She hugged him also, but he didn’t get a kiss, I was happy to see.
“If I’d known you were going to be here, I would have skipped,” Ben said to me.
“I agree,” Flee joined in.
“I want you guys to meet my teammates,” I said, and then turned to my guys. “This is Candy, who for some reason loves this scrawny Elite 11 quarterback, Flee Johnson. Someday she’ll come to her senses and leave him for me, but for now, I suffer. This is Ben Luck, another quarterback I met at a camp this summer. I’d like you to meet Jim Ball, my left tackle, and currently rated one of the five best linemen in the Midwest. Ty Wilson just transferred to Lincoln and is the best running back you haven’t heard of yet. This is Tim Foresee, our defensive captain and a heck of a linebacker. Finally, this is Wolf Tams. He’ll be playing on Sundays as a tight end.”
The guys all puffed up when I introduced them, and their parents smiled as well. I then introduced everyone else.
“Aren’t you going to introduce yourself?” Flee asked, and then did it for me. “This is David Dawson, the number-1-rated player in all of the junior class, according to all the scouting services. He was also the Co-MVP at Elite 11, and if you ask me, he was robbed. If he’d been an incoming senior, David would have been the MVP hands down. He’s also about to get his butt kicked if he doesn’t stop hitting on my girlfriend.”
I hadn’t heard about the ratings. I knew they had me as the number 1 quarterback, but usually there was some freak who played defensive end or linebacker who slipped into number 1 overall. Quarterbacks rarely were in the top five.
“Don’t even try. David is our designated fighter,” Jim said.
“I had to learn for my movie,” I said as I waggled my eyebrows at Candy.
At some point I would have to slip in that I was a model to remind her of everything she was missing. Of course, she’d seen my routine before and wasn’t falling for any of it. Flee was used to her getting hit on. That was just something that came with dating someone like her. The bus pulled up, and Tami grabbed my arm.
“Come on, Romeo, before she thinks you’re serious,” Tami said.
◊◊◊
I was impressed when the bus stopped and Coach Patrick, Northwestern’s Head Coach, greeted us each by name as we got off. He took us to a meeting room where, besides the guys I had met, there were probably fifteen other recruits and their families. That meant that there were over seventy people in the room. Coach Patrick took the podium to greet us.
“First of all, thank you all for your interest in Northwestern football. If you weren’t sure, I want you all to know that we had over a hundred and fifty requests from athletes around the country who wanted to attend today’s game. You were selected for this weekend because we think you all would be a great fit both academically and athletically here at Northwestern. We would like you to use this opportunity to find out what makes Northwestern unique, and hopefully, by the end of this weekend we can find common ground and commit to one another. Nothing would make me happier than if all of you eventually played for the Cats.
“Before we get to the football part of the discussion, I wanted to point out a few academic achievements we’re proud of here at Northwestern. The NCAA has mandated that member universities take graduation seriously. To that end, we have to submit our graduation numbers, and a report is produced each November. Our preliminary figures show that 97 percent of athletes graduated at Northwestern.
“That’s not all. The National Collegiate Scouting Association, or NCSA, helps student-athletes and their families navigate the cutthroat, competitive, and often confusing world of college recruiting. One of the tools they provide is a Power Ranking, which uses metrics like graduation rate, U.S. News & World Report ranking, and other criteria to show where you can get the best education. Northwestern ranked number 7 last year,” Coach Patrick shared.
Brandon leaned over and pointed to his tablet. Stanford and Notre Dame were ranked one and two.
“Northwestern is on the rise as far as football goes. After we beat Stanford today, who many predict to win the Pac-12, we should jump into the top twenty-five in the polls. If we play like we know we’re capable of, we should challenge for a slot in the Big 10 Championship game. If we win that, we have a shot at making the final four and playing for a shot at the National Championship.”
I was sure that a hundred teams were thinking the same way today. Everyone’s record was 0–0, and you controlled your own destiny. I loved this time of year. Anything seemed possible. Heck, Northwestern might upset a loaded Stanford team. If that happened, it could portend a great season for Northwestern. Personally, I thought they were a middle-of-the-pack team. If I had to pick the top four, my list would be Ohio State, Michigan State, Wisconsin, and my surprise pick, Iowa. The reason I chose Iowa was that their schedule had them avoid the more powerful schools in the crossover games. Each school in a division had to play two schools in the other division. Iowa got Indiana and Maryland, the two weakest teams in the east. I felt Northwestern belonged in the next group, which included Michigan, Nebraska and Penn State.
I half-listened to the sales job. I had to chuckle when we were told about the traditions at Northwestern and then their mascot Willie the Wildcat came in. I’m sure Ty’s little brothers thought he was cool. He reminded me of the coyote in the old Road Runner cartoons. Even though they had similar names, the Northwestern Wildcat had been introduced in 1930, so he was the original.
After Coach Patrick finished his talk, we were broken up into groups of four or five and given a chaperone for each group. Ben, Flee, and I were grouped together because we were quarterbacks. Our chaperone was Gus Lawrence, a sophomore quarterback. We were given a quick tour of the facilities, and I was surprised when he told us the next stop on the agenda.
“Next we meet with the press,” Gus announced.
“Why?” I asked.
“It’s all part of recruiting now. The Big 10 even announces which recruits are on each of the campuses each week. They will want to post your pictures and get brief comments about your visit. The fan-based recruiting websites also want information,” Gus explained.
“Welcome to big-time football,” Brandon told me.
We were paraded out in front of a wall with the Northwestern logo and had our pictures taken, both individually and as a group. We then split up, and each sat down with a reporter. I smiled when I saw mine was Margaret Chin. She was a sideline reporter for ESPN, who was carrying the game today. The other guys were sitting down with print reporters. I hadn’t prepared any talking points for a filmed interview. Also, Brandon wasn’t up to speed on that aspect of his job. While I knew it wasn’t live, and they would edit what I said into a short sound bite, I didn’t want to come across as a bumbling idiot, either.
ESPN had set up an interview area complete with three cameras, lighting, and sound. One camera was positioned to get the establishment shot; that was where you would see us both facing each other as we talked. The other cameras were focused on each of us individually. They wired me for sound, and I sat down across from Margaret. She was on her tablet and completely ignored me until someone announced they were ready. The lights came on, and she looked up and smiled at the camera facing her.
“I’m with David Dawson, the number 1 recruit in the junior class and Elite 11 Co-MVP. How does it feel to be number 1?”
“I think it reflects more on the team I have around me because they’re the ones that make me shine.”
“I’m sure they do,” she interrupted me. “But your team wasn’t there when you were named Co-MVP at Elite 11.”
“It was my team that helped me prepare. They took time out of their summer to help me learn plays and get ready. My teammates were with me on that field in all the preparation they helped me put in. I couldn’t have done it without them.”