Junior Year Box Set

We had just gotten the ball with only four minutes left in the second quarter when Coach Diamond gave the order to go into the hurry-up. I would make the calls at the line of scrimmage. Now, for the first time, I could throw the ball. On the snap, Wolf made a swim move on his cornerback who’d played him tight. As soon as Wolf came free, the ball was there, and he caught it. It was one of those bang-bang plays that if you didn’t practice it until it became second nature, you’d never complete it.

Wolf picked up eleven yards for our biggest gain so far this game. When we ran up to the line of scrimmage, I could see the hunger in the King players’ eyes. They had been waiting for this. They’d seen us practice this yesterday, and we looked terrible.

On the snap, they sent Todd up the middle. I had Ty slip through the line and dumped him the ball where Todd had been. I let Todd push me to the ground, which drew a flag for a late hit. Ty had picked up eight yards, but we took the penalty instead. Todd was livid that he hadn’t gotten to me in time. He just knew I would fall apart if they could get me out of my comfort zone. They didn’t know that one of the reasons for my rating as the best quarterback in the country was that I loved to freelance.

While they sorted out the penalty, ESPN switched to Margaret Chin.

“Yesterday during practice, Lincoln ran the hurry-up offense you’re seeing them run now. They looked dreadful, and when I interviewed the coaches and players from King High School, they had seen the practice. This is what linebacker Todd Davis had to say,” she said, and then let the tape run.

Todd had a smirk on his face.

“Everyone talks about how David Dawson is the best quarterback. I saw him when I made my visit to Notre Dame. He has a world of talent and deserves all the accolades he’s received, but we’ll beat him. We found his Achilles heel. If you let him sit back in the pocket and get comfortable, he’ll kill you. What we saw today was if he has to hurry, he’s a different player,” Todd said.

While Todd talked in a small window in the corner, they showed me running for my life as Todd chased me. I hit Ed with a pass as he found his spot in the zone for when I scrambled. He picked up a nice gain. When the play was done, the interview continued on full screen.

“I sat down and talked to David Dawson about this,” Margaret Chin said.

“We had a little fun at King’s expense. Coach Hope told me to tank my performance yesterday. We hoped that King would think that was the worst part of my game, and blitz when we went to the hurry-up,” I said.

Up in the little corner of the screen, it showed King had sent Todd and one of their outside linebackers after me. I was scrambling around, leading them on a merry chase. This time King had covered all our receivers, so I stepped up and ran the ball. I don’t think Todd expected that I could outrun him. I would have scored if I hadn’t tried to get fancy and hurdle their safety as he attempted to take my legs out. It slowed me down enough for Todd to pull me down from behind after a nineteen-yard gain.

“I think that King has underestimated David Dawson,” Margaret Chin said. “Here’s what Coach Mark Trent had to say about David when he’d been named co-MVP at the Elite 11 camp.”

“What makes David so dangerous is he thinks on his feet, and the more chaos there is around him, the more dangerous he is.”

ESPN then switched back to the game.

We had just over a minute to go for the half and the ball at King’s 27 yard line. I had plenty of time to score. I sent Ty and Ed to Roc’s side of the ball and had them stack up behind Jake. That left Wolf as the lone receiver on my right. In this formation, we usually ran the wide-receiver screen and used Ed and Jake to block for Ty.

On the snap, Todd took a step back as if to go into coverage, but I didn’t buy it. The outside linebacker on the side where I planned to throw to Ty had darted across the line. If I threw the ball, there was a good chance he would intercept it. I hesitated, usually a bad idea. I turned around to see the cornerback who had covered Wolf almost on me. The jerk lowered his helmet, and I could see he planned to injure my knees. My training with Cassidy saved me as I switched the ball to my left hand and used my right to do a palm strike to the cornerback’s ear-hole. As I did that, I pivoted to get out of the way and protect my legs.