Junior Year Box Set

“Hypothetically, you’d need to come up with a better line than you’re a model. Maybe if you said you were a stock trader or insurance salesman, something normal. When you hit a girl with the whole model shtick, she’s going to get her guard up.”

“But what if I really were a model?” I asked.

“Then you wouldn’t be hitting on someone like me.”

“What if I told you I was a quarterback? Would that be any better?”

My date gave me an exasperated sigh. At least she hadn’t gotten up and run away.

“So, by now you know I’m a player just looking for a good time. If I were honest and said I was looking for a hookup, would that be any better?” I asked.

“Are you sure you’re interested in the type of girl who’d respond to that?” she asked.

“If it were just a hookup, and no one got hurt, I might. It would have to be discreet, though. I wouldn’t want the wife and kids to find out.”

“That’s probably a good idea. I’m sure my boyfriend would be a little upset too.”

“You don’t have a boyfriend,” I said with confidence.

“Just like you don’t have a wife and kids,” the woman said.

The server came and took our order. I flirted with her shamelessly while we ate, and she gave me pointers on pickup lines. We both knew this wasn’t going any further and didn’t even share our names or contact information. I did tell her to watch ESPN tonight, and she would see me play quarterback. I wondered if she would.

◊◊◊

When I returned to the hotel, Phil said that Coach Mason had requested that I meet him in one of the coaches’ rooms at the football field. I was the last one to arrive and found Jim, Wolf, Ty, Yuri, Roc, Johan, and Tim with Coach. I didn’t expect Coach Mason to want this group all together, because Tim was injured, and Yuri played defense. Coach Mason saw my confusion.

“We have some time this morning, and I wanted to talk to all of you about your future. I’ve been involved in high-level coaching for many years. It’s true that if you have talent, the NFL will find you. The problem is that it’s much harder to get there if you don’t get the right situation in college. Moreover, it will affect your earning power both in and out of football if you don’t come out of the right set of circumstances. While I don’t want to make you think that you all have a shot at playing on Sundays, college football can open doors for you outside of the game.

“The reason you’re all here is I’ve watched tape of you playing, and you all have the skills to play college ball. I want to help you clarify what you should be looking for in a football program.

“Let’s talk about a couple of programs that make me wonder, and I would suggest you stay away from. The two I want you to consider are Rutgers and Georgia. I’ve gotten the reports from scouting sites like 247Sports and Scouts on state-by-state recruit density. That means the number of 3-, 4- and 5-star recruits you can expect a state to produce each year. If you take that number and divide it by the number of FBS schools in the state, you can easily see why some teams are successful, and others aren’t.”

“What’s FBS?” Yuri asked.

“The NCAA Division 1 Football Bowl Subdivision, or FBS, formerly known as Division 1-A, is the top level of college football. The FBS is the more competitive subdivision of NCAA Division 1, which itself consists of the largest and most competitive schools. There are 10 conferences and 128 schools in the FBS,” Coach Mason said, and confirmed Yuri understood before he moved on.

“If you have balanced recruiting classes, you need to have 20 to 25 players join your program each year. Looking state by state, numbers one and two are New Jersey at 44 quality recruits per year and Georgia at 38 per school. Since it’s the only FBS school in that state, if Rutgers could lock down the talent in New Jersey, they should compete for the Big Ten title every year. But they don’t. Georgia baffles me. They’re in the SEC and have the fan base and facilities to compete for national championships. All I can say is they must not have the coaching to pull it off.”

I didn’t comment on what I thought about Georgia.

“Then, at the other end of the spectrum is Wyoming. That state produces a quality recruit only about once every two years. Yet they seem to consistently have solid teams.

“What I wanted to point out is there are natural recruiting bases for certain schools that should make them competitive year in and year out,” Coach Mason explained.

“I thought that states like California, Texas, and Florida had the most talent,” Jim said.

“They do, but they also have more FBS schools in each state. California and Florida each have seven FBS schools, and Texas has twelve. Even with all the in-state competition, they still could fill their rosters with homegrown talent,” Coach Mason said.

“Coach, while all this is great, not all recruits are created equal. I can see why you’re explaining this, but we have a game to play. Maybe you could get to the point,” I said with a smile.