“Do you remember what your request was?”
“That you set up a date for either Friday or Saturday. I thought you were on board with that,” Maggie responded.
“No. You said I had to figure out what we were doing, and then you’d decide if you wanted to go out. I honestly didn’t feel up to the challenge. I think you might be a great girl, but I don’t know you well enough to have to guess at what you want.”
“I just wanted to make sure it sounded like a good time,” she explained.
“I’m pretty dull. I’m sure you’d have more fun going out with someone who’s more entertaining. Thanks for giving me a chance, but I’ll have to let someone better step in.”
She didn’t look happy, so I decided it was time to leave. I took my lunch to the far side of the cafeteria where there was an empty table. I could see my cheerleaders reassuring her. I had brought my tablet, so I pulled out my earbuds and listened to music while I ate.
WHEN I GOT TO PRACTICE, we went over the game film. What became apparent was that our offensive line wasn’t strong enough. We were quick, though, and had better endurance. Coach Diamond announced offensive changes.
“We are going to broaden our stance along the line. Instead of lining up tight together, we’ll spread out more. The defense will have to adjust to us, giving us more room to work. We’re also going to start using our speed. We’ll be working on the trap play, where the backside guard pulls and leads the play. This will give us superiority in numbers.
“I also want to add a counter play. The defense usually focuses on the first step of the running back. After the runner’s initial move, we’ll have him cut back the other direction. We’ll also be working on influence blocks for that. This is where you block as if the play is going towards the fake. This will get the defenders to bite harder on the misdirection.
“We’re also bringing back the read option. We need the defense to be concerned about defending the whole field, not just the center.
“Finally, we’re going to be passing more.”
“Yeah!” Bill said as he pumped his fist in the air.
That got us laughing.
Our opponent this week was Eastside. It was one of their boosters who had turned us into the HSAA. Brad had tracked me down before practice and told me to kick their butts. They were the only all-out passing team we would play this year. Their new quarterback wasn’t as good as Mark had been, but they’d be hard to beat. They’d won their first three games, so this was going to be a big game in deciding the eventual conference champion.
Wednesday September 23
I WOKE UP THIS MORNING and felt good. During football season that’s a real treat. My ankle felt great, and my balls were no longer aching. It felt good to be a hundred percent for the Eastside game. As I ran, I thought back to the last couple of days.
Brad had come to me and wished me luck against them. It had been rumored that they were behind Brad and his group being turned in to the HSAA. Brad had also organized, with the help of Mrs. Sullivan, several buses to take fans to the game. They were passionate about us beating Eastside. I hadn’t seen this kind of circus since we played in the State Playoffs.
Eastside had quickly become our top rival. It didn’t help that Mark had called the local paper and made some choice comments about me. I guess he wasn’t happy that no one was recruiting him right now. Mark’s taking payoffs had been turned over to the NCAA. He was the poster child for what was wrong with big-time football.
The Big 12 commissioner had made news at the Conference football media day saying that ‘cheating pays.’ He pointed to the limitations put on the NCAA as far as enforcement went. He said that they couldn’t compel anyone not associated with a university to testify in an investigation. So, if a university wished to cheat, they did so through third-party intermediaries. It was everything that Bo Harrington had warned me about. Mark’s problem was that he was caught on video.
I SKIPPED LUNCH TODAY to watch film with Coach Hope. We grabbed sack lunches in the cafeteria and went to the coaches’ conference room. Coach had all the forms filled out that we’d gotten when we went to Kentucky. We planned to go over what we could expect in each situation. We got to the pre-snap reads—that was where you looked for keys that would tell you what defense they were in. Coach brought up some video.
“I have to give credit where credit is due. Brad found this while I was looking at it at home,” Coach told me.
“He has been a little fired up this week,” I pointed out.
“I would suggest we win this game, or I’ll hear about it at home.”
He had three plays that he just showed me, pre-snap.
“What do you see?” he asked.
“They’re playing the Tampa 2 defense and they have four down linemen who are rushing the gaps. Two corners are playing the flats.” The flats are the area ten yards deep and from the hash marks to the out-of-bounds line. “And the two outside linebackers have from the center to the hash marks. The middle linebacker has the deep middle, while the two safeties have their halves of the field, deep.”
“Watch what Lakeview did to it,” Coach said.
I watched the first play. They lined up with a slot and wide receivers on the strong side, or the side the tight end was on. They had one receiver on the weak side. They only had one back in the backfield, lined up on the strong side. I watched as all four receivers went deep. The inside linebacker had responsibility for the tight end. That left the safety to cover the slot and wide receivers deep. Their running back slipped through the line and entered the space where the middle linebacker had been.
He then ran the other two plays. They were the same. Lakeview’s quarterback completed one of the three passes for a touchdown. My eyes were big.
I got a big grin on my face.
“We can score at will. What’s the key read on this play?” I asked.
“The inside linebacker. If he doesn’t come over and cover the tight end quick or deep enough, we have him cut a skinny post. Think about us pulling Wolf and putting Bill in that position. He might have a 300 yard day,” Coach said.
“No, don’t pull Wolf. Move Bill to the weak side. If their safety on that side cheats over to help, he’s wide open on the outside. I make the read to see what the linebacker does. Then I’ll look ‘strong,’ and come back ‘weak.’”
“I think that’s the progression. If you have to dump it, you hit the running back coming out of the backfield,” Coach said.
“Whoever’s playing tight end is going to get pounded if we aren’t careful. It might be best to let Wolf do his thing,” I suggested.
“I would also underthrow it a little bit and to his back shoulder. That way the strong safety can’t just crush him.”
“What about the outside receiver?” I asked.
“Hit him in the hole between the cornerback’s coverage and the strong safety.”
“And the slot?” I asked.
“The strong safety has to cover two guys, and hope the middle linebacker can cover the tight end. His worst nightmare is getting into no-mans-land in between the slot and wideout. If he gets hung up there, then just pick one for the score.”
I started laughing.
“What’s so funny?” Coach asked.
“If we had this play against you, last year, we would have won that game.”
“My only concern is whether you can throw the deep ball,” he teased me.
“All day, Coach,” I said. “All day.”
It’s nice when a plan comes together!
IN PRACTICE, OUR NEW play didn’t work quite as well as we thought it might. The problem was that, to throw deep, I needed a little longer in the pocket. That played right into our biggest weakness, our line play. Coach Diamond suggested that we put Bert in as the lone back and have him block if need be. Something else we tried was to have me roll out to give me more time.