought over defensive backs.
“We’re going to make this interesting,” Coach Braun told us. “We’ll keep rotating until the defense stops you. Then you drop out. Last man standing gets this ‘Top Gun’ jersey to wear until tomorrow.”
I went first and hit my receiver in the corner, but he dropped the ball. I was out. Brad, Isaac, Mike and a kid from Lexington were still in. Two rounds later, Mike and Isaac were still going strong. They went four more rounds.
“Coach, let’s make it harder. Tell the defense what the play is,” I offered.
“They can’t stop me,” Mike crowed.
Isaac wasn’t so sure, but he wasn’t backing down from our JV quarterback. They both completed one and then failed. Coach Braun called it a draw and they both got jerseys to wear. One of the staff came and got me for my film session.
I WALKED IN AND THERE had to be fifty coaches in the room. I was brought up front and they put a mic on me and sat me next to Coach Hope. Coach Styles kicked the session off.
“Yesterday, we had the quarterbacks at camp learn how to watch video. Today’s assignment was to read a scouting report, and then we wanted the quarterbacks to come in and watch game film. We want to see that they’re grasping what they should be looking for when watching a film.
“To make it more interesting for them, we picked a game for each in which we felt they could have improved their outcome if they were watching the films correctly.
“This time, we have the added benefit of having the opposing coach for the team we’ll be watching today. I’m hoping we get some added insight,” Coach Styles said.
He got the video set up and then began the session.
“We’re going to be watching this from Lincoln High’s perspective. This game was played last year in the quarterfinals of the State Championship. Lincoln was playing Beverly. Today we have Coach Hope who at the time was the coach for Beverly and is now the head coach at Lincoln High. You’re about to see one of the finest quarterback talents in the country. At the time of this game, David Dawson was a freshman quarterback. He is currently ranked eighth in this year’s sophomore class. He was All-State his freshman year.
“David, why don’t you give us an idea of what the game plan was, going into this game?”
“Coach, our plan was to throw long and make them make plays. We felt like we had superior athletes. I was told to force the ball deep. We felt that if we could start making big plays, we would roll Beverly.”
“Coach Hope, what was your game plan?”
“Stop the deep ball at all costs. We had seen what David had done to previous opponents. He’s right. If we hadn’t been disciplined, he would have run us out of the stadium. We got up pretty good and were feeling cocky, but this guy is not a quitter. They made some adjustments and had me worried late into the fourth quarter.”
“We’ll come back to that later,” Coach Styles said, then brought up my first long ball that was intercepted. “David, tell me what defense they’re in and what you should do against it.”
“They’re in the cover two. The two safeties have responsibility for the deep halves of the field. The middle linebacker drops back and plays the middle zone. The cornerbacks are what we call ‘hard corners.’ That means they have run-support responsibilities.
“Where’s the weakest portion of this defense?” Coach Styles asked.
“The deep center is susceptible to a tight end or running back slipping out and running a post. That’s because the safeties tend to drift to the sides to cover the sidelines.”
They ran the play and I didn’t see the safety that had coverage on Bill. All I saw was he had broken free of the cornerback. Crap, Ed was one-on-one with their linebacker. If I had gone to my second option, we would have scored.