When we got into the offensive coaching session at halftime, I found Bill was even more upset than I was.
“Coach, they’re not even trying to cover me anymore. The cornerbacks are cheating in to play run defense. Give me a chance,” Bill pleaded.
Coach Diamond and Coach Hope just grinned at him.
“Son, we’ve been setting them up. Washington thinks that because we lost our varsity, we’ll play conservatively. We’re going to change that next half,” Coach Diamond assured us.
We went out with a bounce in our step for the second half. I watched helplessly as Ty took the second half kickoff and raced ninety-eight yards for the score. The Washington fans finally had something to cheer about. We were now down 7–0.
They kicked the ball out of bounds, so we got it at our 35 yard line. We came out and lined up. Coach Diamond had called three plays for us. Our goal was to start to wear them out. We were confident we were in better shape than they were.
We ran a play-action pass where we faked the run. They bit on the fake big-time. The only problem was that they blitzed their middle linebacker and I had to hit my hot receiver. If I had just a second more, Bill would have been dancing in the end zone. Instead, Wolf picked up seventeen yards and a first down.
I will give their linebacker credit: he didn’t miss an opportunity to hit me. I got up and ran to the line of scrimmage for the next play. Washington was taking their time. I had us in the shotgun, and as soon as the ref placed the ball, it was snapped. Bill was wide open, and I hit him in stride as he walked into the end zone. We were now tied 7–7.
It was game over. Coach Diamond let me run the hurry-up offense and the Washington defenders were gassed by the end of the third quarter. Ty kept them in the game as long as he could. He broke another long run early in the third quarter. We ended up winning 28–14 for the first win of the season.
Coach Crouch stopped me as we were shaking hands.
“I thought we had you at halftime,” he shared.
“To be honest, I thought so, too. Then Coach Diamond told us of his plans for the second half.”
“Good game, and good luck the rest of the year.”
“You too, Coach.”
SINCE IT WAS A SCHOOL night, we weren’t going out after the game. I was a happy boy! We had just won a game I was sure we shouldn’t have. Washington would bounce back from this loss. If we faltered at all, they’d be pushing us for the conference title.
Thursday September 11
I GOT OUT OF BED AND ran.
I wanted to talk to the coaches about the hurry-up offense. If we really implemented it, we’d be running teams off the field. The first time I saw the fast-paced offense was watching the Oregon Ducks. Chip Kelly was their coach at the time; this was before he moved on to the NFL. His teams were exciting and quick-scoring, and they were relentless with their pace. People hated to play them.
I could see a couple of good reasons for doing it. The first was we were in better shape than anyone we were likely to play. Running a fast-paced offense also didn’t give the defense time to make personnel changes for down and distance. It made you play them with the same eleven players on the field, and you kept them reacting. I knew the rules allowed the opponent to be given a chance to make substitutions, but a player who had to sprint in was already out of breath when the ball was snapped. The team who can dictate the pace of play ... wins.
The other reason was you could get a lot more plays into a game. In the first half of our game with Washington, there were 39 plays for both teams. In the second half, both teams combined for 52 plays. If we’d run up-tempo the whole game, we could have picked up about 15 plays. Playing up-tempo the whole game would have added enough plays that it would be like playing offense for an extra quarter.
The real difference came in yardage. We picked up 89 yards in the first half, compared to the second where we gained 254 yards. We also picked up more yards per play in the second half, 4.9 versus 2.3. Of course, that could be accounted for by the passes I threw. I just had a gut feeling we were onto something.
I could see a couple of major roadblocks to implementing this type of offense, besides not being the coach. First, it wasn’t something you could just flip a switch and do. I could see us doing it for short stretches during a game, but until the guys were used to it, we shouldn’t be running it flat-out. Second, Coach Hope seemed to believe in winning with defense. It wasn’t as sexy as seeing how many points you could score, but it won football games. If my goal was to win state this year, I couldn’t care less how we did it. I just knew the up-tempo was more fun.
WHEN I GOT TO SCHOOL, I ran into Tracy. I was admiring her jeans, trying to figure out how she got them on, they were so tight. She caught me staring.
“What are you looking at?” she teased me.
“Please! You wouldn’t be wearing those jeans if you didn’t want guys looking,” I shot back.
“You might be right,” she told me, then changed the subject. “I never see you. Mom asked if you were coming to my party on Saturday, and that was when I realized I hadn’t invited you.”
“Is your house now party central? What is this, two parties in four weeks?” I asked.
“It’s my birthday,” she reminded me.
I felt like a ‘stupid boy!’ It was at her birthday last year I first really got to know her. I should’ve had it in my calendar. I gave her a tight smile.
“Of course, I’ll come to your birthday party. What do you want me to bring?”
“I’ll just be happy if you come. I’m sure you’ll be busy earlier with the game.”
I was confused. The game was on Friday night. She saw my look and explained it to me.
“The HSAA has rules about how much time there must be between football games. The minimum is three days. So, since you played on Wednesday, you can’t play again till Saturday. Remember the playoffs? They did the same Wednesday and Saturday schedule for the first round. They announced the change last night.”
“Okay, did you suddenly become Tami? How the heck did you find out?” I asked.
“I talked to Coach Hope when he came in this morning.”
Well, that would do it.
I CALLED KENDAL WHEN Tracy was out of earshot.
“Hey, it’s me,” I told her.
“Hey, me, what can I do for you?” she asked.
“What do I get Tracy for her birthday?”
“Why, when’s her birthday?”
“Saturday.”
“Dang it, I totally forgot. I’ve no idea.”
“Come on, Kendal, you’re killing me. Last time I looked, you were a girl. Surely you have some ideas,” I begged.
“Personally, I could use a sex toy ... Oh crap, did I say that out loud?” she teased me.
“If you take me with you, I’ll pay for it,” I offered.
“Nice try! You can’t even get in the door until you’re 18.”
“We could buy it online,” I told her, then hit myself in the head.
“Really?”
“Just shut up and tell me what to buy her.”
“I’ll talk to Tom and see if he has any ideas,” she offered.
I wasn’t counting on it. I thought about who to call. Then it hit me: Dad! He was good at advice, and he had to buy stuff for Mom. I’d never heard her complain!
“This better be important,” was how he answered the phone.
“It is, to me,” I shot back.
“What’s up?”
“What should I get Tracy for her birthday?” I asked him.
I heard him say in the background, ‘You have to hear this. This is what my kid interrupts me at work for.’
“Hey, how do I put this on speakerphone?” he asked me.
I wasn’t so sure I wanted to tell him.
“Why, so you can make fun of me?”
“Yep. Just tell me.”
So I did. He made me ask the question again. They all laughed at me.