Junior Year Box Set

“Look at the play from the offensive side of the football. They’re lined up with two receivers on the left side. The slotback is covered by the inside linebacker, an obvious mismatch. The quarterback makes the right read and throws the ball to the slot receiver when he makes separation,” Coach Mason said as he stepped through the video frame by frame.

“Now let’s focus on the outside receiver. The cornerback is five yards off, and when the receiver comes off the ball, he positions himself so the receiver has a clear path up the sideline, putting him between the quarterback and the outside receiver. Nothing out of the ordinary,” Coach Mason said.

“Wait, go back,” I said.

This was how we were taught to defend an outside receiver. You put yourself between him and the ball and used the sidelines as another defender. What I saw was the cornerback hadn’t turned the right way to run with him. I had been taught that if you were peeking into the backfield, you were beat. The cornerback had turned to watch the quarterback’s eyes as the corner ran with the outside receiver. As the quarterback made the correct read, the cornerback broke for where the ball was going to be. As I watched the play unfold, I could see where I would likely fall into the same trap. It was an ingenious defensive play.

“What would you do to counter it?” Coach Mason asked me.

“If I saw the corner turn like that, I would throw to the outside receiver,” I said logically.

From Coach Mason’s chuckle, I knew that was wrong. He let the play continue but focused on the outside receiver who looked like he was running free. But then I saw the safety had sprinted over and would have a nearly perfect angle to either disrupt the pass or intercept it. Whoever their defensive coordinator was, he was a genius. This went beyond anything I had seen in high school. If it hadn’t been for Coach Mason pointing it out, I would have never seen it. It just wasn’t in my experience to have thought it was possible.

“Let’s look at the next play. The slotback does a nice seven-yard up and then does an out,” Coach Mason said.

I watch as the defensive tackle dropped back and ran with the receiver, and then, when he reached five yards past the line of scrimmage, the tackle quickly turned and put his giant hands out as if he were a basketball defender. I was shocked at the speed with which he did it. The quarterback, thinking a smaller linebacker covered the slot, threw the ball in anticipation of the break outside. The defensive tackle snatched the pass out of the air and rumbled back upfield.

“Two factors made this work,” Coach Mason said. “First is the athletic play of their defensive line. The second is the blitz by the linebacker he replaced. The offensive guard wasn’t able to pick up the linebacker when his assignment dropped back. His momentary confusion allowed the linebacker to run past him and get into the quarterback’s face. This forced the quarterback to dump the ball off to his slot receiver, a play they’d practiced a hundred times. While he made the right read and throw, it turned to disaster because of the size of the defender. Personally, I think the big guy got lucky when he caught the ball, but I would bet that nine times out of ten he would knock the pass down.”

Coach Mason had a knack for helping me understand what I was watching. I watched the games Springfield played, and it became apparent that they were playing chess while everyone else was playing checkers. Something I learned from Coach Mason was the three Ps: Prepare, Practice, and Perform.

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I didn’t get home until late. Once practice had finished, the coaching staff found me in the video room talking to Coach Mason. He walked them through everything he had shown me and then continued to coach. I wasn’t surprised when they started taking notes. Coach Diamond almost looked sick.

Then Coach Mason showed why his more than forty-five years of high-level coaching experience was invaluable. He showed us how to prepare to beat Springfield. Like all plays, there were reads that tipped them off, and we had enough game film to make educated guesses. Simply put, Coach Mason was smarter than Springfield’s defensive coach was, or so I hoped.

They kicked me out when my mom called to track me down. Moreover, I was damned hungry. When I walked in the back door, my boy was all wiggles and needed some loving. There’s a saying that you should always wish you were as good a person as your dog thinks you are. If Duke’s response to me was any indication, I was due for sainthood any day now.

“Check your phone,” Dad said. “You have some people trying to track you down.”