Roc’s loping style of running ate up a lot of ground in a hurry. Ed, to his credit, closed the gap as Roc reached up for the football and pulled it in. Ed tried to make the tackle, but Roc powered out of it and was gone. I got up and pumped my fist in the air as I realized that on the first play Roc had ever had in front of our fans, he had ripped off a 65-yard score.
On the ensuing kickoff, Ty showed why I was so excited to have him on our team. He took the ball at the 4 yard line and followed his wedge blockers. Tim, our best tackler, split their wedge and had Ty dead to rights. Then it was as if someone had smashed the ‘B’ button on the controller because Ty made a nifty spin move that left Tim doing alligator arms as he tackled thin air. Everyone had let up because they assumed Tim would get the job done. Our hesitation cost us as Ty raced 96 yards for their first score. It was now tied 7–7.
Before we went back in for offense, Alan took me aside.
“Run it down their throats. Don’t run yourself unless you have to. Feed the fullback and run it between the tackles. Let’s use our line to wear them out.”
I trotted out and found we had returned the ball to the 22. My half brother Phil had managed to work his way onto the freshman team as a fullback. I think it was because that was what I’d played when I first suited up freshman year. The only hitch in Alan’s plan was the Bauer brothers were put in as tackles on defense. Bryan and Brock had their hands full with the two farm boys who had joined the team.
The first few plays went our way, and Phil ripped off a little over five yards a play. Then Phil seemed to tire, and when you got tired was when bad things happened. Johan Bauer, the older of the two, fought off a double team by Tim and Bryan and crushed Phil. His helmet was right on the football. Yuri did his job and filled the hole behind Johan, and was the recipient of Phil’s fumbled gift on our 46 yard line.
Mike did a double take when he saw number 11 lined up at linebacker. I don’t think he expected me to play defense. Wolf and Jim were in front of me, and Bryan and Brock were lined up at defensive ends. Our front six were all starters, except for me. Alan’s plan was to run-blitz to disrupt the rhythm of the triple option. He wanted to make Mike beat us with his arm.
I smiled when Ty went in motion to my side. Coach Diamond knew who his stars were, and Ty was one of them. I cheated up because it looked like they would run the jet sweep to my side. Mike would fake the handoff to the fullback, and the motion man would be at full speed when he reached the center of the backfield. Mike would toss it to him, and Ty would race to break contain on the outside. The key block was Jake at the other tailback position. His job was to double-team the defensive end and, if the tackle had him, to slide off and take on the linebacker.
The play went off just as I imagined it would except Brock was too quick for their tackle and Jake couldn’t handle him by himself. That forced Ty to have to lose ground in the backfield to get around Brock. That gave me a chance to sprint down the line. Ty, of course, saw I was a step behind him, but he had to come to me to cut upfield. Usually, Ty could outrun everyone, but he ran out of real estate and had to either cut up the field and get hammered by me or run out of bounds and lose yardage. If this had been an actual game, Ty would have fought for the yard. I was happy not have to tackle him because we both had run full out and it would have been a hard hit.
Coach Diamond decided to run the same play to the other side of the formation. While Tim wasn’t as fast as I was, he knew how to play the position. Tim slipped around Bryan and met Ty five yards deep in the backfield. On third and long, Alan cut us loose, and Mike had to hurry his pass and only got a short gain. Tim and I had him, but we just tapped his helmet to let him know he should have been sacked.
I was amused when it pissed Mike off. I think he thought he would have the advantage because he had picked all the skill players. I had lived through shaky line play and was lucky to never be seriously injured. That was why I drafted the line first. A good offensive line that opened holes would make even a mediocre back look good. Mike had just found out that even a potential All-State running back could be reduced to a mere human without a line.
Our next drive was steady pound-’em football. Alan used that big brain and rotated in fullbacks so they didn’t tire out. While the two Bauer brothers were a load on the defensive front, they hadn’t worked out with us since last season. As soon as the ref would place the ball, I had my guys rush up, and we would snap the football. After three first downs, Coach Zoon started to have his safeties cheat up to put eight men in the box. That was what Alan had wanted. It was almost child’s play as we ran the same play and I faked the handoff. Wolf had run a post right where the safety should have been.
The rest of the first quarter was much of the same. I loved the new offense. It was designed for big plays, and we had our share. I was happy to see that Mike and his team couldn’t be held down all night either. Their second score came on an option where I guessed wrong, and Ed took it to the house. Ty also had a long score. At the end of the first quarter, it was 35–21. Most games didn’t have that much scoring for a full game. I had thrown five touchdowns, and I don’t think our fans ever sat down. I hadn’t seen this much excitement since our championship game.
On the first play of the second quarter, I pulled the ball from the fullback and ran the rest of the option. It seemed the defense didn’t realize I had the football because I found myself in the second level before anyone even acknowledged me. With us up 42–21, Coach Hope had seen enough of the starters and let the freshmen play the JV.
In the second half, they had the number 1 offense play the number 2 defense, and we ran situational plays with the coaches out on the field. I appreciated that Coach Diamond let me showcase my skills with all the recruiters there. I was surprised when they pulled Tim out at center and put in Johan Bauer. Roc got to play some varsity wide receiver. It looked like a couple of guys had played their way into positions. On defense, the Bauer brothers were inserted at defensive tackles, replacing Wolf and Jim. It was good to see we had finally developed some depth so that key players didn’t have to be on the field all the time. Over the course of the season, it would cut down on injuries.
Not everything was perfect, though. We had a lot of work to do if we wanted to repeat as State Champs. Our defense had me worried. I didn’t want to have to try and outscore everyone we played. I guess that sounds dumb because that is the object of the game. What I meant was that I hoped our defense could at least slow the other team down.
◊◊◊
After the game, I was grateful when Coach Hope refused to make any of us available to the press. It was just a scrimmage, after all. While I was getting dressed, Alan asked me to join him in the coaches’ conference room. When I walked in, they had our game software on the big screen, and they were talking to someone on a conference phone. I spotted Bo Harrington in the back.
“Hey, Coach, how’s Alabama treating you?” I asked.
I walked over and shook Bo’s hand, and he handed me a card with writing on the back. I looked up at him when I saw it was a phone number and address.
“That’s my direct number and private office address. I thought you might need it if you had something you needed to talk to me about that wasn’t Alabama-related. Keep that private, because we only give out the main office phone number and address to everyone else,” Bo said.
“Thanks.”
I would give it to Brandon to put with all my other recruiting contacts. Of course, technically Bo was talking to Coach Hope, and I had just bumped into him. I decided it best to ignore that he was in the room from that point forward for this meeting.