Junior Year Box Set

They had filtered in to eat and caught me as I gave my speech. Jeff was shaking his head at me, and Coach Enron gave me a little smile. I would bet he’d have a problem if one of his players made such a bold prediction about their upcoming game against Notre Dame. What it did for me was to take my feelings from being internalized and throwing down the gauntlet by declaring my intentions. Suddenly I had a lot more on the line. I’d decided not to hide but put it out to the world that we were going to win.

Ridge grabbed me before I went to get ready to play.

“Jesus, Dawson. You’ve come out of your shell. Now go show me why there’s been all the hype. I saw a glimpse of it when we were at the USC camp. I can’t wait to see you play again. Good luck.”

◊◊◊

I entered the locker room, got taped, and found my usual pregame seat next to Jim and Wolf. My earbuds were in so I could listen to music and visualize what I would do on the field tonight. We then went out and warmed up. Tonight, Yuri and Wolf were co-captains, and they led the team through warm-ups.

It was a big deal for Yuri because he was only a sophomore, but he’d taken over the defensive play-calling after we first lost Tim and then Mike had quit. It was too much to ask Jake to step in to play linebacker and make the defensive calls.

I felt good throwing the ball. My body had been given almost a week of no contact, and there were none of the usual aches and pains you get during a season. Coach Mason had watched the video of my practice yesterday, and he harped on my release point. During warm-ups, I focused on making sure I was doing it right. I had Alan watch each throw. He had a running commentary on every little thing I was doing wrong. Normally that would irritate me, but tonight it just reminded me of Jeff and Alan when we used to hang out. My last three throws were rifle shots that almost took the receivers off their feet. I was ready!

◊◊◊

Yuri and Wolf joined me for the coin flip with Springfield. Springfield won the toss and decided to take the football in the second half. The kickoff sailed through the end zone, so we were first and ten on the 20. I walked out with the first play ready. I took a moment to think of Jeff and scan the stands, knowing he would have loved tonight. The place was packed with orange-and-blue-clad Lincoln High fans with their damned cowbells.

We had been picked as a high school game of the week on our cable provider’s sports network. It only covered the center part of the state. They were smart in that they presented three games for their subscribers to pick from. The subscribers then voted on which game they would like to see. Springfield was a much bigger city, and I expect they had voted to see their team play an away game.

As I approached the line, the crowd started the “Our House!” chant.

Springfield was in a four-three defense (four down linemen and three linebackers). When they saw us come out with our halfbacks moved out into the slot, their outside linebackers edged out to help cover them. This left four linemen and one linebacker to face our five linemen. We had prepared for this, and I stood up from under center.

“Omaha, Omaha!” I shouted as I paced back and forth behind the linemen.

I stepped back into the shotgun, and the outside linebackers edged further out to help cover the slotbacks. We had planned this play to be started on the ball. That meant a silent count, and everyone watched the center. When he snapped the football, the play started. This caught Springfield flat-footed because typically the quarterback either calls out a count or makes some sort of hand motion.

I faked the handoff to Ty, which caused the Springfield defense to react to the run. They were well-coached, and we had counted on that. They saw what I saw, that we had even numbers in what’s called ‘the box.’ That’s where most running plays end up, between the tackles. If there were equal numbers of our linemen and their defenders in the box, it meant we had an advantage. Theoretically, if we blocked our assigned defenders, there would be no one to tackle Ty. That was why you would see defenses do what’s called ‘stack the box.’ In essence, they brought in more defenders than we could block to stop the run.

Springfield did as we expected: they snuck up both safeties to help defend the run. Their sneaky defensive coordinator, in essence, had stacked the box with defensive backs. What they didn’t realize was we had a secret weapon in Bud Mason. He had coached offense at a high level for forty-five years. He designed the play so that both Jake and Ed, our slotbacks, ran straight up the field. This forced their slower linebackers to play as defensive backs. Vertical speed was a killer, and Springfield had just outsmarted themselves. Both guys blew by the linebackers, and it was an easy toss and catch to Ed for the first score.